Chocolate Piggy Popcorn
This certainly is two great tastes that taste great together- smoky, salty bacon mixed with the sweet richness of chocolate. This addictive Valentines treat was created by my friend and coworker Erin Seitz who is a pastry chef but dabbles in the dueling worlds of sweet and savory
- place the diced bacon in a sauté pan over medium heat.
- Slowly render out as much fat as possible, allowing the bacon to go a nice crispy golden brown.
- place a bowl under a strainer and pour the contents of the pan into the strainer, reserving the fat. Take the bacon from the strainer and place on a paper towel to dry.
- Add the fat to a soup pot that has a volume of over a gallon.
- Put the pot on medium high to high heat; making sure you have a lid ready for personal protection. When the bacon fat is hot (just getting ready to start smoking), add the popcorn and salt and immediately put the lid on the pot (If the fat was hot enough the popcorn will start popping just after adding it to the pot).
- Pop the popcorn in the traditional “jiffy pop” way, dragging the pot (holding the lid in place) back and forth over the burner. This will keep the kernels moving within the pot and hopefully decrease the chance of the fat or the popcorn burning.
- When the popping has finished, transfer the popcorn to a large mixing bowl. Make sure to remove all un-popped kernels at this point. Sprinkle the bacon bits in and set the bowl aside.
- In a clean pot add the sugar, lemon juice, and water. Gently stir to incorporate the sugar into the water.
- Using a damp pastry brush (or damp, clean fingers), wipe the sugar residue off of the side of the pot. This residue could crystallize and possibly burn.
- place the pot over medium high heat and cook the sugar to a nice medium amber color (about 8-10 minutes depending on how high the heat is). do not stir the mixture, as this could cause the sugar to crystallize and go hard before it turns to a caramel.
- Remove the pot from the heat and add in the chocolate, stirring to incorporate it into the caramel. Immediately pour this mixture over the popcorn, using a spatula to gently “stir” the popcorn until it is evenly covered.
- Lay it out on a non-stick surface (a lightly oiled baking tray or a silpat if available) and gently spread out to an even layer. Let this cool before indulging in a bit of piggy popcorn pleasure.
Brad Farmerie
Brad Farmerie grew up in Pittsburgh in a food-loving family, where his mother exposed him to a variety of cuisines from a young age, always insisting on home baked bread and vegetables straight from the family garden. After a brief college hiatus spent exploring the cuisines and wines of Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and the Antipodes, Farmerie followed his love for food to the UK and earned his "Grande Diplome" at Le Cordon Bleu in 1996. He further rounded out his education and technique at acclaimed restaurants Coast, Chez Nico and Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons. Most influential to his own style was his experience working with Peter Gordon at the Sugar Club, and he went on to assist Gordon and Anna Hansen in opening the critically-acclaimed The Providores and Tapa Room in 1996. In 2003 Farmerie moved back to the States to help conceive PUBLIC, AvroKO’s first self-propelled restaurant. In the fall of 2008, Farmerie extended his culinary reach as executive chef of AvroKO Restaurant Group’s Double Crown and Madam Geneva, which takes as its inspiration the unique cuisine that emerged when the British colonized the countries of South Asia and the Far East.