Caramel curry popcorn

I love popcorn. I especially love home-popped popcorn, and I extra-especially love this funny concoction I’ve made up: caramel curry popcorn. Here’s how I make it.

Take 2-3 tablespoons of butter and put it in a microwaveable dish. I usually use a mug.

Add one tablespoon of your favorite curry powder to the mug with the butter.

Add a heaping tablespoon of brown sugar to the mug as well.

Microwave the mug containing the butter, spices, and sugar, on half power for about 2 minutes. You might want to cover the mug with a paper towel or something — sometimes butter will explode in the microwave.

When you take out the mug, the concoction should look like this:

Real talk: this isn’t proper caramel. But it’s close enough for my purposes.

While you’re at it, pop the popcorn. I like the stovetop method.

When the popcorn is popped, pour it into a big bowl. Then drizzle the caramel over the corn.

This works best if it’s still quite bubbly; if it subsides for too long, the sauce will “break” a little and the spice and sugar won’t disperse itself as evenly through the popcorn. So if your sauce is a little broken (if you can see the butter separating from the brown stuff), put it back in the microwave on high for 15-30 seconds.

Salt (and pepper!) to taste, and then toss the popcorn in the bowl to spread the curry caramel around as thoroughly as it will let you.

I tend to eat this with a dish towel close at hand, because it’s on the sticky/greasy side. Pair with a lager, a white wine on the sweetish spectrum, a light Gamay, sangria, or a cocktail. Enjoy!