My love for savory cannabis-infused dishes is undying. I love to cook and even more I love to get stoned and eat. This combination of the two things I love the most often results in some interesting recipe trials. This recipe is easily one of my favorite go-tos when I have time to make a large meal and am looking to incorporate the wonderful benefits of cannabis into my meal.
This meal is inspired by my Haitian roots and the recipe is adapted from what I learned from my mother growing up. Haitian food is definitely an all-day project but well worth the wait.
For the griot you’ll need:
- 1-2 lbs boneless pork shoulder
- 2 cups distilled white vinegar
- Salt
- A bunch of thyme
- 2 tbsp garlic
- 2 Lemons or limes (sour orange if you want to be authentic)
- 4-5 Scotch bonnet peppers
- 2 quartz cannabis infused olive oil
First, you’re going to need to butcher your meat. Start by taking off any excess fat on the pork shoulder. I like to leave little bits of it, because that soft bit of fried gelatinous fat mixed with the tender fried pork is absolute heaven and a hallmark of good griot. Once your meat is cleaned up, cut into cubed chunks for easier consumption. Try to keep the chunks the same size to allow for even cooking.
Place the meat into a bowl and sprinkle a generous few pinches of salt all over. Keep in mind this is 2 pounds of meat we need to season. Once well-seasoned, add in a bunch of plucked thyme. This flavor is indicative of Haitian food. My mom used thyme in almost everything. Add in two tablespoons of fresh chopped garlic. On top of this, squeeze the juice of two limes or sour oranges. My mom had this industrial sized gallon of sour orange juice she always used when marinating meat. If you can’t find this, you can just as easily use lemon or lime, but don’t skip it because citrus is an important flavor here.
Cut up 4-5 Scotch bonnet peppers (depending on the heat level of them) and add into the bowl, mixing everything to combine. Lastly, cover the whole affair in two cups of distilled white vinegar. Allow this mixture to marinate in the fridge or on the kitchen counter for at least 4 hours to overnight. This is a great time to cook your brown rice and red beans.
Once your meat is marinated, remove from the marinade and allow a big pot of cannabis-infused olive oil to heat up. You’ll need about two quartz since we’re deep frying. Fry the pork a few batches at a time, allowing the meat to cook for at least 5 minutes submerged in the oil to ensure it is cooked through.
For the plantains:
- 2 ripe plantains
- ½ cup distilled white vinegar
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- Salt (to taste)
Peel and cut up two ripe plantains into evenly sized 1 ½ inch to 2-inch-thick pieces. Put into a bowl and sprinkle with salt and garlic powder. Cover this with half a cup of white vinegar and allow to sit while your oil heats up.
Heat an inch of cannabis-infused olive oil in a skillet or saucepan and slowly add in your plantain chunks. Fry until golden brown but not all the way cooked through. Remove from the oil and press each chunk between two plates to create a flattened plantain disc. Dunk this disc into the seasoned vinegar for 1-2 min. Don’t let it stay too long or the plantains will turn to mush. Fry the flattened disc a second time until beautifully crisp. Remove from the oil and sprinkle with another dash of salt before serving.
You can eat griot and plantains by themselves or with rice and beans, as well as pikliz. Pikliz is a spicy fermented shredded carrot, bell pepper, onion and cabbage mixture that pairs incredibly well with the greasy, fatty meat and the crisp plantain. You’ll have to prepare it at least 4 days in advance though. I tried it 3 days in and it’s really not as good. The longer you let pikliz sit in the fridge, the better it gets.
This recipe really reminds me of home and even though it’s a labor of love, it’s super worth it. Who will you make this recipe for? Let me know in the comments below!
