Friday 10 October 2008

2 Recipes for Bhang

Not many people know about Bhang, a traditional Indian drink with cannabis as a crucial ingredient. During the festival of Holi, bhang is consumed extensively - it is a festival where all restrictions are forbidden, so the consumption of cannabis is deemed appropriate!

I found these two recipes over at http://www.holifestival.org/bhang-recipes.html - can't wait to try them!

Flavoured Bhang

Ingredients:

2 cups water
1 ounce marijuana (fresh leaves and flowers of a female plant preferred)
4 cups warm milk
2 tablespoons blanched and chopped almonds
1/8 teaspoon garam masala (a mixture of cloves, cinnamon, and cardamon)
1/4 teaspoon powdered ginger
1/2 to 1 teaspoon rosewater
1 cup sugar

Preparation:

Bring the water to a rapid boil and pour into a clean teapot. Remove any seeds or twigs from the marijuana, add it to the teapot and cover. Let this brew for about 7 minutes.
Strain the water and marijuana through a piece of muslin cloth, collect the water and save.

Take the leaves and flowers and squeeze between your hands to extract any liquid that remains. Add this to the water.

Place the leaves and flowers in a mortar and add 2 teaspoons warm milk. Slowly but firmly grind the milk and leaves together. Gather up the marijuana and squeeze out as much milk as you can.

Repeat this process until you have used about 1/2 cup of milk. Collect all the milk that has been extracted and place in a bowl. By this time the marijuana will have turned into a pulpy mass.

Add the chopped almonds and some more warm milk. Grind this in the mortar until a fine paste is formed. Squeeze this paste and collect the extract as before. Repeat a few more times until all that is left are some fibers and nut meal. Discard the residue.

Combine all the liquids that have been collected, including the water the marijuana was brewed in. Add to this the garam masala, dried ginger and rosewater. Add the sugar and remaining milk.

Chill, serve, and enjoy.

Hot Buttered Bhang

Ingredients:

half a cube (1/8 pound) of butter or ghee
1/3 - 1/2 oz. Of Marijuana Leaves
8 ounces of Vodka (That's right, this one has vodka in it!)
1-2 pinches of Cardamom seeds
Honey

Preparation:

In a pan, melt the butter or ghee. Break up the marijuana leaves into the pan. Once the butter and leaves are hot and sizzling, add in 8 ounces of vodka. Be careful that the hot butter doesn't make the mixture splatter. Pour the Vodka in swiftly to avoid problems. Continue boiling the mixture for roughly 30 more seconds, stirring simultaneously. Add a pinch or two or powdered cardamom seed while boiling.

Once mixture has been boiled to desired amount, strain the fluids and mash the contents through a strainer. You should use a tool like a spoon to try and squeeze all the juices out. Throw away the mush, or reboil to try and bet more juices out. Pour the liquid into two 4 ounce wine glasses.

No comments: