Now let’s cook
Popcorn. In the place of Parmesan, kurt: a hard, dried fermented-milk product.
Ingredients
- 160 ml popcorn kernelsdry corn kernels that burst into popcorn in hot oil under a lid
- 60 ml sunflower oila neutral-tasting oil
- 60 ml buttermade from cow’s milk
- ½ tsp garlic powderdried, ground garlic
- ½ tsp dried parsleystirred into the butter for the hot popcorn
- 2 pinches fine saltordinary table salt
- 50 g kurthard, dried pieces of strained fermented milk (ayran or katyk), salted or unsalted
Method
Grate the salted kurt finely.
Put the oil and 3–4 kernels into a large pot with a lid, cover it and heat over medium-high heat until those kernels pop. Take the popped ones out, add the rest of the kernels, cover and take the pot off the heat for 30 seconds.
Put the pot back on the heat and cook, shaking it about once a minute. After 2–3 minutes the popping slows down: take the lid off and tip the popcorn into a large bowl.
Melt the butter and stir in the garlic powder, the dried parsley and a small pinch of salt. Pour it over the hot popcorn and toss.
Scatter the kurt over the popcorn and toss again. Taste before adding more salt: the kurt is salty.
