Cannabis is becoming a cooking ingredient in its own right, as chefs create elaborate cannabis tasting menus at private dinners
For most Americans, eating marijuana has long been about function over flavor. Think of the dish that inevitably comes to mind: pot brownies. Less a delicious dessert than a discreet delivery mechanism for THC (the drug’s primary psychoactive ingredient), brownies can be smuggled to places where cannabis isn’t welcome. Chocolate, meanwhile, does an adequate job of disguising the plant’s taste – which is reminiscent of dandelion leaves growing from cracks in the sidewalk.
But with legalization and the attendant push to gentrify the drug, a small but vocal contingent have become champions of cannabis as a cooking ingredient in its own right. In cities where it’s legal, cannabis catering services now offer “elevated” dining experiences. On the new Netflix show Cooking on High, teams compete to make the most tempting ganja-infused dishes.
Manny Mendoza, a young chef who has worked at some of Chicago’s best restaurants, said he learned at culinary school that he and his friends weren’t the only ones who liked to cook food and smoke weed. All over the world, “this is a part of us as cooks, as chefs”, he said.
Mendoza began to think of cannabis as an “experiential seasoning” after being inspired by a music theory class. He compared the desired effect to synesthesia “a disorder, kind of” where people “start to taste colors or see sounds … A melding of the senses.”
Even in legal states, restaurants can’t incorporate cannabis into their dishes since they’re not eligible for licenses. But the rules for private dinners are more open to interpretation. So Mendoza puts together elaborate cannabis tasting menus through his Herbal Notes project, based in Chicago and San Diego, California. The group throws dinners where cannabis, curated music and striking locations augment the food.
Mendoza stresses that his dishes aren’t designed to incapacitate the guests or blast them into orbit. “It’s always low and slow [dosages] and optional,” he said. A menu for one of his recent productions involved seven courses that included a total of 5mg of THC, roughly equivalent to accompanying a tasting menu with one glass of wine. The dishes included champagne peaches and prosciutto toast, a tres leches sundae, and za’atar chicken with lentils featuring cannabis infused into the citrusy marinade.
Cannabis, like many other plants, gets its distinct aroma from chemicals known as terpenes, which can be flowery, spicy, earthy and a host of other flavors. To connoisseurs, the best weed is distinguished by the richness and complexity of its bouquet. And experienced cannabis chefs can often speak at great length about how they selected the cannabis sample for a particular dish.
Doing it yourself
Easier access to weed is no doubt inspiring amateur chefs to whip up their own psychoactive specialties.
Before getting started, it’s a good idea to do some research. Dosages can be hard to calculate, and eating too much pot can induce fear and paranoia which can last for hours.
One place to begin is The Cannabis Kitchen Cookbook by Robyn Griggs Lawrence, the former editor of Natural Home magazine. Promising “feel-good food for home cooks”, the book collects recipes for mains, sides, desserts, juices salads and alcoholic cocktails from several noted chefs, and some background on the plants history as a food.
Cannabis is a good source of protein and “has been part of the human diet since eating began”, Lawrence writes. “Technically, it’s a vegetable.”
Since THC is fat soluble, cannabis infused dishes typically begin by infusing the plant into fatty ingredients like butter, oil and honey, which can then be deployed in curries, pasta sauces, cookies and so on. The book’s more intriguing recipes include hemp seed-crusted Chinook salmon with cannabis cream and a side of cinnamon-cannabis roasted sweet potatoes.
Lawrence is also a proponent of juicing raw cannabis, which minimizes its psychoactivity and, she says, maximizes its nutritional value.
It’s too early to know whether high end cannabis cuisine will become more than a novelty. Elaborate dinners of cannabis-infused food don’t always compliment the the capricious moods the plant can induce. And in less formal settings, cannabis infused food isn’t necessarily more than the sum of its parts.
It’s an indication of the drug’s growing acceptance, however, that Lawrence’s book updates yesteryear’s good enough ganja brownies as a dessert worthy of an upscale restaurant: “Cannabis, chia, almond and goji berry ‘pot brownie’ with cranberry, chocolate and red wine sauce,” anyone?
How to make a grown-up pot brownie
A recipe for cannabis, chia, almond and goji berry ‘pot brownies’ with cranberry, chocolate and red wine sauce. By Andie Leon. Reprinted with permission from the Cannabis Kitchen Cookbook
The cannabis agave
To make this recipe you’ll need to start with a cannabis agave.
Andie Leon is a fan of agave because it has a low glycemic index and won’t spike blood sugar the way refined sugar does. The sweetener, made from the blue agave plant (the same plant that’s used to make tequila) is preferable for Andie’s vegan catering clients because it doesn’t come from bees, but it’s high in fructose and could be problematic for people with weight problems, diabetes or heart disease. You can make this simple infusion with honey if you’re not an agave fan. To make her cold infusion, Andie simply pours a 12-ounce bottle of raw blue agave over an eighth of an ounce of finely ground cured cannabis flowers wrapped in cheesecloth and lets it sit in a cool, dark place (in a labeled jar, of course) for at least five days (the longer it sits, the more potent it will be). After she’s squeezed every last drop of agave out of the cheesecloth, Andie pours another bottle of agave over the cannabis bundle to extract whatever THC remains. The second batch is generally less potent than the first, so note that when labeling it for storage. Cannabis agave will keep in a cool, dark place for up to a month.
1/8 ounce (3.5g) cured and trimmed cannabis flowers
1 12-ounce bottle raw blue agave or raw honey
Coffee grinder or mortar and pestle
Cheesecloth
Airtight glass jar
Using a coffee grinder or a mortar and pestle, grind and crush cannabis to a fine powder.
Wrap cannabis in a cheesecloth and tie ends together to make a bundle (or tie with string). Place in a labeled airtight glass container with a tightly fitting lid.
Pour agave over cheesecloth. Seal with lid, label, and let sit in a dark place for at least five days.
Remove cannabis bundle and squeeze out every last drop of agave. Compost cannabis solids or use to make another batch.
Store in a cool, dark place for up to one month.
The cannabis, chia, almond and goji berry ‘pot brownie’
Andie Leon transforms gluten-free brownies made with two-thirds of a cup of cannabis butter, mesquite flour, coconut sugar, cacao nibs, chia seeds, coconut and goji berries into a full-on dessert when she smothers them in cranberry, chocolate, coconut, and red wine sauce made with a third of a cup of cannabis agave. Cacao nibs, “nature’s chocolate chips”, provide pure chocolate flavor from whole cacao beans as well as antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and fiber. Andie makes the brownies with a combination of wheat flour and gluten-free mesquite flour, which is made from ground dried pods of the mesquite tree and is rich in soluble fiber, calcium, and magnesium. You could substitute mesquite flour for all the flour in this recipe to make it gluten-free, or you could substitute wheat flour for the mesquite flour if you prefer. The brownies are strong on their own, so start with 1” x 1” pieces (people who know they have tolerance can have more than one) and temper the dosage by drizzling on more or less sauce. The chocolate in this dessert overwhelms the taste of cannabis butter, so the taste of the cultivar you use isn’t all that important.
1 1/3 cups flour, sifted
2/3 cup mesquite powder (or flour)
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
2 tbsp vodka
¼ cup raw almonds (or almond flakes)
½ cup cacao nibs
1 tsp cannabis-infused agave or honey (recipe on page 118)
2/3 cup cannabis-infused butter, softened (here’s a good basic pot butter recipe)
2/3 cup coconut sugar
¼ cup black chia seeds
½ cup grated coconut
½ cup goji berries
Preheat oven to 350F (177C). Lightly spray an 8” x 8” baking pan with cooking spray.
In a small bowl, mix flour, mesquite flour, cocoa and baking powder. Set aside.
Lightly beat eggs and vodka together.
Grind almonds in a food processor.
In a small bowl, combine cacao nibs with agave or honey. Combine until cacao nibs are well coated.
In a cake mixer or large bowl, beat together butter and coconut sugar until it becomes a smooth paste. Alternating between the flour mixture and the egg mixture, add one cup at a time of each, continuing to beat until all ingredients are completely combined into a batter. Add almonds, agave cacao nibs, chia seeds, coconut and goji berries. Beat thoroughly.
Pour batter into baking dish and bake for 40 minutes. Brownie is ready when a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
While the brownie bakes, make cranberry, chocolate and red wine sauce.
Remove brownie from oven and set pan on a rack to cool slightly.
Cut brownie into 1” x 1” squares.
Serve brownie warm with warm cranberry, chocolate and red wine sauce on top.
The cranberry, chocolate and red wine sauce
Makes about 3 cups
THC per serving: 0.5 mg
2 cups light coconut milk
½ cup red wine
1/3 cup cannabis-infused agave (recipe on page 118)
2 cups fresh cranberries
4 ounces (8 tbsp) dark chocolate
1 cup grated coconut
Combine coconut milk, wine, agave and cranberries in a small saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil.
Add chocolate, lower heat, and stir continually with a wooden spoon while chocolate melts.
Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Stir in coconut and remove from heat.
Serve warm over brownies.
Store leftovers in a labeled, airtight glass jar in the refrigerator for up to a week.
Read more: www.theguardian.com
