Dear Bread Fans,
Today, I’m starting a series here with my heart of hearts, Ellie Markovitch. Ellie and I are in steady conversation about food and the many layered meanings of cooking and feeding. We invite you to follow this series, an inquiry that Ellie describes below. Welcome!
— Amy
As a storyteller and cook, I (Ellie) use my own journey and life as material to start conversations. To make time to center my art’s practice, is a daily balance. In order to work on a project, I have to prioritize my time and sometimes it is difficult when there are so few hours in the day left after I do all I “need to do.”
So that is why I choose to engage in creative work during lent, a period where people give up something, “fast” or “abstain” as a tool for personal reflection, self-discipline, and to prioritize spiritual connection. Many religions practice fasting. Since I was a child, I was encouraged to give up something to symbolize the sacrifice Jesus made during his 40 days of fasting in the desert.
Some of my recent lent season projects were “half-cup of sourdough”, “living with corn” and “host” which happened after my dad passed away. I try to write everyday and post publicly as it happens, but sometimes I share with a smaller audience. Many months or years later, these themes and reflections became community workshops and continue to live on. This work is my personal attempt to keep track of the meaning and beauty of small actions.
The way I go about it is that I wait for a word to come to me at the beginning of Winter. Then I sit with the word or phrase and let it grow inside of me. I share it with my family and a few friends. I do not do preliminary writing or take photos, but just reflect what that word means to me, how it connects with my life, with this moment, and the world around me. This year’s word is Retrieval.
Retrieval work connects us simultaneously with the past and future.
Retrieve means to get back, regain, or recover. What and how do I remember?
To retrieve something is to bring back or bring forth what may be lost or hidden. The recovery can involve physical or mental work. I prefer when I can do both. I enjoy reflecting with action and in my case often making foods that reinforce my personal history and identity– what makes me. What makes us?
This year I am going to spend 40 days retrieving flavors, ingredients, stories, methods and traditions through personal food memories, cooking process, community connections, but maybe I will expand and have a little fun with the idea of my own made up food legends, and playing with food rumors.
Thank you for reading this journal. Let’s retrieve…
Day 1: March 5, 2025
I grew up eating rice and beans everyday. Every day? Yes, every day and often twice a day. I grew up in Brazil and I love this staple.
“You have to finish at least your rice and beans” was the rule, because if we did, we would have enough energy for the day.
Yesterday I was making miso thinking about how Malika Groen guides us in her book “Cosy Koji” to “try to press the air out while rolling into a ball shape.”
This made me think of my childhood. I have been with this method before, countless times, pressing rice and beans together. Eating pressed rice and beans.
My Mom (not just my mom it turned out) calls them “Capitão” – little balls made by the hand that was feeding me. In my case it was delivered straight into my mouth, a perfect mouthful for us kids standing around. It was also a good idea to speed us up when we were taking too long at the table. We went to school in the afternoon and we always ate lunch at home. My family is from Bahia and farinha, dried roasted cassava meal, is ready food. And it brings rice and beans together really well!
Mateus Habib wrote his thesis about capitão and some of the interviews were similar to my childhood experience.
My grownup self likes these little balls with “pimenta de cheiro” fragrant chillies, and “green smell” – a lively mixture of cilantro and/or parsley and green onions.
For the capitão mix:
1 cup of cooked rice
1 cup of cooked beans
1 caramelized onions in pork fat (optional)
1 cup of cassava flour
1 cup of chopped herbs like parsley, cilantro, green onions, etc.
1 mild and sweet multi-purpose pepper like cubanelle or hot sauce
When I was making the Miso, I followed a ratio of miso I made with Nickolas Reppenning 1:2 soybeans:rice koji + 5% salt of total weight of legume and koji. I am planning to age this 3-6 months. Will this ingredient make its way into my capitão? I’d say it’s pretty likely. You can find Nickolas Reppenning's videos on Cultures Group, Ken Fornataro's fermentation compendium -- you can find some of my work there, too.
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