#amplifymelanatedvoices | Black Food Justice l Recipe: Sourdough Pan de Coco
Issue No. 43
In this week’s edition, we hear from black voices from around the food world.
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We are taking inspiration from #amplifymelanatedvoices this week. The idea is that white people should remove themselves from the center of the narrative, educate themselves about structural racism and police brutality, and use whatever platform they have to share and lift up black voices and black creators. So all of the content we’re sharing in this week’s newsletter was created by black people, or highlights their stories and contributions to food culture.
Want to support the Black Lives Matter movement with direct action? Check out this resource card for ideas to get started.
Want to support and learn about black voices in the food world? Here are some places to start:
5 TED Talks to Watch
Gastronomy and the Social Justice Reality of Food | Michael Twitty
A Guerilla Gardener in South Central LA | Ron Finlay
The Next Big Thing is Coming from the Bronx, Again | John Gray
How Urban Agriculture is Transforming Detroit | Devita Davison
What We’re Getting Wrong in the Fight to End Hunger | Jasmine Crowe
5 Instas to Follow
A creative young chef based in Florida: @kiacooks | some agitprop with your dinner: @from_lagos | the carb porn you need: @brooklynbreadnerd | goings on in the black food world: @blackculinaryhistory | fab original recipes with so much style: @kianomoju
Also check out Samin Nosrat’s feed, where she’s shared dozens of talented black food makers and thinkers to follow
5 Cookbooks to Buy
Jubilee by Toni Tipton-Martin | Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking
Cooking Solo by Klancy Miller | The Fun of Cooking for Yourself
Yolele! by Pierre Thiam | Recipes from the Heart of Senegal
Vegetable Kingdom by Bryant Terry | The Abundant World of Vegan Recipes
Black Girl Baking by Jerrelle Guy | Wholesome Recipes Inspired by a Soulful Upbringinglove,
Jackie
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Get Involved
Black food justice organizations to support
One of the best ways we can support black people right now is with our dollars (if possible). Civil Eats and Grub Street both have extensive guides for how to put your money to good use. Here are five color-led organizations doing important work around the country.
National Black Food & Justice Alliance
National Black Food and Justice Alliance is a coalition of Black-led organizations working towards cultivating and advancing Black leadership, building Black self-determination, Black institution building and organizing for food sovereignty, land and justice.
Soul Fire Farm | Grafton, N.Y.
Soul Fire Farm is a BIPOC*-centered community farmcommitted to ending racism and injustice in the food system. We raise and distribute life-giving food as a means to end food apartheid. With deep reverence for the land and wisdom of our ancestors, we work to reclaim our collective right to belong to the earth and to have agency in the food system.
SÜPRMARKT | Los Angeles, Calif.
SÜPRMARKT is a low cost organic grocery servicing low income communities in LA.
We operate weekly, providing 100% organic produce to make great health and healing available in the communities which need it most. Since its inception in July 2016, SÜPRMARKT has provided more than 25,000 pounds of organic fruit, veggies, and seeds affordably in South LA, a community which has 1.3 million residents but only 60 grocery stores.
The Okra Project | New York, N.Y.
The Okra Project is a collective that seeks to address the global crisis faced by Black Trans people by bringing home cooked, healthy, and culturally specific meals and resources to Black Trans People wherever we can reach them.
Detroit Black Community Food Security Network | Detroit, Mich.
DBCFSN works to build self-reliance, food security and justice in Detroit’s Black community by influencing public policy, engaging in urban agriculture, promoting healthy eating, encouraging cooperative buying and directing youth towards careers in food-related fields.
Fresh Links
🗺️I’m a black climate expert. Racism derails our efforts to save the planet. | Washington Post
Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is a marine biologist and policy advisor with a forthcoming book on climate solutions. She explains the inextricable link between concern for the climate and anti-racism. People of color are currently bearing the burden of climate change at disproportionately high levels, often because of the placement of unregulated polluting infrastructure like oil refineries in their communities. This leads to greater instances of sickness and loss of life, which we’ve seen in the way that covid-19 has swept through black communities. It’s no wonder black people are much more likely to care about climate change than their white counterparts (57 to 49 percent).
Another loss is one of talent and attention, which we so desperately need if we are going to fight climate change:
Even at its most benign, racism is incredibly time consuming. Black people don’t want to be protesting for our basic rights to live and breathe. We don’t want to constantly justify our existence. Racism, injustice and police brutality are awful on their own, but are additionally pernicious because of the brain power and creative hours they steal from us. I think of one black friend of mine who wanted to be an astronomer, but gave up that dream because organizing for social justice was more pressing. Consider the discoveries not made, the books not written, the ecosystems not protected, the art not created, the gardens not tended.
📖Beyond Soul Food | LA Review of Books
Just last week, Toni Tipton-Martin won her second James Beard award for her cookbook “Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking”
The cookbook serves as a follow-up to another James Beard winner “The Jemima Code”, published in 2016, which examines the history of African-American cookbooks dating all the way back to 1827. “Jubilee” takes those historic cookbooks — Tipton-Martin likely has the world’s largest private collection of black cookbooks — and uses them as inspiration for a volume of recipes.
Tipton-Martin emphasizes that African-American culinary traditions are much larger than just soul food. She loves soul food, but its prominence means most people think that black cuisine in the country always has been centered on home cooking and survival. Her book, featuring numerous citations from her cookbook collection, provides a wide lens view of African American cooking by showing the recipes of black professional chefs that date back 200 years. “Jubilee” has recipes from gingerbread waffles to Caribbean roast pork to lemon cake to “Senegalese-influenced, peanut sauce–braised lamb shanks.”
⬆️A family’s Minneapolis restaurant burned down. They still support the protests. | Washington Post
On her drive to work on May 25, Hafsa Islam saw a man in South Minnesota detained by police, his face in agony. George Floyd would be dead minutes later.
Islam is the teenage daughter of the owner of Gandhi Mahal, a popular restaurant and cultural hub, where activists meet for interfaith efforts on climate change. During the first protests, the restaurant served as a makeshift safe house and a place for volunteer medics to treat the wounded. But later that week, the building caught fire and burned down. Islam said she was furious to learn all her father’s hard work had “gone up in smoke.” Then she overheard him on the phone telling a friend, “Let my building burn. Justice needs to be served. Put those officers in jail.”
Her father grew up under a dictatorship in Bangladesh, and understood the dangers of a police state and also the anger of the community. His daughter too realized she could “empathize with the fury and frustration” of the protesters — and more important than the restaurant was the solidarity against and dismantling of the systems that killed people like George Floyd.
Pan de Coco
The sourdough world is all white hands, white voices, and white flour. Miami-based bread darling Bryan Ford is on a mission to change that. He’s got an award-winning baking blog. His book “New World Sourdough” is about to drop (and available for preorder). And just this week, he has committed to donating 5 percent of his book royalties to social justice organizations.
Bryan gave us permission to share his recipe for Pan de Coco, a delicious Honduran bread packed with coconut. It’s from his website ArtisanBryan.com, where you can also find fantastic sourdough recipes for beignets, chocolate babka, brioche, and much more.
Ingredients
for the levain
85 grams mature sourdough starter
50 grams King Arthur Organic Whole Wheat Flour
150 grams King Arthur Organic Bread Flour
170 grams warm water
for the Dough
225 grams King Arthur Organic All-Purpose Flour
225 grams King Arthur Organic Bread Flour
100 grams water
200 grams organic coconut milk (canned is fine)
200 grams levain from the build above
50 grams shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened is fine, depending on your preference).
28 grams unsalted butter, softened
28 grams sugar
10 grams Kosher salt
step-by-step
[TO MAKE THE LEVAIN] Mix [levain ingredients] together and let it sit at room temperature for about 4 hours, or until roughly doubled in size.
Warm the coconut milk and the water slightly, on the stovetop or in the microwave is fine. Just make sure it isn't boiling or too hot. Combine into a bowl.
Add the levain and dissolve into the warm coconut and water mixture.
Use your hands to mix in all other ingredients until incorporated. Turn it out onto the countertop and knead with your palm until it is smooth. Alternatively, you can mix it well and just let it be or use a KitchenAid mixer with the paddle attachment. Either way is fine, just make sure you aren't overworking the dough.
Let this mixture ferment in the bowl for 5 or 6 hours. You don't need to stretch and fold this dough. You just need to look for an increase in volume and a nice, smooth surface. If you don't want to bake on the same day, you can put the bowl in the fridge and let it continue to ferment in a cold environment for up to 12 hours and then move on to the next step.
After you're done with your initial fermentation, it's time to shape and proof. Flour your work surface and dump out your dough.
Divide into three pieces. Roll each piece into a log and place each log horizontally in a greased baking tin. You can grease your tin with coconut oil or butter. Let this proof for about 3-4 hours.
30 Minutes before the proof is complete, preheat your oven to 375 Fahrenheit.
Once the loaf is done proofing, baste with coconut oil and top with a liberal amount of shredded coconut.
Bake for 40 minutes, or until golden brown. You may need to rotate your pan halfway through the bake.
Remember that this bread is BEST when eaten hot out of the oven. Enjoy.
Follow Bryan on Instagram at @artisanbryan.
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Sunshine + Microbes team
Jackie Vitale is the current Chef-in-Residence at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. and co-founder of the Florida Ferment Fest. Her newsletter explores the intersection of food, culture, environment and community.
Matt Levin is a freelance reporter based in Colombia. He edits Sunshine + Microbes and contributes other scraps to each issue.