I'm a big fan of Andrea Nguyen's recipes. When I saw her recipe for Sichuan Magic Dust popcorn, I had to try it. It was quite good but my initial batches using the recommended 1.25-1.5 teaspoons of Sichuan peppercorns resulted in a pretty potent 'ma la' flavor--it was a little much for my tastes. I love the trick of adding sugar directly to the popping corn (probably obvious to many people but new to me) to get a 'kettle corn' that the seasoning powder sticks to.
I've made a handful of the changes to the recipe as follows: I use about 1/4-1/2 teaspoon of Sichuan peppercorns, add 1 T of furikake seasoning (I especially like the Ebi and Wasabi blends in popcorn) and omit the gochigaru chile flakes (they overwhelm the furikake flavor). I blend up several batches of seasoning in the spice grinder so I have extra powder for future batches. I also drizzle a little butter mixed with soy sauce over the popcorn before I mix.

Just made some (National Popcorn Day) using oil from a jar of Giardiniera. Added a few drops of Maggi to the melted butter and grated Parmesan on top. A spicy unami bomb. Could have used a gas mask though while it was popping.

bw77 wrote:Just made some (National Popcorn Day) using oil from a jar of Giardiniera.

Thank you for this!
What a great idea!
I am usually draining the oil from giardiniera to add to no carb cheese melts (simply cheese, usually Costco bags of mozz, cheddar, etc. thrown in a skillet to melt, add in giardiniera, or banana peppers, or handful bacon from Costco shredded bacon bag).

Appreciate this nugget of wisdom!

I was going to pop some tonight, and I will be adding a heaping tablespoon of chili crisp to the oil. Good stuff.

If I do this again, I may just add the Giard. oil to the melted butter and use it as a topping to avoid the spicy fumes while popping.