Cooking For Others Again

April showers bring May flowers, right? Can we all agree that there has never been a month like April in our lifetime? It felt like massive showers and never ending bad weather keeping us inside and away from the things we love. May 1st I moved once again, this time to downtown Vancouver, into a furnished one bedroom apartment where I would call home for the next 3 months. My plan was once Phase 2 in British Columbia allowed for restaurants to open back up, that I would start doing small dinners once again. I have missed getting to cook for others and have been preparing one of the best menus I’ve ever created for when that time comes.

My menu was really a story of my quarantine period. My 1st course is a BC Spot Prawn Ceviche with grapefruit, blood orange, habanero, scallions, avocado and coconut chips. I added the tangerine dream terpene from Lab Effects to my citrus that would be used to cook the fresh spot prawns. I added a THC Infused Orange Olive Oil and a little rock salt to finish the 1st off. The Spot Prawn Ceviche was followed by a Sesame Wasabi Crusted Lamb Lollipop with a Crispy Rainbow Carrot Salad and an Infused Balsamic Ponzu Reduction sauce. The organic New Zealand Lamb was marinated in horseradish wasabi for 24 hours before being crusted with Wasabi Peas, Sesame Seeds, Nori and dehydrated cannabis flower that was saved from an oil extraction I made (this does not add any thc, but is merely used for flavor & to maximize zero waste). The third course is a Crispy Skin Coho Salmon with Purple Asparagus, Pickled Radishes and a CBD Infused Mint Pea Nage with Beta-Pinene added. The nage is the perfect sauce to add terpenes to because it is served at room temperature. Beta-Pinene is in similar herbs and offers anti-inflammatory properties that help make this dish the perfect introduction to anyone new to culinary cannabis. When I’m asked, why would I want Cannabis in my food, my response is this dish. The properties of super foods like fatty omega-3’s (salmon) and dark leafy greens combined with CBD and Beta-Pinene offer the body rejuvenation without any psycho-active effects of THC. The menu is finished off with a dessert that would bring any cannabis lover to his knees; Pistachio Cannabis Essence Ice Cream with a Matcha Sponge Cake, Infused Praline Basket, Maragan Dark Chocolate and a Golden Berry Gastrique. My goal was to highlight all the flavors and smells of my favourite cannabis strain; Romulan Haze. By adding a cannabis derived terpene from Lab Effects (Cannabis Essence) and paring it with pistachio, the perfect marriage for an ice cream was born. This dessert will be the perfect crowd pleaser to wrap up a dinner that I know people will appreciate so much after months of being inside.

SUNDAZE with Nova Cannabis

The month of May also began with a new relationship with NOVA CANNABIS. We kicked off a new segment on their social media platform called SUNDAZE with The Nomad Cook, which is hosted every Sunday morning at 1030am MST. Our goal is to introduce new recipes with cannabis to a demographic searching for other ways to use cannabis other than smoking. The 4 episodes we did introduce a CBD Infused Hollandaise Sauce, a THC Infused Jerk Marinade, a THC infused Bacon Onion Jam for the Ultimate Breakfast Sandwich and an introduction into infusing cream. Education is the key to introducing cannabis as the next great super food and partnering with companies like Nova offer us the best opportunity to connect with the public.