Sweet Spicy Wasabi Popcorn

I brought this to a prayer meeting this morning and everyone loved it to my surprise since it is spicy.  The addition of brown sugar however balances off the heat of the wasabi and the result is this delightful sweet and spicy popcorn.  Delicious and unique.  Serve it for your next movie night.

I used two references, Kitchen Confidante and World of Wasabi.  I used the first reference for an idea of the sugar to wasabi ratio.  I increased the amount of brown sugar called for in Kitchen Confidante and it resulted in a better tasting popcorn.  I used the latter reference for the technique of working with wasabi paste in making the popcorn.  The Kitchen Confidante added wasabi powder to the popcorn while the World of Wasabi made a paste out of the powder by adding water.  In my case, I used wasabi paste straight from a tube I bought at the Asian store.

Sweet Spicy Wasabi Popcorn

• 8 cups popped popcorn, warm
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt 
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp wasabi paste
• 2 tbsp buttery spread (I used Earth Balance) or butter,  melted

In a small bowl mix the sugar, salt, cayenne pepper and wasabi paste.

Combine the spice sugar mixture with the melted buttery spread.

Place the warm popped popcorn in a large bowl. Drizzle the spice sugar buttery spread mixture over the popcorn and stir to distribute it over the popcorn.