Sashay Magazine / May 2010 / Sustainable Summer

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Sustainable Summer

There is something snack-ish about summer. Warmth and wanderlust make me want to feed on tapas and tiffin, little plates and street food, munchy-crunchy things that can slip into backpack pockets to fuel urban explorations or country rambles, and small sweet treats to accompany an afternoon stolen with a much-anticipated book or a much-missed friend.

 

That is what I crave in summer. Miniature memories of fairgrounds and festivals, beaches and ballgames, travel and tea-time. Little bites with just a few flavors. Simple food with playful possibilities that satisfy soul and stomach simultaneously – as Winnie-the-Pooh said, “a little smackerel of something.”

 

Full meals have their place - lingering lunches and dinners that flow into the dimness of late evening. But I love a little this, a little that - something small enough that even in this dripping-with-distraction world invites my full attention to it, hearing the story the flavors are telling me.

 

I come to this naturally - my father was a skillful snacker. He didn't cook. He did try. He manned the grill at birthday parties but only seemed able to produce food with an asphalt-black exterior and a puzzlingly raw interior. He did, however, know how to assemble a snack. A little of this, a little of that, not much altogether, but a combination of flavors that marked a particular moment. He could make a one-time pairing of party leftovers and pantry staples sing, or elevate a forgotten slice of cheese and a lonely cracker with a sculptural sliver of fruit and a stripe of something spicy. Professionally, he was an architect, and in his way, in those quiet kitchen moments, he was designing and building experiences. Small edible ones, but soulful experiences nonetheless. 

 

And ultimately, that is so much of what sustainable eating is about. What will sustain us as individuals, communities, and the world we live in is food that connects us to our hunger, to our history, to the land and people who grew and prepared the food, to stories and culture. Soulful food. Food with a sense of poetry and play, however simple that might be.

 

For me, some of that simple playfulness comes from reconnecting with the long-gone childhood sense of endless summer.  I want to eat things that connect me to summers past, that let smells and tastes pull happy memories into the present moment.  As a small child, I was bundled into my cotton pajamas, given a blanket and a pillow, tucked into the corner of the backseat with my sister, and driven off, literally into the sunset, to watch a double feature at the local drive-in movie theater. That theater is long gone, as are any memories I have of what we saw there – I suspect I rarely stayed awake after the footage of the dancing hot dogs that advertised the circus-striped concession stand gave way to the previews. But the air smelled sweet and salty and the crackling of the movie speaker only made my dreams all the better.

 

SIMPLE, SUSTAINABLE, AND SLIGHTLY SOPHISTICATED

 

I still love the retro feel of drive-in theaters and classic neighborhood cinemas. And I'm not the only one – the current proliferation of urban outdoor film screenings builds on much the same fascination. And most of the time, if I were to choose my ideal old-school movie snack combo, I'd pick popcorn, chocolate, and a creamy shake. My super-simple homemade takes on classic movie food each have just three ingredients, can be made in 10 minutes or less (not including chilling time), and offer many possibilities for memorable variations.

 

SMOKED SALT POPCORN

The smokiness is reminiscent of relaxing around a campfire, sparks from solstice bonfires flying against the sky, popping popcorn in a vintage metal popper over a wood-fire in the Rockies as the sun dips behind the mountains...

Ingredients: organic popcorn; extra virgin olive or nut oil; naturally smoked salt

Eco advantages: buying and popping your own popcorn, gets you ALOT of snack mileage with very little packaging and fewer fuel miles per serving; buying from small organic farms supports sustainable agriculture;

1. Buy organic popcorn (conventionally-raised popcorn can carry a lot of chemical residue) 
2. Pop it (use your favorite method: I have a shallow bowl and a glass dome that I use in the microwave for a low-energy/no waste/fun-to-watch version of air-popping);
3. Drizzle it with a wonderful, fragrant oil or melted grass-fed butter or ghee (a fruity or peppery olive oil, a pure nut oil, organic coconut oil) & sprinkle on smoked salt to taste.

 

Variations: If smokiness isn't your preferred flavor, try clean-tasting sea salt. If you prefer an earthy saltiness, try a sprinkling of nutritional yeast flakes or finely grated local cheese. Mixing freshly popped popcorn with dried fruit and nuts makes for a light, fragrant trail mix (the warmth brings out the flavors). Or stir up with peanuts and caramel into homemade Cracker Jack for a backyard baseball game.

 

 

 

TEN-MINUTE TRUFFLES

A vacation in a bite – creamy, tropical, luxurious. A reminder to pause and let yourself (or a stressed friend!) drift into relaxed island rhythm.

Ingredients: dark chocolate, coconut milk, shredded coconut

Eco advantages: buying fair trade organic chocolate supports the health and socio-economic well-being of the growers and protects the environment where cacao is grown.

1. Buy organic fair trade chocolate, the darkest that will still give you that “aah, chocolate” feeling (try 72-80%: a higher cocoa percentage makes for a more memorable truffle)
2. Gently melt the chocolate (broken into small pieces) into an equal volume of organic coconut milk by heating the milk, pouring over the chocolate, and stirring until fully combined and completely smooth. Let cool in fridge until completely cold and set to soft-solid consistency (uncovered, to prevent condensation)
3. Scoop a teaspoonful at a time, roll into a ball between your palms, and then roll in shredded coconut to coat.

           

Variations: If you are feeling nutty, substitute your favorite nut milk plus a spoonful of nut butter for the coconut milk, and chopped nuts for the shredded coconut – wonderful with almond milk, peanut butter, and chopped almonds and peanuts for a grown-up twist on the peanut butter cup!

 

 

STARRY NIGHT SHAKE

Retro purity – flashback to the days before lab-created smoothies, back to when shakes were all about simple fresh taste (and all the funny sounds you could make with a straw).

Ingredients: local fruit, natural plain yogurt (try grassfed goatsmilk yogurt), local honey

Eco advantages: freezing excess summer fruit purchases reduces waste. Buying local honey supports sustainable agriculture; buying larger containers of plain yogurt and flavoring the way you want saves packaging.

1.      Find your local farmers' market and buy seasonal soft fruits (i.e. berries, melon, stone fruits), and if available, local honey and local farm yogurt (if not, choose from the selection at your local natural foods store – and if you have a little time, it's also surprisingly easy to make your own yogurt)

2.      Eat some fruit while still warm from the sun, then cut up and freeze one or more of your favorites on a tray for several hours

3.      Put equal amounts of fruit and yogurt together in a blender, with honey to taste and blend ‘til smooth and frothy (if your yogurt is especially thick, or you prefer a shake you can slurp up a skinny straw, add a little water to reach ideal consistency).

Variations:

Process the whole blenderful in an ice-cream maker for fabulous fresh frozen yogurt. Or substitute melted chocolate for the fruit and chill – an addictive adult twist on kids' chocolate pudding.

 

Sharon Abra Hanen is a writer and creativity coach with a Proustian fondness for connections between food, memory, and identity. She lives with a vintage Oster glass-jug blender, four well-worn Winnie-the-Pooh cookbooks, and a charming amount of chocolate. She blogs about food, writing, and the creative life at wellfedpoet.wordpress.com