Spicy Pineapple Margarita

Master the art of crafting cannabis-infused beverages and edibles with our Certified Ganjier Marge as your guide in this tantalizing episode. We explore the joy of creating delectable treats and drinks with a cannabis twist, from the unexpected places our listeners have enjoyed edibles to the cost-effective and rewarding experience of making your own infusions at home. Get ready to tantalize your taste buds with a recipe for a spicy Serrano pineapple margarita that's perfect for summer sipping. Plus, stay tuned for an exciting interview with Jamie Evans, one of the authors of the "Let's Get Baked" cookbook, where we dive deeper into the world of culinary cannabis creations. 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

Hi, friends, grab yourself your favorite edible, your dry herb vape or a joint, and listen in as we talk about the Serrano pineapple margarita that you're going to be making over and over this summer. Welcome to Bite Me, the show about edibles. Where I help you take control of your high life, I'm your host and certified Gange Marge. Where I help you take control of your high life, I'm your host and certified Gange Marge, and I love helping cooks make safe and effective edibles at home. I'm so glad you're here and thank you for joining me today. Welcome back, friends, greetings, thank you for being here to another excellent episode of Bite Me, the show about edibles. If you're just tuning in for the first time, I'm glad you found me. How did you discover the show? Let me know. And if you've been listening for a while you've been hanging around here for a little bit my heartfelt appreciation goes out to you. It's really not easy creating a show from scratch, and here I am, almost five years later, and I wouldn't be doing it without those of you out there who've been listening. Some of you have been listening since almost the very beginning, which blows my mind. So thank you for being here. I really do appreciate it.

Speaker 1: 1:19

Before I get into the meat and potatoes of today's episode, a little bit of housekeeping. First of all, of course, the fan mail. The responses I've been getting have been really, really amazing. Now, just so you're aware, this is a whole brand new feature, so I'm still learning about it along with you. But if you've been looking at it, the fan mail does have the feature. It keeps your phone number private so I can't see your phone number, and when you open it up, it'll open up the text feature on your cell phone and there is a thing that says do not remove that. Make sure that the message gets to my podcast and not inadvertently sent to a different podcast. If so, that's why that's there. But I have been really loving the responses I've been getting.

Speaker 1: 2:10

Last week, I think, I asked something about the most interesting place that somebody has consumed cannabis or edibles, of course, because this is a show about edibles and I got a couple of responses last week. First of all, we had someone from Miami Florida. Hi, marge, I'm a chef from Miami Florida that makes edibles. I've been listening to your podcast for some time now and really enjoy your show. Thanks for being you and I find that incredible. There's a chef out there listening to my show that is getting something from it and enjoying it, because I'm not a professional chef. I don't claim to be. I do love cooking. I enjoy the process. I have worked as a line cook before in the past, but I don't have any professional designation. You would probably know immediately. If you're a professional chef and you saw my knife skills, you'd probably be like oh there it is, that's how I can tell. But other than that, I'm pretty proficient in the kitchen, though there's always so much more to learn and I love learning and sharing what I learn alongside you folks. And so thank you from Miami chef, from Miami Florida. I really am happy to hear that you're enjoying the show.

Speaker 1: 3:10

The next one we have is a message from someone in Waco, texas, and they did have an edibles experience in Pikes Peak. It was a very nice trip until I came down with a sneezing attack on the way down. About one a minute. The whole busload of people were blessing me. Sneezing was gone once we got down and got off the bus. Yeah, as someone who suffers from a lot of allergies, I can appreciate dealing with a sneezing attack and the people saying bless you, bless you. Bless you gesundheit over and over and over. Having a sneezing attack where you're high on edibles too, would probably be a different experience as well. So thank you for sending that in.

Speaker 1: 3:51

A listener from Waco, texas, I also love always hearing about where people are from, because this feature also just doesn't show me the phone number, of course, but does show the general location where the message is coming from, and I love to see where people are listening from. So I find that amazing as well. So thank you for sending your messages. Keep it up. I love it, I love it, I love it, and perhaps this week we should do a different question what is your favorite infused drink, whether that's something you're buying from a local dispensary or something you're making yourself in your kitchen. I would love to hear it, because I really do love cannabis drinks, as you probably have guessed if you've been listening for a little bit.

Speaker 1: 4:31

I've had plenty of cannabis beverage specialists on the show and I do enjoy purchasing them from the dispensary. They do hit a little bit different than a traditional edible. So I do find the 10 milligrams for me because I'm in Canada and we have those ridiculous potency limits 10 milligrams does get me a bit of a buzz going and I do enjoy the high, but, of course, making them yourself, you can save a lot of money, because I have been looking at the prices of edibles once again now that I'm back in Canada. God, they're so expensive. Make your own, people. That's why you can be far more self-reliant if you make your own, and there is, of course, a place for edibles that you can buy. It's really fun to see the new technologies that are coming out and all the fun creations that companies are coming up with. But you pay dearly for that and I can make a batch of something, sometimes for pennies on the dollar and I know exactly what is going into my edibles. And I really like that too, because I try most of the time to eat relatively well for my, for my health and just because I feel better when I do and I just like taking control of my high life. Just the same way, where a lot of people like, when they can, when they're able, they can grow their own cannabis. You can save a lot of money when you're growing your own too, and if you're using some of that excess trim or shake or even some of the buds to make your own edibles. Holy shit, it's amazing. What a combo. But anyway, I digress. That was a bit of my thing today. You're probably listening to the show because you enjoy making your own edibles too, for a myriad of different reasons there's people have different reasons. Next, kelly bought me some cookies through the buy me a cookie platform. That helps to support the show, and my big, heartfelt thank you to Kelly. I don't think I mentioned it yet. That came in a little bit ago. I don't think I've brought this up yet, but thank you, kelly, for your support. It really means a lot because there are a lot of costs to running a little podcast like mine. Let's get into today's episode. This one I am excited about because one, as I mentioned already, I love cannabis drinks and for two, I love making my own. And when the show notes for this episode, I will link to some of the other cannabis beverages that I've featured and of course I could also link to some of the episodes I've done with some of those cannabis beverages beverages experts that I've had on the show. I've had a number of them, some from Canada and at least one from Canada. They make teapot, which is a fantastic iced tea, great flavor that you can get in Canadian dispensaries I'm not sure if it's across the country or not, but it is widely available and of course, several drink makers in the US. And of course, in the US you have different potency limitations, different potency requirements, I guess, and so there's a little more flexibility there for higher potency drinks, lucky you. But I love cannabis drinks and At the time of this recording we're in the end of May.

Speaker 1: 7:45

I'm finally back in my home office studio where I will be for the next little while, and I don't know if you heard the clock going off behind me, because, for those of you who've been listening for a bit, or if you're just tuning in I am living in the country now, not too far from the small city I was living in before. Now, after that whole huge life transition, and I'm out here living with my pops, which has been a bit of an adjustment, but not as much as I thought it would be. We get along pretty good actually, and, frankly, I think he really likes the company. My dad is about to turn 93 in just a couple of months, and he's always puttering around. You know, he really likes to cut the lawn. There's a lot of lawn to cut, admittedly, but he has a lawn tractor and he goes out, does a little bit every day. He was replacing weather stripping on the front door the other day. He's always out, you know, puttering around. He has his buddies over several days a week to play pool, but he doesn't like to drive at night. So of course in the wintertime that means he's not going very far after 5 pm, but now that the days are getting longer it obviously gives him more flexibility to go out. But he still tends to sort of stick around the house. It's been really nice to sit and have dinners with him most nights of the week. I mean, I'm out quite a bit as well, but it's been really nice.

Speaker 1: 9:00

So I am looking forward to the grow season this year. I'm a little behind on that, probably, but that's okay and I have great conditions for growing this year. I'm pretty excited about that. Actually, I am going to be going to the Frenchie Cannoli Lost Art Workshop as well, so I'm hoping to pick up some tips and tricks because I would love to experiment making my own hash at the end of the season with some of my own homegrown. So lots of cool things coming up and, of course, if you're interested in doing something like that yourself, but you can't attend a workshop. I think this might be the last workshop that they have scheduled for the year at this point in time.

Speaker 1: 9:39

But the beautiful thing about Frenchie is he really wanted to have, he wanted this knowledge on hash making to be widely available to whoever wanted it, and so you can find his videos online on YouTube. I'll link to it in the show notes, but they're probably they're easy enough to find. You can find them, and they've had them translated into multiple languages as well, so that anybody can access this information free of charge, and I just love that philosophy and that is a beautiful legacy that Frenchy left us when he unexpectedly passed away a couple of years ago, and it's just beautiful to see Madame Cannoli and his apprentice, belle and other people just continuing his vision of having this knowledge freely available to all. In any case, I'm getting a little off topic here. We're talking about margaritas.

Speaker 1: 10:30

I got this recipe from a book. It's relatively new High Times, let's Get Baked a blazingly good recipe to satisfy your every craving, and this was written by Hyejin Chun and Jamie Evans, and I'm excited to say that Jamie is a guest on my show and you will be able to tune into that interview in the next episode. So this is one of the recipes that I believe Jamie contributed to this book. The book is fantastic because it has drinks, it has lots of savory recipes and a lot of Asian-inspired cooking as well. So for those of you out there who are looking for something beyond the traditional brownie, this is definitely it, and there are some beautiful and the photography is just, of course, stunning. But I just love some of these recipes in here Delicata squash with goat cheese and honey, bulgogi, bong puff pastry, cheesy kimchi and tomato dip, jalapeno, chive, cornbread, steamed egg and shiitake and chili oil.

Speaker 1: 11:38

And, of course, there are sweet recipes in here too, for those of us that have a sweet tooth like myself Jasmine and condensed milk, sandwich cookies, mini blueberry cheesecake bites. I mean, there's lots of things to get you excited about cooking with cannabis in this book, but today we're talking about the Serrano pineapple margarita from the book, and the description for the recipe says for those who love spicy cocktails, this Serrano pineapple margarita certainly brings the heat For the best Serrano flavor. The more efficient way to extract the pepper notes is to infuse the Serrano into the tequila, if Serrano peppers are too spicy for you, feel free to swap for jalapenos, which adds more mild spicy notes to this recipe. For those who love extremely spicy cocktails, instead of using serrano peppers, add habanero. If you're feeling brave, rim this cocktail with chili lime salt for extra flavor and enjoy. I did infuse the tequila, and that is a bit of an extra step that that takes, but once you've infused the tequila, you've got like a bottle of tequila that you can use for making multiple of these drinks, and if you're really into spicy drinks like this, it's going to let it evolve to other recipes too.

Speaker 1: 12:52

Unfortunately, when I did it, I had to use jalapenos, because I made this recipe before I left for Germany and and I even borrowed my daughter's shaker cup because I didn't have one, and I think I still have it. I don't think I returned it yet, which is good, because I'm going to be making some more, because the weather is coming and the sun is shining right now it's like over 25 degrees, beautiful weather for an infused drink to enjoy out on the deck. So I did infuse it, but I had to use jalapenos because that was what was available at the time in the stores. I can't remember. Otherwise I would have used the Serrano and I might have even have tried the habaneros, because I really do love spice and I have a really good tolerance for spice. I might have to try this again with the habanero or the Serrano. I would love to try it with either of those, because the jalapenos are nice but they aren't super spicy.

Speaker 1: 13:42

But essentially for this recipe, you're going to want chili, lime salt, some pineapple juice, limes, your Serrano infused tequila Blanco. You're going to need an alcohol tincture. Now, I had already made some of this. I already had some on hand, so that was easy for me to add in. If you haven't, you can get instructions on my website. If already had some on hand, so that was easy for me to add in. If you haven't, you can get instructions on my website. If you pick up this book, it also tells you how to do the alcohol tincture as well, so you can have that on hand. Alcohol tinctures are excellent for things like making drinks, so they are really nice to have on hand. You're going to want your pineapple leaf and three serrano rounds and a slice of pineapple for garnish, and of course, that is completely optional, but it does make the drink, even if it's just for yourself, it is does make it feel fancier.

Speaker 1: 14:35

Essentially, making this margarita is pretty simple, because you're going to, you're going to want to make the, the chili lime salt. You just add that to a shallow saucer and then you rim the glass with the lime wedge and then you dip the glass in the salt to create the rim. I love a spicy, salted rim like that just really finishes off the beverage. In my mind, and skipping this step you shouldn't skip this step, in my opinion. It just, if you're going to go to the trouble to make this beverage, do the rim as well and then, essentially to make the margarita, you're adding the pineapple juice, lime juice, serrano infused tequila triple sec. Oh, did I not mention that in the list? Oh, there it is. I forgot. That's one of the recipes or one of the things that you'll need.

Speaker 1: 15:22

The ingredients that you'll need for this recipe Cannabis infused tincture in a shaker tin, add the ice cover and shake it for 15 seconds or until it gets cold in your hand, and then you're going to strain it into a low ball glass filled with fresh ice, garnish with your pineapple leaf, your serrano rounds, your slice of pineapple and voila, and, of course there's the instructions to make the serrano infused tequila as well, because you do need to make this in advance and I suppose you could skip this step if you really wanted to. But it does add a little extra nuance and pepper notes to this beverage. So when making a spicy margarita, one of the best techniques to capture the heat this is what it says in the book is to infuse the hot peppers into the alcohol. Any hot pepper will work, but for the purposes of this recipe they're of course leaning towards the serrano peppers or the habaneros if you're feeling brave. And of course you can swap for the jalapenos, like I did disappointingly. But of course for some people that's going to be just spicy enough and perhaps something a little less spicy might make the tequila more versatile for other beverages you might be using this tequila for moving forward. So to prepare it, you're going to cut your peppers into rounds and then you're going to combine the cut peppers with a cup and a half of your tequila blanco, or whatever tequila you choose, into a sterilized mason jar and you're going to shake to combine and then let the mixture rest for 24 hours and when you're ready you strain the solids from the liquid and I ended up putting it back into the original tequila bottle.

Speaker 1: 17:08

I did label it as jalapeno infused so that somebody getting into the cupboard would know. I guess the only person going into the cupboard to get out the tequila would be myself, but it would help me to remember what I have done, because I always say what do I always say? People Label, label, label. You always forget. You do forget. I always think, oh, I'll remember that, no problem. And then I'm like shit, the one thing I'm supposed to remember, I don't. So I would definitely recommend that you label and that's it.

Speaker 1: 17:39

It's a pretty simple recipe. I mean, yeah, you got to take an extra day to infuse your tequila, but that's kind of a fun thing. And so often we talk about infusing cannabis into fats and oils. We forget you can infuse other things, like infusing hot peppers into tequila. You could probably also do this with vodka too. Or I have many times taken fresh herbs and infuse them into olive oils and then you have an olive oil with the fragrant taste of that fresh herb that I've infused into it, and that's lovely as well. So you can infuse lots of things into other things, not just cannabis. But of course, we like to focus on cannabis on this particular show.

Speaker 1: 18:20

I hope you try this recipe out. I'm going to be trying it out again this weekend and I'm sure I'll be making it, because I have all the ingredients now. I have the chili lime salt and I have the triple sec. I think I already had some of that on hand. Anyway, it's pretty easy to pick up some pineapple juice while next time you're at the grocery store, and so it's a simple beverage to make and very satisfying and a nice way to relax on a summer evening and very satisfying and a nice way to relax on a summer evening. And I do recommend that you pick up the cookbook. It's lovely and it's got a lot of great recipes, and I'm someone who really loves cannabis cookbooks unsurprisingly because I'm doing this show, but this one was really nice. I've seen some other High Times cookbooks that I wasn't really like. I don't know, they didn't really call to me, but this one is different. I really like it and I think you'll really enjoy the episode next week with Jamie as well.

Speaker 1: 19:09

I've been looking forward to interviewing her for my podcast actually for quite some time, because I have covered other recipes that she's done for other books that she's written. And she has written another beverages book because obviously she is known as the Herbm and she has a wine background, so she was really well-versed in the world of beverages, wine in particular, and cannabis as well. And she has written a book on CBD and that was another beautiful book too. That had a lot of other types of recipes, a lot of self-care recipes. I can't remember the one that I did, I think it was a massage oil that I did from that book, but she had a lot of other really lovely recipes for bath and body care and pets as well, if I recall. So I'll link to those in the show notes so that you can see what we're working with here and maybe there'll be something there that will interest you as far as your own edibles making journey goes.

Speaker 1: 20:07

I think that's it for this week. Of course, as always, if you're listening, please send the episode to someone that you think might also enjoy a spicy margarita on a hot summer night. And you can talk to me, of course, email, podcast, hotline, dm on Instagram and fan mail now, which is really quick and immediate. I love it and you can stay up to date with the email newsletter and I have a cookbook there that you can download for free when you sign up for the newsletter. And, of course, please consider using the products and services on the Marge recommends page. I'm your host, marge, and until next time, my friends, stay high.