Peking Duck Popcorn

Dear Reader, I'm SO excited to share this recipe with you. You see my love of caramel popcorn knows no bounds and while we were in San Francisco we tried a bag of Peking Duck caramel popcorn at a fabulous Chinese restaurant called China Live and I was hooked!

For those of you that are wondering, there's actually no duck in the Peking Duck popcorn. The flavouring is actually from hoi sin sauce, the delicious Chinese sauce accompaniment to Peking Duck pancakes. I didn't open up the bag until we got home and once we did I had to get Mr NQN to take them from me as they were so addictive. While I love chocolate itself, chocolate flavoured things don't do much for me but caramel flavoured things are hard for me to resist.

This isn't China Live's recipe, it's my adaption of it. The hoi sin sauce is mixed into the caramel to provide the popcorn with a spicy, aromatic hook. At China Live they called it "carmel popcorn" in the way that Americans do. I recently asked on my facebook page which word when mispronounced annoys people and carmel was one of them. But honestly I'm not picking on Americans because the majority of irksome words people shared were ones that Aussies typically misspoke.

The most common culprits were words like "pacific" instead of "specific" and "arks" instead of "ask". It ended up being a very popular post with over 600 comments later and I loved reading everyone's comments-with a bag of this caramel Peking Duck popcorn of course!

So tell me Dear Reader, what is the word that drives you mad when mispronounced? And what is your favourite flavour? Chocolate, caramel or something else altogether?

Peking Duck Popcorn

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 1 hour 15 minutes

• 1/4 cup popcorn kernels
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 30g/1oz. butter
• 3.5 tablespoons hoi sin sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon bicarb
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Step 1 - Place the unpopped corn in a paper bag and fold over the top 3-4 times to secure. Place in the microwave and heat on high for 2-2.5 minutes (listen for the rapid popping sound).

Step 2 - Line a large baking tray with parchment. In a heavy bottomed saucepan place the brown sugar, honey, butter, hoi sin sauce and salt. Bring to a boil stirring to combine the butter and then boil without stirring until it reaches 140C/285F on a sugar thermometer. Turn the heat off and add the bicarb and stir. Add in the popped corn and swirl to coat all pieces. Lay out on the prepared baking tray immediately (as it cools it hardens).

Step 3 - Preheat oven to 121C/250F and bake for 1 hour to dry it out. Store in an airtight container.