Good evening, and welcome to my kitchen. Let me do that one more... one more time. Good evening, and welcome to my house and
to my home and to my kitchen. *Karen laughs* Let's do it again. Good evening, and welcome to my kitchen. Perhaps the worst lit kitchen in all of New
York City. But I'm willing to let you see me in a new
light, so to speak, as I teach you how to make PEPCORN, which is perhaps my favorite
snack of all time. I think I have finally solidified the recipe
for creating a delicious, savory, a little bit spicy popcorn. Here's what I'll do: I'm gonna put the, the
reaction shot that everyone wants to see. I'm gonna put it right now. OH! Now you can see just how good pepcorn is,
and that's gonna make you want to watch to the end of this video. I figured, here in the quarantine, it was
a good idea for me to share this snack with you, so that way you get to enjoy this snack alongside
me... virtually. Because you never eat pepcorn alone. Let's start with the kernels. My grandma, two years ago, purchased all of
her grandchildren popcorn kernels for Christmas, except my sister and I, who are both grandchildren
of my grandmother, live together, and so we received two of these huge buckets of popcorn
kernels. And so we had to get really into popcorn,
and that's why we started doing wok popcorn. The wok is super useful because every time
a popcorn pops it goes to the top, and then the kernels shift back down on the sides into
the main source of heat, and then those ones pop, and it just keeps it going like that,
and it forces all of the popcorn kernels to get popped, and you don't get any extra burning. It's so much cheaper, it's so much more fun
to do, and it's so much more delicious, and those are the three things I look for in a
food. I hear you, you're saying, "Brian, why not
just start popping the popcorn?" Well, let me get to it. I'm gonna get to it. This is my journey. And it's your journey that you're taking with
me. How do people make good cooking videos? How do people make 'em? Karen: Well... I'm just gonna steal every single technique
from Matt Hunziker. I'm gonna steal every single editing technique
from Matt Hunziker, and I'm just gonna put it into this video, and that's how I'm gonna
make a good video. Hey! Now that I've decided to edit this thoroughly,
let's create some pepcorn. Now you say, "Brian, this wok is COMICALLY
large. Tha- y-you must use all of these? Kernels? In order to fill this up?" No you rube! You must use... a half a cup! That's why these last forever, because you
only need a half a cup to make a sh- sh- a sh- a shoot-ton of popcorn. Let's talk about salt. I have about 18 different salts in my house. Here's some that says spicy. Here's one that's in a special bowl that I
made in my pottery class, and it's super chunky. You might say, Brian, why don't you use the
fanciest salt in order to make pepcorn? And the answer is that if I use my fancy salt,
it's gonna make the pepcorn sh-*pop*-y Ah I just said, I just worked so hard to not say the
word sh-*pop!* Karen: You can bleep it! I can bleep it. Kosher salt is really useful for most recipes,
but it's not useful for making popcorn, and I'll tell you why. It's too grainy. And that's why you use a special coffee grinder/spice
grinder. Currently there's already a spice in it. I'm gonna get to that. But you use that in order to make super, super,
super fine theater salt. When I talk about theater salt, all I'm saying
is that it's astoundingly fine. It's like a, a little fine, a little fine
powder, can you focus in on that? Mmmm delicious. Oooh! This is so small that it's gonna perfectly
coat all of the popcorn super well, and it's gonna dissolve in the oil we use to pop the
popcorn. If I'm using, uh, a half a cup... where, I
had a, I prepared a half cup. I prepared a half cup measure, where did I
put it? The correct proportion of popcorn kernels
to theater salt is cup to teaspoon. So if we're using a half a cup of kernels,
we're gonna use a half a teaspoon of theater salt. *loud rattling noise* Ooh! Pop that right up in there. Let's pop the salt in there. I just put, where'd I put my half teaspoon,
I just... Half a cup of kernels, half a teaspoon of
salt. God I wish I had a more attractive kitchen. I have to do a lot of graphics work in order
to make this visually interesting. Now if we just wanted to make normal popcorn,
I'd go ahead, I'd add some oil right up into there, a neutral oil, and then we'd be done. Okay? But that's not what we're making. We're not making popcorn, we're making pepcorn. And what makes pepcorn pepcorn? It's Lao Gan Ma. Spicy Chili Crisp. Kind of like a chili oil except way more savory. It's not super spicy, but it is astoundingly
delicious. You just pop that open. OH! Ooh! I love it. Now for a half a cup of kernels I usually
use 2 to 3 tablespoons of Lao Gan Ma, depending on how savory you want it. But we're hitting a point of contention. Not contention, what's the term that I'm looking
for here? We're hitting a trouble spot, and that's the
difficulty of seasoning popcorn. If you season it at the beginning, you put
all that stuff into the wok, that stuff is gonna get charred, it's gonna get gross, you're
not gonna want it in your popcorn. But if you put it in at the end, it's gonna
make your popcorn wet and soggy, and no one wants wet and soggy popcorn. This is the thing that troubled me for so
long. I spent so many sleepless nights just thinking
about how I can put Lao Gan Ma onto my popcorn without it ruining the popcorn. And boy do I have a solution for you. It's called: a bowl. We're gonna take our tablespoons of Lao Gan
Ma, we're gonna squeeze out the oil into the wok, and then we're gonna take all of the
solids, and we're gonna put it into the bowl for later. I've washed my hands, that should be a given. You should always wash your hands before cooking
food. Karen: And wash the ingredients. And you should wash the ingredi- well you
don't have to wash these. Karen: Yeah but generally. Generally you should wash the ingredients. And I just squeeze out all that oil. Oh that's wonderful. So now that we have our salt, our Lao Gan
Ma oil, and our kernels in the wok, it's almost time to pop. But! *autotuned* It's time for a special part of the recipe,
where I ask for you to decide your own taste. It's time for that part of the recipe! That part of the recipe is now! Lao Gan Ma is not super spicy, but it is super
savory. If you're looking for a spicy spicy popcorn,
this next part is for you. It's time for red pepper powder. I have this huge big bag of gochugaru. I'll mention you could probably use a different
chili oil or a different red pepper powder, but if you do that then it's not gonna be
pepcorn, because I'm teaching you my recipe for pepcorn, and so I legally can't be, uh,
I'm legally not responsible for what you create. So since I bought the big crunchy parts of
gochugaru, I needed to make it a little bit finer, because, again, in order to make good
popcorn, you want all of your spices to be super fine. This is exactly what you'd do with the kosher
salt, I just decided I would only show you with the red pepper flakes because I wanted
to save some filming time. *Grinder whirring* So now that we have this
super fine, we're gonna use this at the end of our recipe, and we're gonna sprinkle it on to taste,
depending on how spicy you like your popcorn. We've got our crisp off to the side, we've
got our kernels in the pan, now we just need to add oil, which I'm now realizing I have
never actually measured how much oil you need to put in here? Two. Three. That's like four tablespoons of vegetable
oil, any sort of neutral oil will do. Now it's important to make sure that the salt
is completely dissolved into the oil. You could do this with a spoon if you want,
but I just usually use my hands. I can already tell this is too much oil. This is the correct amount of oil, so I probably
only needed to use like 3 tablespoons. Again, it's better to just do it by sight. Just trust yourself. Trust your heart, let fate decide. To guide these lives we see. *Sung* PUT YOUR FAITH IN WHAT YOU MOST BELIEVE
IN. Phil Collins should score another Disney movie. Karen: You're right. I am right. Tinfoil time. You just crimp it up on the edges. We're gonna turn the flame onto super high
heat, we're gonna wait those popcorn kernels to pop. As soon as they do, I'm gonna start shifting
it around over top of that high flame, and then as soon as those popcorn kernels start
to take like 2, 4, to 5 seconds between pops, I'm gonna stop the heat, gonna put it back
on there, gonna let them pop a little bit more, and that's gonna be it. Go! Alright, so now that the heat has started,
it's time to puncture some steam holes into the top. I'm gonna go ahead, I got myself a sharp knife
right here, I go: a bing bong bing bong bing bong bing bong bing bong bing bong bing! And then we're done. Alright? The steam holes have happened, the pressure
is on, I've performed exquisitely. This is not the best place for me to be. It's a little dangerous. Once we hear the first pop I'll leave. *pop* Ooh! It's time. We've heard the first pop, I'm gonna go ahead
and start moving around that oil in the bottom. Agitating it a little bit. The thing I love about making pepcorn is that
it's super easy to do. Even a dunce like me can do it. You, you can do it too, I can't, I can't talk
anymore, the popping has started to get too big. Now if you burn your first set of pepcorn,
that's totally fine, that's how it was when I first started making popcorn like this,
but the beauty of popcorn is that it's super cheap and you can keep trying again, and you're
gonna get good at it eventually. It's time to stop. We don't want to take this popcorn out of
the wok just yet, we gotta- Karen: Pepcorn! -turn it into pepcorn. I'm gonna get to it, Karen. 'Cause we still gotta turn it into pepcorn. Go ahead and take off a little bit of your
tin foil. Take your Lao Gan Ma, the stuff that you didn't
put in when you squeezed out all the oil. You want to just pop that in right on the
top. And now it's time for you to consider how
spicy you want it to be. You want to just take however many, uh, pinches? I would say is a good way to do it. You just want to sprinkle it in on the side
right there. Okay. Karen: Oh, be careful! Be careful of your hands. Pop a towel over top of it all because sometimes
it's hard to put the tinfoil back on. And you just really want to go all out on
this thing. *METAL MUSIC* We're looking good. And now allow me to plate my pepcorn. You might notice that some of the Lao Gan
Ma and the powder might have stuck to the bottom. You want to go ahead and scrape that out. Then you've just made your pepcorn, and all
you gotta do is eat it. Oh! *higher pitched* Oh! Oh it's so good. It's got that savoriness and that hot spice
cuts through it at the top. I don't know what I'm saying, I've never had
to review food before. I could eat 7 bowls of this, I'm gonna probably
eat more bowls of that during this time that I'm at home. But the best part of this is to share it with
friends. Which I understand, right now, we might not
be able to do, which is all the more reason for you to get bangin' at making pepcorn,
so that the next big party you're at, you can share it with all your good pals. Karen: Send them the video so you can all
make pepcorn. Do you want me to say "like and subscribe"
too? Karen: No. I'm not gonna say that then. That's pepcorn. And it's probably the first and last cooking
video that I feel qualified to make *thinking about his qualifications* and that I probably ever will make. Unless some extenuating circumstances changes
that. This is the height of human creation. How could it get better than this? I'm done. I've peaked. I'm quitting. Gonna go live in the, in the woods. You gotta turn off this camera, I'm gonna
finish this. Karen: Okay! I don't care what it costs, I want you to
*pop*in' bury this guy. I mean who does he think he is? Huh? Who is he? Did you say Ryan or Bri- oh, oh there's a
bunch of them. Hahaha, no no that one was pretty good. I'll give him that. Why did you call me again? I called you? That doesn't sound right.
I have to say, BDG and Bon Appetit is not a cross over I thought I would ever see happen but I am here for it
I appreciate that Brian and Laura live together as adults. It’s honestly pretty wholesome. I love my sister, but i can’t imagine having her as roommate, at least without parental supervision.
Pep me up bdg
I stopped by my local shop, but couldn't find any chili crisp. Anybody know if it's at any big chain stores, or do I have to order it online?
What's that song he uses in the beginning? I hear a lot of youtubers use it, but can never find it.