Minca Honey + Maiz Pira = ....KETTLE CORN

So, I mentioned in my last post I'd bought some of raw honey from the mountain village Minca near Santa Marta. I've used it in a few divine combinations so far, including with cinnamon and apples, and with mustard, ginger, and carrots.

Tonight we made...Kettle Corn.

In case you don't know, I am...more than slightly obsessed with Kettle Corn. The proverbial fat kid at the state fair when it's around. At the Madison Farmer's Market, two corners of the square hold booths that offer kettle corn, which meant that I could, and routinely did, buy one bag of kettle corn for immediate consumption and then refill without even a backtrack.

After a fun day of cooking other things with Jessica (blackbeans with bell pepper, carrot and zucchini salad, apples and oatmeal), and then digesting, Tyler and I decided to make popcorn. "Let's make kettle corn," he said. Amateurs that we were, for our first batch we cooked up the popcorn and added a halfcup of sugar. Let me tell you, that does approximately nothing.

Barely tasting the sugar, we devoured batch number one accompanied by the jalapeno sauce Tyler brought back from his medically-necessitated trip to Panama (read: intracountry food run!)

But there had to be a way to make it actually taste delicious, right? So, not a quarter way through our first giant bowl, I googled Kettle Corn recipes. Soooo easy. Add sugar to the oil and THEN pop the corn, sprinkle on salt immediately thereafter. Of course we decided to make batch number TWO.

Except, the family sugar supply was running dangerously low. Don't you know, it takes at least a cup of sugar to make a pitcher of fresh juice...

So in came the Minca Honey. Same deal, different sweetener. Tons of shaking required, because it makes the kernels sticky...but that just justifies eating that second batch, right...??

Anyway, yeah. At-Home, Colombia-enabled, KETTLE CORN. It's a good night.

Recipe:

1/4 cup  oil
1/2 cup honey
6 tablespoons maiz pira (popcorn kernels)
sprinkle of salt

Heat honey til warm and homogenous. Add oil and a few kernels, listen for pop. Add the rest of the popcorn and do the shake 3 sec, wait 3 sec (on the burner) until the kernels stop popping. Sprinkle with salt, let cool slightly, enjoy TREMENDOUSLY

:D