A-Z blogging challenge: S is for Salty or Sweet?

Salty or sweet? is a question that gets asked a bit around here--even of myself in a rhetorical (not in a scary-talking-to-myself) way.

Generally, I like to tune in to what I'm "in the mood" to eat. I know, a lot of people don't march to that drum--they eat what's in the fridge, what's easy, what the majority of people in the house vote for. My style is different (more whimsical), and I'm OK with that. If it means I make more than one thing for dinner, I'm also OK with that. (Calm down, moms who have to cook for six or seven. In our house that number rarely gets over two--something for the guys, something for me.)

Often when I'm tracking "food moods," I find myself on the salty/savory side of the menu. In fact, as I've noted to myself, even here on the blog, my sweet tooth has diminished over the years, sometimes disappearing for weeks or months on end. Of course, it always seems to return, even if my stamina for really sweet things is quite low. I may indulge (waaaaaay too many jelly beans at Easter being a recent example), but it doesn't sit well with me, and I definitely stop much sooner than years back.

The combination of salty and sweet? That's just the bomb. It's a combo that's gone rather mainstream the past few years, with sea salt on everything from chocolate to caramel to cookies and fudge. I remember the first time I really tucked into the idea of salty and sweet: I put salty peanuts on Frosted Flakes, and thought I'd found nirvana. Not raised with a lot of sugar cereals around, maybe the cereal was too sweet on its own--I don't remember the details--but somehow a packet of roasted, salted peanuts ended up on top of my cereal and milk. I was in high school at the time of this revelation--away from home at boarding school, to put a finer point on it--so there weren't any voices of moderation around and I proceeded to eat this combination every weekend for two years. Bliss.

Fast forward a couple of decades (and then some), and my love for salt and sweet together still exists. A few examples include, but are not limited to:
*My current obsession with kale and brussels sprouts salad, with dried cranberries, or pears, or grapefruit, or strawberries...
*Any cheese and fruit combination.
*The Perfect Bite at Thanksgiving, which includes a little turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce.
*Salted watermelon or papaya.
*Anything peanut butter and chocolate.
*Cucumber salad with a tangy sweet vinaigrette.
*Mango salsa with tortilla chips.
*French onion soup with Gruyere and toasted croutons.

Well, I have now succeeded in making myself quite hungry. I hope I have done the same for you!

If you've got 20 minutes and you care about salty and sweet as much as I do, Alton Brown is always worth a watch:

 

As well, TLC has a quick clip on tastebuds and further info on salty/sweet preferences that I found pretty interesting.

And there's always this short quiz. (I'm salty, in case you hadn't guessed.)

Which are you: salty or sweet?

And completely unrelated (or is it?), there's this:

What's this A-Z business about? Check out my kick-off post. And stay tuned for the random joy and nonsense I concoct during the month of April!

Who needs a kettle to make kettle corn? Not me.

For an event at work today, we decided on a "state fair" theme... long story, but trust me, it was an appropriate theme for what we were doing.

Anyway, after much discussion, the menu came down to churros, cowpie cookies, kettle corn and a wild array of crudite vegetables (to combat the other menu items!). I wasn't quite sure about how to go about making the kettle corn and contemplated ordering giant bags of the stuff online, but after a little research, it became apparent this was not rocket science and could easily enough be made at home.

Here's the recipe I settled on, from a fun site called Seattlest.

Kettle Corn
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/4 cup popcorn kernels
2 tablespoons white sugar
kosher salt to taste
melted butter (optional)

In your saucepan, heat the oil and popcorn kernels over medium-high heat, shaking the pan to keep the kernels from burning. When the kernels are about to start popping, they will become slightly lighter in color, and most important, they will start to smell like popcorn. At this point, sprinkle the sugar over the kernels and cover. With the lid on, continue to cook the popcorn by gently shaking the pan over the heat. When the popping has slowed (don’t keep cooking until the very last kernel has popped, you will end up burning the sugar), remove the pan from heat and empty the popcorn into a large bowl. Toss with salt immediately (when the sugar on the popcorn is still hot and sticky, the salt will adhere to the kernels better) and sprinkle with melted butter if you like. Enjoy while still warm.


Since I needed to make a rather large-ish quantity, I hatched up the idea of using my electric fry pan and quadrupled the batch. I made about 8 quad batches this morning, and it was quite a workout to shake the fry pan adequately while the popcorn happily popped away! Quite fun, and very tasty. I will be making this again, soon. Unfortunately, at the moment I'm out of popcorn. Go figure.


Here are the kernels in the pan, just ready to start popping. For some reason, adding the sugar kind of stops the popping for a minute, so don't be worried that you've added it too soon, just keep on shaking and soon the whole pan will be exploding with popcorny goodness.