Alright. Well first up this morning,
we are in the kitchen for an
experience that's more than
just cooking for Andrea Pons.
It's all about family and
keeping them together.
Food stylist and immigration rights
advocate turned cookbook author.
Mamacita is Andreas debut cookbook
and she's here to share mucho
gusto ones that I have in Russia.
What do you think it is?
Thank you for having me.
I'm so excited.
I am thrilled to have you here.
Everything smells good already.
What are we cooking today,
by the way?
OK,
so I'm making my childhood favorite,
which is empty coladas.
I think a lot of people are
familiar with enchiladas,
but I haven't seen one
single Mexican restaurant,
at least here in Seattle,
that serves Enfrijoladas.
Coladas. Coladas bean enchiladas,
basically. With bean sauce.
Exactly. Yeah.
And it's really one of my favorites
just because it's so versatile.
So I'm making a vegetarian.
Option today, if you're vegan,
you can switch the Klima in the
cheese for vegan crema and cheese.
And if you like a little bit more substance,
yeah you can add shredded chicken
to the inside of the enchiladas.
OK. So you can make it anything you want.
Yeah. I want to talk about
when getting get to this,
but I really quickly wanna wanna
touch on the book, mamacita,
because when you told me the story,
it gave me the chills.
You had started collecting your
grandmother's recipes as a as a
way to keep the family traditions
alive because she has Alzheimer's.
But that's right, there was another.
Reason that you wanted to make sure you
got this book out there and in stores.
Tell us why
100%. So Long story short,
my family has actually,
today is our 17th anniversary since
we migrated to the United States.
It's also my dad's birthdays,
which to me is really special that
he chose to do that on his birthday.
But I started the cookbook.
Like you said, my grandma has Alzheimer's.
I grew up super close to her.
This is actually one of her recipes,
and with her Alzheimer's,
I didn't want to lose those memories.
I didn't want to.
The food that I grew up eating.
Fast forward to 2020,
I receive a letter of deportation
after having spent four years even
more applying for my immigration.
By that point I had been in
the country for 16 years,
so it was really scary that
that could happen to me and I I
thought if I could get deported,
then my family could also.
So Long story short,
I spent my entire life savings,
which was 10 grand at the time,
hiring an immigration attorney.
Help me save my life here.
A few months later,
I was in the USCIS offices,
which is the immigration offices,
applying for my citizenship,
taking my citizenship test,
and that same day in the parking lot,
I knew that I was going to be the gate
for my parents to also gain status,
which happened to that point.
My parents have had to make the
really difficult choice of choosing
to either stay together as a family in
the United States with my sister and I,
or leave, go to Mexico,
see their.
Grandmothers,
because if they left they
would not be able to come back.
Exactly. So they had to choose between
their own mothers or their daughters,
which was really hard and really difficult.
So that same day, sitting in the parking
lot after getting my citizenship,
I knew I had to do something to
help raise funds for my parents.
Immigration, which was going
to be another 20 grand.
And immediately I know I'm like,
I have to put this cookbook out.
This is no longer going to be
what you can do to help raise money for them,
exactly. It went from being
a passion project to.
To be in my purpose.
Wow. Yeah, OK, alright.
Not crying right now, I know,
but you're telling me I'm so.
We can blame it here.
Not crying. You're crying.
Yes. Ohh my gosh.
Well I'm so glad that you
have been able to create this.
Can you just give us an update?
How what's going on with
your parents right now?
Yes. Ohh. OK so now now we
might actually start crying.
So I self published the cookbook last year.
I was able to sell 500 copies on my
own before a publisher approached me,
the priest and architectural press,
which is who I am published with now
because of them and because of my community
and all the support that we received.
This year I was able to start paying
an attorney to help my parents process,
and I'm shaky now,
but my mom was able to be reunited
with my grandma for the first time
in 16 years this Mother's Day.
Which is still blows me away
when I talk about it.
And my sister has now been
able to go to Mexico, too.
She went with my mom this year,
got reunited with my grandmother.
I had the opportunity to go last year
and the last one to go is my dad.
Happy birthday, dad.
He'll get to go next month and see his
mom for the first time in 17 years.
So yeah, they're beautiful,
grandma.
Yeah,
that was my grandmother
last time. Last time, my soccer
here in the United States. I was 16
at the time and I got to see her last year.
This Is Us reunited.
Oh my God, the first time.
And you know she she can't
really open her eyes.
She can't really talk.
But I I know she's there.
I know she's really proud.
Yeah she
is. She's living with
me through this recipes.
So I love it. OK alright.
Well I am, I'm I I just had to
ask you all about that one.
Now you have about 3 minutes
left to make this.
Yes, but I think we can do it
cause you started with the case.
We've got onions. Yes, I'll
walk people quickly through it.
So right here we start sauteing one
small onion and two Serrano Peppers.
OK, I added two. And scarlet cloves.
And then I just added a half a
teaspoon of smoked paprika and
a half a teaspoon of cumin.
OK, so this is your base for the salsa,
the Serrano Peppers. I keep the seats
in because I like a little kick.
This isn't too spicy.
You're just going to feel it after the bite.
It's like an after.
Ohh, I'd like it.
There's spice once you've sauteed
this for a few minutes.
I've been sauteing for about five.
Behind the scenes we're going to add about
3 cups of black beans and three cups.
OK, and they're broth, so these
are. Don't. Don't.
Even so I can use can. Fantastic,
because I'm not making my own.
Means clear. Yeah.
Canned, not clammed.
Whoops. Canned black beans
in their broth. It's about 2 cups.
I mean, OK, it's three cups.
What about two cans?
OK, you're gonna add that to your skillet.
You're gonna turn up the heat just a
little bit to bring it up to a simmer,
and then you're going to
add 2 cups of chicken stock.
So I have my chicken stock ready.
OK, we're adding that here.
And again, you said that if
you wanted to make this vegan
or vegetarian or anything.
You can definitely alter it.
I like that aspect cause
everything is simple and I feel
like aside from the Peppers,
I think I have everything
here in my cupboard at home,
so that's nice. It's really
easy to make. You can also remove the
Peppers if you don't want a spicy at all.
When I used to eat it as a little kid,
my mom would only use the dried Peppers.
So right here.
This also goes into the sauce,
but it gets blended later in the blender.
Yeah, OK, we have two guajillo Chiles
and one ancho, so these come dry.
You're gonna boil these in two.
Lots of water until they puff up.
It's about 7 or 8 minutes. OK.
These get added to your blender.
Once this is ready,
this gets also added to the blender.
And what you end up with is this sauce right
here is this beautiful sauce right here.
I actually have it ready. OK.
And right here you're gonna
add a little bit of oil.
You can tell there's some oil on the side.
OK, that's what.
The tortillas don't stick,
and so the sauce doesn't
burn. OK, so we're gonna put
these tortillas. In here.
Exactly. Yeah. Alright.
Yes, please go ahead.
OK. So I'm gonna take, you know,
and it's hard to work with it,
really soak, let it really soak.
OK. And corn tortillas,
it's always hard to work with them.
Yeah. So it's nice to get them
nice and yeah, nice and juicy.
Another tip that I like to do too
for those folks at home is I actually
like to heat up the tortillas
ahead of time in another skillet.
You want to make sure that
they don't get super rough.
Like you're just making
sure that they're flexible,
exactly what you're talking about.
Tortillas can sometimes kind of break,
so you just want it to be flexible
so we can leave that there
simmering for a few seconds more.
Yeah, that's looking really good.
And then you can tell it's cracking.
And that's because they're not warm yet.
So I do suggest heating them up.
Yeah, this one.
Then this will happen.
That's OK. That's OK.
We can put it on this plate.
I'm still gonna eat it. Yes. Alright.
We don't have much time left.
But what once we get these nice and
juicy and just leave it there first?
Just leave it alone.
Just leave it alone. A Daisy.
No, it's all good.
So once these are ready,
what you're going to do is
you're gonna take your tortilla,
put it on a plate.
We have some shredded queso fresco here.
It's crumbled.
It usually comes like
this when you buy it.
OK. Ohh perfect. Yeah.
So you crumble it up,
you just crumble it with your
hands. We're going to fill up the tortilla.
With the queso fresco,
you roll it up and and then you add Creamer.
I have it here already.
You can also do sour cream at home.
If you can't find Mexican crema,
just add a little bit of water.
I like this. Little bottles.
OK, I'm gonna try this real quick.
Umm, I wanna know.
I wanna hear what you
think about the kick at the
end. I don't really got me. Ohh,
it does. It has a kick in the ends at
the end. So if you want it less
spicy you can open up your
serranos and remove the seeds.
You get rid of the suit. Yeah. Also
it's OK. The the shredded lettuce.
Ohh that little freshness,
it'll help cut that
in the Crema health. Cut the the spiciness.
I have to say we're about out of time,
but I have to try. May I try your this
is your grandmothers orange bundt
cakes. Ohh. My grandma lost my
grandpa at the age of 40. Hmm.
And she started a bakery called Espanola when
my grandma and my mom was ten years old.
Which is the same age I was when we migrated.
And I have a knife right here.
Perfect. OK. You have the slice? Yes.
And this was my grandma's most popular cake.
She used to sell it.
My uncles used to deliver
it to local bakeries.
And she would sell out by the end
of each day. Love it. OK.
Let me give this a try.
This looks beautiful. This really.
Recommend eating it with little
coffee in the morning. Definitely.
We'll cut the spice. That is amazing.
And it's not too sweet.
It is perfect with coffee.
Yes. And that recipe is also in the book.
I it's my grandma's legend and I got it.
I needed to have it in.
Andrea, thank you so much for
sharing your that. Ohh. My gosh.
And congratulations on your book.
Thank you. So beautiful. She is sharing
her recipe with us.
You can go to our website
or if you can't wait and
you're gonna make this night,
you're off to the grocery store.
Just text the word recipe.
Just the word recipe.
No quotes, no nothing.
Just yeah the letters recipe to
206-448-4545 and we'll text you
the recipe right to your phone.
Well Jessica asking ask you. Thank
you so much. Appreciate you. Alright.