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Dungeness crab, cordyceps & kief soup

By Chef Sebastian Carosi

All crab is good crab. Those small, mild, blue crabs are a treasure, generally eaten in big-ass piles on newspaper-covered East Coast picnic tables in unfuckenrealisticly humid air that drips off you. The king crab is prized for its snowy richness and lanky pieces of leg meat. There is also snow crab and rock crab, both excellent, if you can get them. But them Dungies, or Dungeness crabs as they are known, are the best—hands down! At its freshest, Pacific Northwest-harvested Dungeness crab tastes only as oceanic as the wind off the waters of the Puget Sound, more delicate and closer to sweet than anything from the bottom of the sea. I might have a deep-rooted regional bias on the subject of crab, but, after all, the Dungeness was James Beard's favourite as well. Writing in his Theory and Practice of Good Cooking, he declared the Dungeness “the most distinctive of all, it is sheer, unadulterated crab heaven.” The dead of winter is when the Dungeness are at their magical crab fat best. Residential crabbers soak their pots year-round, whereas commercial season usually opens around the first week of December if the fat is right. Dungies are an integral part of the Pacific Northwest diet, and if they aren't, they damn well should be. Heavily armoured, hard to crack, sweet and delicious, a true taste of place and a revelatory Pacific Northwest combination. Oh, and I hear that cordyceps and cannabis are really good for you, too.

Dungeness crab, cordyceps & kief soup

Prep time: 15 minutes 

Cook time: 30 minutes

Yield: 6 servings 

Total THC/CBD: depends on the potency of the products used 

Status: soup

From the cannabis pantry: cannabis butter, kief, cannabis olive oil 

Chef’s strain recommendation: Sour Diesel 

Equipment 

Medium saucepot, cutting board, chef’s knife, large spoon, immersion blender or high-speed blender, small stainless steel bowl 

Ingredients

½ cup cannabis butter (made in the mb2e)

1 cup sweet onion (peeled, medium diced)

5 cloves fresh garlic (peeled, crushed and rough chopped)

½ cup celery (peeled, medium diced)

½ cup fresh fennel (save fronds for crab salad garnish)

½ cup of all-purpose flour 

1½ cups roasted red bell peppers or piquillo peppers

2 tbsp tomato paste 

5-6 cups shrimp stock (water, shellfish or fish stock can be used)

½ tsp Old Bay seasoning

2 tsp sea salt 

½ tsp fresh cracked black pepper

½ tsp chipotle adobe (the contents of a can of chipotles pureed) 

1 cup heavy cream 

1 lb fresh Dungeness crab meat (reserve 2-3 ounces of the jumbo lumps for garnish)

1 tbsp whole dry cordyceps 

½ gram kief (decarboxylated)

Crab salad garnish

2-3 oz reserved crab meat

1 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice

2 tbsp cannabis olive oil (made in the mb2e)

1 tbsp chives (chopped fine)

1 tsp fennel fronds (reserved from above)

1 tbsp mayonnaise 

1 tbsp chive blossoms 

Preparation

In a medium saucepot, over medium-high heat, sweat the onions, carrots, fennel and celery until onions are translucent. Add the garlic and sweat for an addition two minutes. Add the flour to the onion garlic mix to create a roux. Add the stock, tomato paste, roasted peppers, crab meat (remember to reserve your garnish crab meat), Old Bay seasoning, salt, pepper, and chipotle adobe. Let simmer for 10 minutes, stirring vigorously to dissolve the roux. Add cordyceps and reduce heat slightly. Simmer for an additional 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Using an immersion or high-speed blender, puree the soup until smooth. Return pureed soup to a clean stockpot. Add the heavy cream and adjust seasonings to taste. Warm until heated through. 

For the crab salad garnish, delicately mix all the garnish ingredients except for the chive blossoms in a small stainless steel mixing bowl. 

Serve the hot soup in your desired vessel or bowl, garnishing each bowl with a little fresh crab salad and chive blossoms.

To learn more about Chef Sebastian Carosi and his approach to cannabis cookery read our exclusive interview, Eat your damn greens! Chef Sebastain talks wildcrafting, cannabis cookery and his respect for the movement’s deep roots. Chef Sebastian generously shared this recipe with Heads Lifestyle. Now get in the kitchen and whip up something delicious! 

Equipment + product source: MB2e MagicalButter Machine

Photos: Chef Sebastian Carosi and Carla Asquith

More about Chef Sebastian Carosi and his projects here

Follow on Instagram at: @chef_sebatian_carosi

Cannabis roasted beets and Cara Cara oranges with fried garden herbs

By Chef Sebastian Carosi

Thirty-five years into the farm-to-fork movement and every professional chef and home cook alike has a version of roasted beet salad. The candy striped Chioggia beet is named after the coastal town in the Veneto region. My family descends from Northern Italy, and I get a thorough kick in the pants knowing that there is a small town there named Chioggia. Those of you that love heirloom vegetables, and beets in particular, will recognize the name. With its distinctive red and white stripes, Chioggia is the beet no one knows how to pronounce. Say it with me:  kee-oh-jee-uh.

As beets are in my DNA, I have grown to like them in all preparations, but roasting is my all-time favourite, especially when the beets get a little bigger but are still very earthy and sweet. These cannabis-roasted beets are no different—super sweet, herbaceous, earthy and palette pleasing. For this recipe, I use heirloom Bull's Blood beets because they meld beautifully with the piquant cannabis while slow roasting. Bull's Blood beets are an older cultivar known for their natural sweetness, remarkably earthy flavour and high nutritional value. Red beets are betalains-rich offering a wide range of potential health benefits from countering inflammation and protecting the liver to anticancer and antioxidant activity. And let's not forget those gorgeous deep red leaves that are just as delicious and nutritious as the underground root. This old-school variety’s name hints to its mid-nineteenth-century origins when beets were known as blood turnips. 

A salad made with such a rare and storied beet demands more than just your average orange. Loaded with lycopene and complex flavours, the Cara Cara orange was discovered at the Hacienda Caracara in Valencia, Venezuela in 1976. This super sweet, slightly tangy, low acid citrus is the perfect match for the earthy Bull’s Blood beet. Add crispy fried garden herbs, lemonade vinaigrette and wild fennel pollen and the lowly blood turnip is elevated to a crimson triumph. The wild fennel pollen, foraged along the Columbia River, is terpene-rich, loaded with limonene and alpha pinene—all the more reason to add this great salad to your roughage repertoire. It’s also wonderful inspiration to get outside and forage or garden for the ingredients you use in your culinary adventures. 

Cannabis roasted beets and Cara Cara oranges with fried garden herbs 

Prep time: 15 minutes

Roasting time: 1 hour

Yield: 4 individual salads or 1 family style salad

Total THC/CBD: depends on the potency of the products used

Status: salad

From the cannabis pantry: cannabis flower, cannabis-infused grape seed or olive oil, cannabis-infused rice wine vinegar

Equipment 

Small baking dish, chef's knife, cutting board, whisk, 2 small stainless steel mixing bowls, medium stainless steel mixing bowl, small sauté pan, large spoon, rasp, serving plates or platter

Ingredients

4-6 whole heirloom beets (the size of a baseball), scrubbed

1/2 oz quality cannabis flower

1/4 cup cannabis-infused grape seed or olive oil (made in the MB2e)

3 Cara Cara oranges (peeled, cut into segments)

1/4 cup very young wild chickweed or microgreens 

1/4 tsp wild fennel pollen

1 tsp fresh cracked pepper 

2 tsp Jacobsen Salt Co. sea salt flakes 

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400°. Drizzle beets and cannabis flower with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Wrap in foil packets ensuring they are sealed up nicely. Place the bundles on a baking sheet and roast in the oven for about an hour. Let beets cool, then rub off skins with paper towels. (Dry and keep the purple buds for another application.) Slice the beets into large thin rounds and arrange in a large casserole. Drizzle the slices with a couple tablespoons of the vinaigrette and let marinate for 15 to 20 minutes before serving.

Lemonade vinaigrette

3 tbsp cannabis-infused grape seed or olive oil (made in the MB2e)

1 tbsp fresh squeezed orange juice

2 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice 

1 tbsp cannabis rice wine vinegar (made in the MB2e) 

2 tbsp wildflower honey

pinch salt and pepper

Preparation

In a small stainless steel mixing bowl, combine oil, orange juice, lemon juice, cannabis rice wine vinegar, honey, salt and pepper. Whisk until well combined. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Horseradish crème

1/4 cup sour cream 

1 tbsp fresh horseradish, grated  

Preparation

In a small stainless steel mixing bowl, combine sour cream and horseradish. Whisk until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Fried garden herbs

1 tbsp fresh rosemary leaves 

1 tbsp fresh tiny sage leaves 

1 tbsp fresh parsley leaves 

1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves

1 tbsp fresh cilantro leaves 

15 thin slices of fresh jalapeño 

1/4 cup vegetable oil

Preparation

Heat 1/4 cup oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. In batches, fry the herbs and jalapeño peppers until crispy. Drain on a paper towel and set aside until ready to use.

To assemble

Arrange the marinated beets on your desired serving plates or platter. Drizzle the remaining vinaigrette over the beets. Arrange the Cara Cara orange segments over the beets. Sprinkle with sea salt flakes and cracked pepper. Top with fried herbs and jalapeño rings. Drizzle or dot the beets with horseradish crème. Arrange a few leaves of wild chickweed on the beets. Dust with a pinch of wild fennel pollen. Serve.

To learn more about Chef Sebastian Carosi and his approach to cannabis cookery read our exclusive interview, Eat your damn greens! Chef Sebastain talks wildcrafting, cannabis cookery and his respect for the movement’s deep roots. Chef Sebastian generously shared this recipe with Heads Lifestyle. Now get in the kitchen and whip up something delicious! 

Equipment + product source: MB2e MagicalButter Machine

Photos: Chef Sebastian Carosi and Carla Asquith

More about Chef Sebastian Carosi and his projects here

Follow on Instagram at: @chef_sebatian_carosi

Cream of forest foraged wild mushrooms

By Chef Sebastian Carosi

Foraging your way around the Pacific Northwest will lead to some incredible hot spots. Several factors determine a true hot spot: the variety and density of wild edibles available in a specific area or region. As a wild food-driven chef, I also factor in the importance of a sustainable harvest. I always ensure not to impede on the land or horde too many wild ingredients. 

One of my favourite hot spots is Willapa Bay in Washington State. It seems as though everywhere you look there is food underfoot. Whether oceanside or bayside, the area gives up so many kinds of wild edibles including several varieties of seaweed, sea beans, goose tongue, oysters, razor clams, gooseneck barnacles, and many types of mushrooms. And yes, that includes the hallucinogenic kind. For many years, I’ve foraged king boletes, Pacific golden chanterelles, morels, saffron milk caps, and azzies—better known to the mycological world as Psilocybe azurescens. The azzie is the most psilocybin-dense mushroom on the planet. Most people never get the chance to forage for their own source of wild psilocybin therapy. I truly feel thankful to have been able to experience hunting wild azzies on the same stretch of dune grass for almost 30 years. 

Living on the peninsula you quickly learn that the late fall months are the best time to forage wild mushrooms. Just be sure to bring your rain jacket. Since the area is such a microcosm of so many different environmental pockets, you get a lot of wild mushrooms popping up together at the same time. This means my dehydrator is going 24/7 and I usually put away three to four dozen jars of pickled mushrooms. I’m also eating mushroom dishes day in and day out. I am not complaining, just expressing my joy at the abundance of wild mushrooms right in my backyard. 

Walking through the dunes along the Pacific Ocean, the trained forager will quickly identify the azzie. They are one of the only wild mushrooms that will grow in the dune grass before you hit the sandy beach. Easily recognized by their small brownish tops, the true test is the bluing on the stems shortly after being plucked from the sandy ground. In years past, I could easily pick several pounds in an afternoon, although with climate change the area is giving up less and less every year. 

This simple cream of forest foraged wild mushroom soup is a true example of what people mean when they say that a certain dish has a true taste of place. Every time I make this soup, it quickly reminds me of where the evergreen forest meets the tumultuous Pacific Ocean and the wild azzies dance through the dune grass. I kept the dosage low for an adventurous and super mellow afternoon or evening. You can easily increase the dose to your liking.

Cream of forest foraged wild mushrooms

Prep time: 25 minutes 

Cook time: 45 minutes 

Yield:  6 servings 

Total THC/CBD:  depends on the potency of the products used 

Status:  mellow mushroom soup

From the cannabis pantry:  cannabis bacon fat, cannabis balsamic vinegar, cannabis butter 

Chef’s strain recommendation: Trinidad OG 

Equipment

Chef’s knife, cutting board, high-speed blender or immersion blender, medium sauce pot, small sauté pan, tongs, ladle, bowls to serve the soup

Ingredients

2 tbsp cannabis-infused bacon fat 

1 tbsp cannabis-infused creamery butter

7 cloves garlic (peeled, crushed, and rough chopped)

1 large, sweet onion (peeled and small diced)

1½ lbs variety of wild mushrooms such as chanterelles, morels, or porcinis (rough chopped)

½ cup caramelized onions 

¼ cup all-purpose flour 

¼ tsp fresh rosemary (fine chopped)

2 tsp fresh thyme leaves 

¼ cup dry mushroom mix (crush in your hands)

¼ gram dry psilocybin mushroom (preferably blue meanies or golden teachers)

1 tbsp cannabis-infused balsamic vinegar 

1 tbsp kosher salt 

1 tsp fresh cracked black pepper

6 cups mushrooms stock, chicken stock, or water 

1½ cups heavy cream 

Garnish

2 cups thick sliced or torn wild mushrooms

3 thyme sprigs, top leaves for garnish 

2 tbsp cannabis-infused creamery butter

kosher salt and cracked black pepper

Preparation 

In the saucepan over medium-low heat, add onions and garlic to the bacon fat and butter and sweat until the onions have just turned translucent. Next add the sliced mushroom mix, the rosemary and thyme, and sauté over medium heat for 8 to 10 minutes stirring occasionally. Add the flour to create a roux stirring well to combine. Then add the stock, dry mushroom mix, caramelized onions, salt and pepper, balsamic vinegar, and simmer over medium-low heat for 25 to 30 minutes stirring occasionally. (If the mixture looks like it needs a little extra liquid, add a small amount of additional stock.) Next add the psilocybin mushrooms and simmer an additional 10 minutes. In a high-speed blender or with a handheld immersion blender, puree the soup to your desired consistency. Return soup to empty pot and stir in heavy cream. Taste and adjust the seasonings with additional salt, pepper, balsamic and thyme if desired. 

For the garnish, sauté the thick cut mushrooms of your choice in butter until butter is slightly brown and nutty. When done, add the fresh thyme leaves and stir to combine well. Remove from heat. Garnish each soup with several sautéed mushrooms, pan drippings and thyme sprigs. Serve soup hot.

To learn more about Chef Sebastian Carosi and his approach to cannabis cookery read our exclusive interview, Eat your damn greens! Chef Sebastain talks wildcrafting, cannabis cookery and his respect for the movement’s deep roots. Chef Sebastian generously shared this recipe with Heads Lifestyle. Now get in the kitchen and whip up something delicious! 

Equipment + product source: MB2e MagicalButter Machine

Photos: Chef Sebastian Carosi and Carla Asquith

More about Chef Sebastian Carosi and his projects here

Follow on Instagram at: @chef_sebatian_carosi

Cannabis pickled magnolia blossoms

By Chef Sebastian Carosi

Steal magnolias… then pickle them!

Helping to educate the dining public—and everyone out there that consumes food for that matter—about the abundance of unconventional food sources seems to fall on the shoulders of today’s creative chefs. As a wildcrafter and forager, discovering creative condiments using unconventional wild edibles and adding them to my repertoire is always great. Sharing them with you is truly what it is all about for me. While foraging is an innate part of human nature, it has been superseded by more convenient food sources. Yet there is plenty of interesting foods to forage that are growing within a short hike or walk from your home depending on where you live and what time of year it is. The beautiful magnolia is an ancient tree with relatives over 95 million years old. Its leaves, bark and blossoms are all edible and have been consumed for several thousands of years. The flowers enjoyed raw have a piquant spiciness, giving way to a creaminess that matches its intense floral nose, reminiscent of rose, ginger and cardamom. Having spent many of my formative culinary years in the American south—Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia—I quickly learned from some of the old timers what a scuppernong was, ate a paw paw, drank muscadine and how to pickle magnolia blossoms. The process was taught to me by an old Appalachia native, who invited me to his makeshift lunch table to try his souse. I didn’t know what the hell souse was. (For the uninitiated souse is head cheese in vinegar.) He broke me off a piece of clear souse with little bits of meat in it and placed it on a saltine cracker and topped the bite-sized snack with a bright pink pickled magnolia blossom. I’d never had Appalachian souse or a pickled magnolia blossom before that first culinary encounter. Fast forward almost 30 years and I love pickling magnolias and I love souse. I later learned that they pickle magnolia blossoms in England, but I will always associate them with Appalachia. Over the years I have adapted the recipe to fit a multitude of uses. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do. And make sure you ask your neighbour before you steal their magnolias.

Cannabis pickled magnolia blossoms

Prep time: 20 minutes

Wait time: 15 minutes

Yield: 2 to 3 pint jars

Total THC/CBD: depends on the potency of the products used

Status: condiment, use in place of pickled ginger as a garnish   

From the cannabis pantry: cannabis rice wine vinegar, cannabis honey 

Equipment

Chef’s knife, cutting board, medium saucepan, large spoon, potato peeler, several mason jars and lids

Ingredients

1 lb. fresh magnolia petals or blossoms (stolen from your neighbourhood tree)

1 cup rice wine vinegar 

1 cup cannabis rice wine vinegar (made in the mb2e)

5 dry hibiscus flowers

½ cup cannabis honey 

1 cup sugar

2 tbsp Jacobsen sea salt

6-8 ounces fresh ginger strips (use a potato peeler)

1 piece orange peel (zest) (use potato peeler)

Preparation

In a medium saucepan mix all the ingredients except the magnolia petals or blossoms. Bring the mixture to a boil, then add the petals and stir well. Simmer 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir well to separate the petals. Allow to cool at room temperature. Transfer to mason jars with lids and refrigerate. (You can also can or process the jars.)

To learn more about Chef Sebastian Carosi and his approach to cannabis cookery read our exclusive interview, Eat your damn greens! Chef Sebastain talks wildcrafting, cannabis cookery and his respect for the movement’s deep roots. Chef Sebastian generously shared this recipe with Heads Lifestyle. Now get in the kitchen and whip up something delicious! 

Equipment + product source: MB2e MagicalButter Machine

Photos: Chef Sebastian Carosi and Carla Asquith

More about Chef Sebastian Carosi and his projects here

Follow on Instagram at: @chef_sebatian_carosi