cooking with CANNABIS
by Chef Sebastian Carosi
Having an array of recipes that reflect the first crops of the year is hugely important to me as a chef who is driven by the natural succession of the seasons and what the temperature changes bring to our table . For several years now pickled green , unripe , tart strawberries have quickly gained popularity and have actually obtained trend status in upscale , white tablecloth restaurants across the United States . Most of these gastronomic “ trends ” have actual origins , usually in some tiny ethnic village somewhere in a desolate region of the world where necessity , not trend , brought upon the production of certain food product . This simple gunpowder green tea and cannabis vinegar pickled green strawberry recipe is rooted , ( yup , you guessed it ) in a tiny Italian village of the Abruzzo region . This is the tiny village in the mountainous region of Italy where my family immigrated to the U . S . from in the early 1900s . The Abruzzesse version is made with the tiny wild strawberry called fragoline di bosco , usually gathered while on mountain hikes and so delicate they generally need to be eaten right away . Living in the Pacific Northwest , strawberry season extends a little longer , which gives us a variety of strawberries to choose from . Okay , let ’ s talk about the gunpowder now that we ’ ve cleared up the fact that you are going to be eating green strawberries . The name “ gunpowder ” was given to some of the highest quality green teas that were tightly rolled , and resembled pelleted gunpowder used for cannons . This type of hand rolling helps preserve freshness and made the tea compact for packaging . Other than the very cool name “ gunpowder ,” I also combined the gunpowder green tea for its boost of energy and additional health benefits . Please remember , immune-boosting gunpowder green tea just happens to contain more caffeine than any other kind of green tea due to that tight hand rolling of each of the leaves . I choose organic underripe green Mt . Hood strawberries ( called “ Hoods ” if you live in the area ) for this particular recipe . With most of the country in a robust renaissance of Old World food preservation techniques , wild crafting , and foraging , it was just a matter of time before this family tradition of mine is passed throughout the kitchens of the world . This version is very simple and yields a pickle to be proud of when adorning your next artisan cured meat and farmstead cheese board . They also make a wonderful accompaniment to a roast of heritage breed pork like porchetta , or a simple pan roasted pork chop . Depending on what zone you live in you may already have several of your favourite varieties planted in your garden . For those of you that don ’ t , you can usually find green , unripe strawberries at your local u-pick farm at the beginning of each strawberry season .
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Chef Sebastian Carosi , also known as the short-order cannabis revolutionary , is an award-winning chef , avid forager , and wild crafter , and has been cooking with full spectrum cannabis and eating the devil ’ s lettuce since the early 90s . Trained at Portland , Oregon ’ s Western Culinary Institute , apprenticed under renowned chefs in Italy , and went on to lead the farm-to-fork movement across the United States . Find him on Instagram at @ chef _ sebastian _ carosi .
30 Maximum Yield