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Cooking With Cannabis

A journey beyond mom’s home cooking!
By T.L. King

Cooking with Cannabis can be meditative and enjoyable, especially when you develop the ideal flavor combinations. Cooking with Cannabis is like anything else — it requires practice and some imagination. Considering the variety of unique cuisine opportunities, it really is more than simply baking brownies!

Here are some suggestions and tips to help you get started off in the world of Cannabis Cuisine!

Unless it is your intent to medicate while cooking, I suggest putting on disposable food-grade gloves while preparing Cannabis dishes. If you love to taste the food while you prepare, take care not to consume too much before the guest’s arrive!.

Most Cannabis Cooking is dependent on using Cannabis Butter and oils. You can get these in Cannabis dispensaries, but they are often pricey, as well as the THC content may not be accurate. Making your own butter and oils is the first step in turning into a Cannabis Chef!

Remember that Cannabis butter and oils have distinct smell and taste. Experiment with ingredients which compliment one another.

Make use of a THC calculator to ensure that you serve appropriate servings based on THC content.

Tips for Making Cannabis Butter:

When producing cannabis butter or oil, use extra virgin olive oil and unsalted butter. I also discover that making large batches at one time is more practical, plus your cooking lasts long after season harvest!

Cheese cloth is one way to strain the butter from the plant material, however you can lose a lot of product. Try a French Coffee Press instead

Store cannabis infused oils in dark cool area (60-70 degrees F). You can also freeze your butter to last the longest.

When making butter, use lined cup cake pans as butter molds. Measure ¼ cup in each mold and refrigerate. Once hardened, you can freeze individual molds and thaw only the amount required for cooking.

You do not have to have the bud of the Cannabis plant to make good quality butter or oil. Instead save and use all of the cuttings and shake from your fall harvest (dried). These are full of THC and make great butter and oils! Also ask fellow growers for free clippings, or in exchange for some baked goods.

Bon ‘Apatite

T.L. King is a Cannabis Chef living in Northern California. She also runs a Cannabis recipe web site at https://cannabiscuisine.com and the Author of the book “Cooking with Cannabis“, A source for culinary cuisine.

Cooking With Weed

Do you have any great ideas on  Cooking With Weed ?  It’s a healthy way to enjoy the recreational and health benefits of cannabis without having to smoke or use a vaporizer and quickly becoming a national pastime!

Because of that cannabis chefs are popping up in fancy restaurants and in home kitchens everywhere as Cooking With Weed becomes an excellent way for connoisseurs to share in the subtle differences of each strain.

Of course with all these new cannabis cooks sprouting up everywhere Cooking With Weed, the list of cannabis recipes is growing in numbers and diversity by the day!

And that’s where Cannabis Cuisine comes in , we have created a place where everyone can share their favorite Marijuana Recipes with others so we can all enjoy the latest trends in cannabis fine dining.

Cannabis Cuisine has become a valuable resource for cannabis cooks everywhere, and we invite you to join our recipe forum, anyone can Join For Free ! So Register now, so you can view and rate recipes as well as share your favorite cannabis recipes with the rest of us!

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Cannabis Indica Strains

When we talk about marijuana, pot or weed these days it’s inspiring to hear the term “Cannabis” being used more frequently among the general population as the propaganda from the past gradually fades away.

As a society we are becoming re-educated about this incredible plant that has served us for thousands of years as a medicinal and recreational herb, a plant that seems to be tailor made for humanity !

When we talk about “Cannabis Indica ” we are specifically referring to the genotype or landrace that originated in the middle east in the mountains of Afghanistan. We are all familiar with the potent “Hashish” that the locals make.  In fact entire cultures and lifestyles in these regions are based on the cannabis concentrates industry.

There are many well know strains of Cannabis Indica being grown and enjoyed worldwide such as Afghan Kush, Hindu Kush, Northern Lights and Blueberry Kush just to name a few.

Using these very potent Indica strains growers all over the world have developed many of the hybrids like “Blue Dream” which is a cross between the Indica Blueberry Kush and the Sativa Haze.

Each year growers are enhancing the technology being used in grow rooms allowing them to produce new strains and phenotypes with higher potency yields in both THC and CDB cannabinoids.

Cannabis Indica of course has its own unique characteristics when compared to Cannabis Sativa.

1. Cannabis Indica has broader leaves with the plants being generally shorter and more bushy.
2. The buds or flowers are more dense, which is one reason growers like to grow Indica strains as weight is an important factor when you’re selling a product by the ounce or pound.
3. The high is different from Sativa strains , being characterized as more of a “couch lock” effect , more relaxed, more sedated and usually best enjoyed in the evening or at night to unwind and slow down.
4. Cannabis Indica strains are typically higher in CDB ( Cannabidiol ) making them ideal for medicinal use when patients want to relieve pain, increase appetite and need more restful sleep,  all part of the healing process.

 

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How To Make Edibles

Cannabis edibles are one of the fastest growing sectors of the burgeoning cannabis industry with new vendors and products coming out each year as cannabis legalization continues across the United States.

What are Cannabis Edibles ?  Cannabis edibles are typically sweets and snacks. The most common being cookies, brownies and a wide assortment of baked goods.

However over the last few years cannabis edibles have gone way beyond the proverbial “Pot Brownie” and are being mass produced in high tech manufacturing facilities.  These new businesses are using state of the art extraction processes to produce products and packaging that can only be described as mainstream.

Cannabis edibles are being developed in a wide variety of candies such as gummy bears, lollipops, suckers, chewing gum, mints, chocolates, candy bars, just about any delivery system will work to get the cannabinoids into your bloodstream .

There are many methods to making cannabis edibles, even simple extraction and baking techniques that can be accomplished using tools and equipment found in the average home kitchen.

Others like Supercritical Fluid Extraction involving Co2 gasses under high pressure is only possible using expensive state of the art equipment and machinery found in industrial manufacturing facilities.

Here is a list of the most common edibles being produced , including some cannabis infused beverages, and the various extraction processes being used to manufacture these tasty treats for the palate , mind and body !

1. Baked goods like brownies, cookies are the most basic edible as far as the manufacturing process and can be done in any home kitchen. Typically
baked goods use cannabutter or some type of cannaoil for cannabis infusion.

2. Chocolate bars , mints and other non baked soft treats that are mass produced by hand or through cold extrusion equipment, are using hash oil and other infused oils mixed with their products.

3. Candies like suckers, lollipops and even gummy bears are being infused with cannabis by various methods including Co2 extraction and being sprayed with viscous hash oil.

4. Cannabis beverages are becoming very popular, utilizing just about every type of drink known to man. There is now on the market cannabis infused coffee, beer, fruit drinks, tea, wine, alcohol, soda and various elixirs that combine one or more of these components. Most of these are infused using one or more of the various processes already mentioned here.

 

How To Cook With Cannabis

Cooking with cannabis is a rapidly evolving culinary art form these days as chefs and cooks all over the world are learning the subtleties of infusing food with the complex cannabinoids found in the cannabis plant.

Because of the resurgence of cannabis in our society the culture of cannabis is changing as well.  Traditionally it has been about smoking and getting high in a social setting, sharing a joint among friends, at a concert or a party.

This dynamic has changed over the years however,  the new science and research is showing us the health benefits of cannabis and how it interacts with our bodies own endocannabinoid system.

These revelations have helped to catapult cannabis into the culinary world.  The list of cannabis infused recipes is growing daily, quickly moving beyond “Pot Brownies” into traditional meals, cannabis cuisine has become…”Whats for Dinner” !

The process of infusing food with the cannabinoids found in cannabis is accomplished by adding concentrates made for cooking, typically these break down into 3 categories.

1. Cannabutter is one of the most common and can be used in a wide variety of recipes from sweets and baked goods to regular meals that are common for the dinner table.
2. Cannaoil is another widely used concentrate that is generally used with dinner menu items as opposed to sweets. The oil used to make this concentrate is usually olive oil , coconut oil or even common vegetable or conola oil.
3. Cannaflour is also a viable way to infuse your meal.  Cannaflour is generally used for baking of course and is generally mixed in with regular flour with between 10% – 20% cannaflour and the rest traditional baking flour.

 

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