Spicy Japanese Popcorn

This was an interesting recipe.  At first, it was an odd juxtaposition of flavors.  There as the almost fishy flavor of the seaweed, the nuttiness of the sesame seeds, and a surprisingly spiciness of the togarashi, which I had never used before and was why I made this particular recipe tonight.  I happened to have some on hand.  Why you may ask?  Well,  I was making the trek to the oriental grocery for Korean pepper paste, so of course I browsed a bit. I saw the togarashi and I knew I had seen it in one of the hundreds of to try recipes I have filed away, but I also knew that it was for a recipe I wanted to try and was only deterred by missing this ingredient, the one ingredient not available at my local Publix.  So, of course I bought it and then proceeded to try and remember what recipe I wanted to make that required the elusive togarashi.  Then it hit me, it was from an article in Food and Wine about some unusual flavored popcorns.  So we popped some popcorn (not the microwave kind!) and tossed it with this spice blend.  And like I said, it was odd at first.  Luckily, my family and I have learned to treat odd and unfamiliar as just that and not 'bad' as it seems humans are hard wired to do as children (it does have it's survival purposes), and after several bites, we all quickly becoming fans.  Even the three year old really liked it despite it's peppery kick.  Give it a chance and I think you will like it as much as we did.


Spicy Japanese Popcorn

2 sheets nori (dried seaweed) crumbled
2 Tbl toasted sesame seeds
1 Tbl togarashi chile seasoning
1 Tbl kosher salt
5 Qt of buttered popcorn
1. In a food processor, pulse the first four ingredients to a fine
powder. Toss with buttered popcorn and serve.