Indian Kettle Corn

When I was in high school, and part-time in college, I worked for the kettle corn vendors at local festivals.

I used to be a kettle-corn-aholic. I was paid in petty cash and large-size bags of kettle corn. Those were the good ol’ days—stuffing my face with handful after handful of fluffy mushroom popcorn, popped in corn oil, straight-up melted table sugar and iodized salt.

Sounds like a heart attack, doesn’t it? Haha.

What’s a girl to do when her sweet addiction suddenly becomes part of The Problem?! When iodized salt, white table sugar made from GMO sugar beets, and corn oil turn from friend to foe, how’s a gal to cope?!

Never fear! Indian Kettle Corn is here!

This recipe uses vitamin and CLA-rich grass fed ghee to cook the kernels and organic jaggery to give it that sweet taste. The jaggery tastes different than regular cane sugar. It had a richer, darker taste. You can also use organic cane sugar, instead of the jaggery. It’s up to you! :) I get my jaggery from Pure Indian Foods.

To quote the Pure Indian Foods website:

“Jaggery is a traditional sweetener made by evaporating raw sugarcane juice without separating the molasses from the crystals…Where refined sugar loses much of its nutritional content during production, jaggery contains trace minerals and vitamins…such as potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, and calcium.”

Indian Kettle Corn

A large (at least 8 quart) pot with lid
1 cup popcorn kernels
2 TBSP grass fed Pure Indian Foods ghee
1/4 cup grated organic jaggery
1/2 cup water
Sea salt

In the large pot, melt the ghee over medium heat, and add a couple kernels to the ghee. When the kernels pop, remove the pot from the heat, and add in the rest of the kernels. Cover with lid, return to heat, and wait patiently for 1-2 minutes until they begin to pop.

Meanwhile, mix your water and grated jaggery in a small sauce pan and heat on low, stirring occasionally.

When the popping slows, remove from heat and leave lid on for a minute. Pour into a large bowl, drizzle with the jaggery/water mixture, and stir. Sprinkle with sea salt to taste.