Hamachi, smoked avocado, N.Y. Diesel, with fermented plum & cucumber

When I cook fish I use white pepper only; it’s more delicate and visually, you don’t get big black specks in the dish.

Umeboshi, or fermented plum, is fantastic. It has loads of medicinal properties to it. The first time I came across it was when a homeopathic doctor my mom took me to see put some in my bellybutton. My mom got some and I’m like ‘mom, I’ll eat it ‘cause it’s really good, but cancel the bellybutton action!’ I came across it again in Japan and now I’ve found it here and I love it!

If you don’t get enough of the umeboshi flavour in the finished dressing, stick another plum in and re-blend. A recipe is a guideline, not a command, so go with your own taste. The same goes for the drugs you use. There can never be a one-dose-fits-all, so measure and record what you use, start cautiously and build up.

The NYC Diesel is a high-THC variety with a great smell so we used it two ways. We vaporized some of it into the room just prior to serving the dish, and consumed it. If you can’t get Diesel, ask your friendly neighbourhood dealer if they have anything high in THC with a good floral note. This fits well with the avocado and umeboshi. A Lemon Haze will also do nicely.

Serves 4

Hamachi (also known as amberjack)

200 grams cut into 50-gram fillets per person. (Make sure you get a loin not steaks) • 20 ml. oil

Smoked avocado

1 ripe avocado • 50 ml. grape seed oil or any neutral oil • 50 ml. cold water • 1/2 lemon, juiced • t.t. salt, white pepper

Umeboshi dressing 
Light soy 30 ml • Mirin 30 ml • 1 small shallot • 4 plums, seeds taken out • 50 ml water • 50 ml grape seed oil

N.Y. Diesel
0.20 grams per serving • This course calls for a good sativa - we need THC

Garnish:
Sprinkle with black sea salt • Shiso, sliced a la Julienne • Purslane or lambs tongue / 2 leaves • Pink radish / 3 slices per portion

Hot pan flash-sear Hamachi on all sides and allow to rest (it should still be a bit cold on serving; this is a cold dish).

Split avocado in half, remove seed, peel skin and lay whole half on rack. Smoke for 3 mins.

Take all ingredients, place in blender and blend until smooth and emulsified. Re-season and spoon into a squeeze bottle (there should be a balance to the avocado, lemon and salt).

Blend water, shallots, soy, and mirin until smooth, add plums and re-blend. Season, add oil, and re-season (the plums are already salted). 

Fine grind in grinder and place in small bowl, wrap in plastic. This will be a garnish.

We also suggest, if you have a forced-air herbal vaporizer such as a Volcano or Herbalizer, use it as an aerator and vape some of the same herb in the air before you eat, as a kind of herb-food paring. Similarly, or alternatively, if you serve this dish in a deep bowl, you can cover it in plastic cling film and fill the bowl with aromatic vapor. Then when you lift it up to eat you get one big waft in your face; it’s not going to get you high, but is part of the experience.

Take the hamachi and slice into 5 x 1-cm thin pieces and lay evenly on the plate. Take the avocado in the squeeze bottle and dab a dime-sized blob on each piece of fish. Sprinkle a little sea salt on. Lightly dab umeboshi dressing around the plate (not one big blob). Put a piece of each of shiso, purslane on each piece, and the 3 bits of radish.

The finishing touch: lightly sprinkle that 0.2 grams of Diesel you pre-prepared, take your torch – you do not want to burn the weed or cook the fish – lightly warm the weed until it just starts to smoke, then stop. You’ll get a depth of flavour and will have awakened the THC.