How do you pop Indian Corn?!
Answers: I bought some Mini Indian Corn today from a local pumpkin patch. The sign on the box said you could pop it like popcorn, but the lady at the counter said she didn't know how. It's not in a bag, so I assume I would need to do something before I put it in the microwave, so the popcorn won't pop all over the place. Does anyone know what I'm supposed to do?
Firstly, if it's on the cob, you'll want to take it off, and clean it of all the chaff and whatnot. Get a good sturdy pan with a lid and a thick bottom - I use my enameld cast iron dutch oven for this. Add some peanut oil (don't use butter, it'll smoke and the milk solids will burn long before you're finished popping corn), just enough so that all the kernels can get a good coating and be heated rapidly - you'll get a feel for this the more times you do it. Put the pan on a medium-high flame - you want the oil to get nice and hot. Move the pan around, and watch how the oil moves, it'll get less viscous as it heats. Toss 3 kernels of corn in and wait until they pop. If they do so quickly, your oil's ready! Add in your corn, cover, and gently swirl the oil around so the corn cooks rapidly. Once it starts popping, you'll want to shake it so the unpopped corn falls to the bottom. If you've chosen a large enough pan, you won't have to try and dump any corn out while it's still popping. Once the popping slows and the shaking produces little noise, you should be ready to go! Dump the corn into your popcorn bowl and then toss some butter into the still-hot pan. You'll want to take it off the flame at this point so the butter won't burn, but I actually rather like using browned butter as a topping, so YMMV. Enjoy!
ADDENDUM: If you don't like the butter separating into fat/solids, here's a trick to prevent it: After your corn is done popping, set the flame to medium/low and get a small ice cube, a whisk, and have your butter cut into small dice. Toss the ice cube in and let it start to melt. When you've got water in the bottom of the pan, start whisking it and gradually add the butter, whisking all the while. The water helps the butterfat and milk solids emulsify (this is called beurre monte) and thus if you like browned butter as a topping, you won't have to first pour the fat on and then get to the solids! Also, if you're going to put salt on the popcorn, grind it to a very fine powder with a mortar and pestle or a rolling pin and then use it a little more sparingly...more salt will stick to the kernels now, and so it'll be salty if you used the same amount as you would coarse salt. I find a couple of grinds of black pepper don't hurt, either.
Take a brown paper bag and put some kernels in it, only fill it about 1/5 of the way as you need lots of room for it to pop. staple the bag shut at the other end, (staples never bothered my microwave before) and microwave it till the popping starts to get more than 2 seconds in between pops. open up and add toppings!
Umm... Hot air popper. Or on the stove.
We had popcorn LONG before we had microwaves.
I'm assuming that it's still on the cob? If so you can put the cob in a paper bag that's at least 4 times bigger than the cob. Fold it shut and staple if you want. Microwave while listening to the pops. When the popping is about 3 seconds between pops remove it from the microwave.
Melt some butter in a large pot on the stove. Add a half cup of the indian corn kernels and put a lid on the pot. Shake the pot every couple minutes and cook until the popping stops.