Just another herb; Seattle chefs learn to cook with cannabis

With marijuana becoming legal in Washington, it’s time Seattle’s best chefs learn how to cook with cannabis.

This week on KIRO Radio’s Seattle Kitchen Show, hosts Tom Douglas and Thierry Rautureau get a lesson in cooking with this newly legal herb from The Pantry Raid‘s Mary White.

First off, Mary says there are two strains of pot, Indica and Sativa. Each of the varieties have different effects on those who ingest them.

420 Magazine explains Sativa is the type of pot associated with “fits of laughter, long discussions about nothing, enhanced audio and visual senses.” Indica on the other hand it says results in “more of a heavy ‘body buzz.'”

To activate the THC, the active ingredient in cannabis responsible for the bodily effects, White says the pot has to be heated.

“The thing about THC and working with pot, you have to first get the THC out of the pot and that is almost always held in fat, so you warm it up in either butter or oil or something like that to extract the THC from the bud or the shake. And then you use that oil or that butter.”

Most people are familiar with pot brownies or cookies, but White says dishes you can prepare go well beyond that.

“I’ll stuff that butter under a chicken skin, and roast it and then make gravy with the sauce,” says White, who says it’s also good in meatloaf, or a spaghetti sauce or even on a salad.

The main thing to consider when ingesting marijuana, White warns, is just how much you’re taking in. You don’t want to do a 3-course marijuana meal or you’ll end up flat on your face.

“It really depends on your tolerance – how much you can use,” she says, adding that today’s pot is very strong. “A toke off a joint, I’m in the corner, but I can eat a cookie and I’m OK.”

The experience of eating pot, she says, is also a very different feeling that what results from smoking marijuana.

“It takes about half an hour to 45 minutes to kick in, but then you’re happy for hours.”

White offers classes on cooking with cannabis, and other general cooking courses, but for now, she only takes students who have a medical marijuana licenses for the cannabis course.

Seattle Kichen with Tom Douglas and Thierry Rautureau can be heard on KIRO Radio on Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 10 a.m. Available anytime ON DEMAND at KIRORadio.com.