brown butter, rosemary & lemon zest popcorn

brown butter, rosemary & lemon zest popcorn, originally uploaded by michele wynne

I am completely re-obsessed with this popcorn...I can't remember how I was originally introduced to this recipe. I seem to recall it appearing around Oscar time.

A few weeks ago I was looking for some home made movie theater snackage I could smuggle into the waaaay overpriced Kabuki when Sheena and I went to see Before Midnight (I'm obsessed with these films). 

Whoever you are, where ever you are, many thanks. You had me at brown butter. Last night I finished the giant bag of popcorn I bought those many weeks ago. The drill goes like this:

 

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon well chopped fresh rosemary

zest of one lemon

 

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/3 cup popcorn kernals

salt

 

In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat and cook it until it browns, about 5 minutes. Keep an eye on it because it only takes seconds for it to burn. You want to see little brown particles appear in the bottom of the pan. Once that has happened, remove the pan from the heat and add the rosemary and lemon zest. Stir it together and set it aside.

 In a large pot (that has a lid that fits), add the olive oil and 3 or 4 kernals of popcorn, cover, and turn on the heat to medium high. Once you hear those kernals pop, add the rest of the popcorn, cover, and remove the pot from the heat for 30 seconds while shaking the pot to coat and level all the kernals. Return the pot to the heat. The kernals should begin to pop right away. Once the popping subsides and there's about a 3 second interval between pops, remove from the heat and pour the butter mixture over the popcorn and toss to distribute the butter.

Transfer the popcorn to a large tossing bowl (I use my large salad bowl), sprinkle the salt and toss, taste, sprinkle and toss until the popcorn is salted to your liking
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Of course, this is best when consumed immediately, but for the movie thing, I bagged it up in plastic bags I keep on hand for cookie gifting and sealed them with a twist ties. Way good!