Latest / Cookbook Love Podcast / Episode 412: Dora Ramirez James Beard Award-Winning Cookbook Author of Comida Casera

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Episode 412: Dora Ramirez James Beard Award-Winning Cookbook Author of Comida Casera · Cookbook Love Podcast

0:02
Speaker: You were listening to the
0:03
Speaker: cookbook Love Podcast with
0:04
Speaker: Maggie Greene, episode number
0:06
Speaker: four twelve.
0:11
Speaker: Welcome to the cookbook Love
0:12
Speaker: Podcast, a podcast that
0:14
Speaker: celebrates cookbook readers,
0:16
Speaker: buyers, collectors, writers, and
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Speaker: clubs.
0:19
Speaker: And now your host, cookbook
0:21
Speaker: author, culinary dietitian, and
0:23
Speaker: cookbook writing coach, Maggie
0:25
Speaker: Greene.
0:31
Speaker: Hi, everybody.
0:32
Speaker: Welcome back to another episode of the cookbook Love Podcast.
0:36
Speaker: How's everybody doing today?
0:38
Speaker: Hope you are all doing well.
0:39
Speaker: Here we are at the end of July.
0:43
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0:46
Speaker: We've had such a terrific month, enjoyed time with our family,
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0:56
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1:02
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1:05
Speaker: Also enjoying some time in
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Speaker: Michigan on a vacation with our
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1:09
Speaker: That was a lot of fun and
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1:13
Speaker: August here in my cookbook
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1:16
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Speaker: This class is for you.
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Speaker: I'm so excited to offer it and would love to have you register
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2:13
Speaker: The link is down below in the show notes, or you can head on
2:16
Speaker: over to w w w dot cookbook Writers academy dot com.
2:23
Speaker: And I cannot wait to see you there.
2:27
Speaker: Today on the show, I have an interview with Dora Ramirez.
2:30
Speaker: Dora was born in Mexico and came
2:33
Speaker: to the US to attend culinary
2:35
Speaker: school at the Culinary Institute
2:37
Speaker: of America.
2:39
Speaker: She transitioned from restaurant
2:40
Speaker: work to online content creation
2:43
Speaker: after having her three children,
2:45
Speaker: and now works as a recipe
2:47
Speaker: developer, food photographer and
2:50
Speaker: content creator.
2:52
Speaker: She is the author of Comida Casera.
2:54
Speaker: More than one hundred Vegan recipes from traditional to
2:58
Speaker: modern Mexican dishes.
3:00
Speaker: Dora is a James Beard Award winner in the vegetable focused
3:05
Speaker: cookbook category, and this conversation today focuses on
3:09
Speaker: Dora's personal background, her decision to go vegan, and her
3:15
Speaker: decision to write this cookbook not just to veganize traditional
3:19
Speaker: Mexican dishes, but to surface the already plant based
3:24
Speaker: foundation that exists within indigenous Mexican gastronomy.
3:30
Speaker: This is called La Milpa, which is an indigenous and indigenous
3:34
Speaker: agricultural practice that she takes us on a tour through.
3:39
Speaker: Then we talk all about the book, which is organized as a tour
3:43
Speaker: through Mexican culinary landmarks covering everything
3:47
Speaker: from street food to moles, tamales, modern restaurant
3:53
Speaker: recipes for Mexican food, as well as chapters on desserts,
3:58
Speaker: beverages and ice cream.
4:01
Speaker: So without further delay, let's
4:03
Speaker: dive into this interview with
4:05
Speaker: James Beard Award winner Dora
4:08
Speaker: Ramirez.
4:09
Speaker: Hi, Dora.
4:10
Speaker: Welcome to the Cookbook Love podcast.
4:13
Speaker: I'm so happy to be here.
4:14
Speaker: Thank you for having me.
4:15
Speaker: Yes.
4:15
Speaker: Excited to have you here as well.
4:17
Speaker: Can't wait to talk all about your beautiful new book and your
4:21
Speaker: James Beard Award.
4:22
Speaker: But before we get started, why don't you tell everybody a
4:25
Speaker: little bit about who you are and what you do?
4:28
Speaker: Hey everyone, my name is Laura
4:30
Speaker: Ramirez and I am a chef and
4:33
Speaker: cookbook author.
4:34
Speaker: I was born in Ciudad Acuna, Coahuila, Mexico, and I came to
4:40
Speaker: the US to go to culinary school.
4:42
Speaker: I went to the CIA and when I started having babies, I
4:49
Speaker: transitioned to working online.
4:51
Speaker: And so I've been working online
4:53
Speaker: as a chef, content creator,
4:56
Speaker: recipe developer, food
4:57
Speaker: photographer.
4:58
Speaker: For the last eleven years.
5:00
Speaker: Wonderful.
5:01
Speaker: How do you like the life of
5:03
Speaker: being able to stay at home and
5:04
Speaker: create the content and care for
5:06
Speaker: the children?
5:07
Speaker: You know, it's a dream.
5:09
Speaker: It's a dream come true.
5:10
Speaker: I wouldn't be able to do this if I was working in a restaurant.
5:13
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
5:13
Speaker: When you have to go to a
5:14
Speaker: physical location or you it's
5:17
Speaker: just a completely different
5:18
Speaker: picture.
5:19
Speaker: So tell us a little bit about your your family.
5:22
Speaker: So I have three kids.
5:24
Speaker: Um, my oldest is sixteen.
5:26
Speaker: So I'm a older, I'm going into the teenager phase.
5:31
Speaker: Yeah.
5:32
Speaker: It's a wild ride.
5:34
Speaker: It is a wild ride.
5:35
Speaker: Yeah.
5:36
Speaker: I live in San Antonio, Texas, and I'm a single mom and my kids
5:41
Speaker: are special needs kids.
5:43
Speaker: So we have a very busy, busy life.
5:46
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
5:47
Speaker: And all the more reason to be able to, uh, be, I guess,
5:50
Speaker: grateful for the type of work that you do that you're able to
5:54
Speaker: base it in your home, in your kitchen, around the kids when
5:58
Speaker: they need you.
5:58
Speaker: Yes.
5:59
Speaker: And it's nice to be there.
6:00
Speaker: You know, I often tell people who are, have, uh, culinary
6:04
Speaker: nutrition, uh, food certifications, degrees,
6:09
Speaker: programs, how much, uh, content people need and how much help
6:13
Speaker: people need when it comes to cooking and learning about food.
6:16
Speaker: And it is truly an amazing thing
6:19
Speaker: to be able to share that with
6:20
Speaker: your family when they're young
6:22
Speaker: and to be there for them and to
6:25
Speaker: have it kind of seamlessly flow
6:26
Speaker: through.
6:27
Speaker: If you're cooking food, you know, we can maybe eat what
6:29
Speaker: we're cooking, or they can try things, they can test things.
6:32
Speaker: And I can't help but think that
6:33
Speaker: they were involved in the
6:35
Speaker: tasting and testing of the
6:37
Speaker: recipes that you prepared for
6:38
Speaker: this book.
6:39
Speaker: So I can't wait to hear about that as we dive into talking
6:42
Speaker: about the book.
6:43
Speaker: So your book just recently won a James Beard Award, and I've had
6:48
Speaker: a string of James Beard Award winners on the show.
6:51
Speaker: Very excited to have you here.
6:53
Speaker: Your book won in the vegetable category.
6:56
Speaker: I'd love to hear about the process for you from the time
6:59
Speaker: that you were nominated until the time you won the award, you
7:03
Speaker: know, it was all really quick.
7:04
Speaker: Like I knew I mean, of course I
7:06
Speaker: knew about the James Beard
7:08
Speaker: Awards, right?
7:08
Speaker: And it was a goal of mine when I was writing the book.
7:12
Speaker: Um, but the submission was the,
7:15
Speaker: the publisher submitted the book
7:17
Speaker: and I just made sure that it was
7:18
Speaker: submitted.
7:19
Speaker: And it was just so quick.
7:21
Speaker: It seemed to me, you know, like you're nominated in like a month
7:24
Speaker: later, it's the award ceremony.
7:26
Speaker: So I don't think I even had time to process it.
7:28
Speaker: I'm like, oh, it's amazing.
7:30
Speaker: I'm nominated.
7:31
Speaker: And then a month later I'm in Chicago.
7:33
Speaker: Yeah.
7:33
Speaker: But the whole experience was just so wonderful.
7:38
Speaker: It was so validating.
7:39
Speaker: You know, so much work was put into this book.
7:41
Speaker: So much of my life, of my kids, of my personal experience.
7:45
Speaker: And then to be able to be
7:47
Speaker: recognized by my peers in that
7:49
Speaker: setting, and to meet people that
7:51
Speaker: I've admired.
7:52
Speaker: And to share that moment with
7:54
Speaker: all those people was very
7:55
Speaker: special.
7:56
Speaker: Yeah.
7:56
Speaker: Yeah.
7:57
Speaker: It's amazing.
7:57
Speaker: And so again, congratulations on that.
8:00
Speaker: It's very exciting award to win.
8:02
Speaker: I often tell my listeners that
8:04
Speaker: when you look at any particular
8:06
Speaker: year for the book category, if
8:08
Speaker: you're trying to build a library
8:10
Speaker: of books, it's often good to
8:12
Speaker: check and see what the James
8:13
Speaker: Beard Award winners were for
8:14
Speaker: that year.
8:15
Speaker: It's not that it invalidates any other book that was ever
8:18
Speaker: written, but it does kind of point you to some that maybe
8:21
Speaker: stand out in the crowd.
8:22
Speaker: And I think it's fun to think about that even years past, you
8:27
Speaker: know, award winners, people who have been around in the food
8:30
Speaker: world for a while, and then also introducing us to new voices and
8:33
Speaker: new ways of eating.
8:35
Speaker: So talk a little bit about your
8:37
Speaker: book from a high level, um, and
8:39
Speaker: what the concept was going into
8:42
Speaker: actually proposing and writing
8:43
Speaker: the book.
8:45
Speaker: So my kind of specialty or my
8:47
Speaker: area of interest is vegan
8:50
Speaker: Mexican food.
8:51
Speaker: And so I became vegan about eleven, twelve years ago.
8:55
Speaker: And when I became vegan, you know, he's kind of like a shift
8:59
Speaker: of perspective because you think you immediately think that you
9:02
Speaker: will never be able to have your cultural foods again.
9:06
Speaker: And that's like your first thought.
9:07
Speaker: So then my mother was diagnosed
9:10
Speaker: with type two diabetes, and I
9:11
Speaker: was trying to get her to go
9:13
Speaker: vegan.
9:13
Speaker: And she was the one that told me she's like, why are you trying
9:16
Speaker: to feed me tofu when you could just give me rice and beans?
9:20
Speaker: And I'm like, oh yeah, yes, of course.
9:23
Speaker: And so that's what kind of kind
9:24
Speaker: of started the whole journey
9:26
Speaker: into exploring not only
9:28
Speaker: veganizing traditional Mexican
9:30
Speaker: dishes and my family recipes,
9:32
Speaker: but also researching already,
9:35
Speaker: you know, the big plant based
9:38
Speaker: culture that exists within
9:40
Speaker: Mexican cooking and within, you
9:42
Speaker: know, indigenous cooking in
9:44
Speaker: Mexican gastronomy.
9:45
Speaker: Yeah.
9:46
Speaker: So let's talk about that because that might be something when
9:48
Speaker: people start to think about Mexican food that they're not
9:51
Speaker: fully aware of.
9:52
Speaker: Tell us a little bit about the
9:54
Speaker: indigenous cooking, the things
9:56
Speaker: that were present in that way of
9:58
Speaker: eating, and a little bit about
10:00
Speaker: how that connects to your book
10:01
Speaker: specifically.
10:03
Speaker: Yeah.
10:03
Speaker: So the basis of Mexican cuisine is something called La Milpa.
10:08
Speaker: And so La Milpa is an
10:09
Speaker: agricultural practice that is
10:11
Speaker: the intercropping of corn,
10:14
Speaker: beans, squash.
10:16
Speaker: And then it's a self-sustaining ecosystem.
10:18
Speaker: So everything is used.
10:20
Speaker: The fungus that grows on the
10:21
Speaker: corn is called the weeds that
10:23
Speaker: grow, you know, from the ground
10:25
Speaker: are called colitis or wild
10:26
Speaker: greens.
10:27
Speaker: And they're also eaten.
10:28
Speaker: So it's a self-sustaining system
10:30
Speaker: that that's how the indigenous
10:32
Speaker: people of Mexico grew their
10:34
Speaker: food.
10:34
Speaker: And they were hunters and foragers as well.
10:37
Speaker: So they did eat animal products.
10:40
Speaker: They did whatever.
10:41
Speaker: They hunted.
10:41
Speaker: They ate insects, they ate fish.
10:43
Speaker: But the base of the cuisine is corn, beans and squash.
10:47
Speaker: And so most of their diet was vegetable diet, you know, with
10:52
Speaker: supplemented by the animal or insect or, you know, that they
10:56
Speaker: hunt or gathered.
10:58
Speaker: And so there's a lot of indigenous recipes that are
11:01
Speaker: naturally plant based.
11:05
Speaker: So with the arrival of the Spanish and the conquest, they
11:08
Speaker: brought pigs, they brought domesticated cows, they brought
11:11
Speaker: wheat and spices.
11:14
Speaker: And so all of that kind of
11:16
Speaker: combined into what, you know, we
11:18
Speaker: have like a modern
11:19
Speaker: interpretation of Mexican
11:21
Speaker: cooking.
11:21
Speaker: But the base of the cuisine
11:23
Speaker: still remains heavily plant
11:25
Speaker: based.
11:25
Speaker: And a lot of people don't know that.
11:27
Speaker: So I wanted to kind of bring that forward.
11:30
Speaker: And that's one of the first chapters in the book, because I
11:32
Speaker: believe that's the basis of it.
11:34
Speaker: And then from there, I kind of
11:36
Speaker: explore and play around with
11:38
Speaker: more modern interpretations of
11:40
Speaker: traditional Mexican dishes,
11:41
Speaker: using like a meat substitute,
11:44
Speaker: like soy curls to substitute
11:46
Speaker: beef.
11:46
Speaker: And so kind of play around a
11:48
Speaker: little bit, um, with both
11:50
Speaker: concepts.
11:51
Speaker: Yeah.
11:52
Speaker: That's, uh, very interesting.
11:53
Speaker: And I think that I have to think that a lot of indigenous
11:56
Speaker: cultures, you know, it was plant based with the hunting, hunting,
12:00
Speaker: just, and maybe fishing on just on top of it on the side.
12:05
Speaker: And that, uh, you really do see
12:07
Speaker: those foods in a lot of the
12:09
Speaker: foods that people think of when
12:11
Speaker: they think of, you know, Mexican
12:12
Speaker: food, but it's really beautiful
12:14
Speaker: how you're able to intertwine
12:16
Speaker: it.
12:16
Speaker: Would you be willing to talk a
12:18
Speaker: little bit about a pantry
12:19
Speaker: stocking, perhaps?
12:20
Speaker: First of all, if people are interested in using your book or
12:23
Speaker: cooking from it, the kinds of things that they might need to
12:26
Speaker: have on hand.
12:28
Speaker: So I try to be as varied as possible and also as true to the
12:35
Speaker: cuisine as possible.
12:36
Speaker: So if you see the pantry section in my book, it's huge.
12:39
Speaker: It's like five pages long because I wanted to share with
12:44
Speaker: you the, I guess, traditional recipe and didn't want to
12:48
Speaker: substitute ingredients that I know maybe are hard to find in
12:51
Speaker: the United States.
12:52
Speaker: Like there's a beautiful, um, herb called Hoja Santa.
12:56
Speaker: It has a flavor kind of like between anise and basil.
12:59
Speaker: And it's used in southern,
13:01
Speaker: mostly southern Mexico, southern
13:03
Speaker: central Mexico.
13:04
Speaker: And it's very hard to find.
13:05
Speaker: Like I live in Texas, it's very hard to find in Texas.
13:08
Speaker: You have to grow it.
13:09
Speaker: But I wanted to include it in,
13:13
Speaker: you know, kind of stay tuned to
13:14
Speaker: the recipe.
13:15
Speaker: And then I include in the pantry section the substitutions.
13:18
Speaker: If you can't find this, you can use this.
13:20
Speaker: And so if you want to kind of
13:23
Speaker: explore indigenous Mexican
13:24
Speaker: cooking, I mean, the first thing
13:26
Speaker: you need is beans, corn, squash,
13:29
Speaker: you know, all of that is very
13:31
Speaker: widely available.
13:33
Speaker: But corn, I would say is super, super important.
13:36
Speaker: A lot of our dishes are made
13:38
Speaker: either with actual corn, like
13:40
Speaker: fresh corn, or they're made with
13:42
Speaker: corn flour.
13:43
Speaker: So for sure, corn flour, um, which is called massarina.
13:48
Speaker: It's referred to in the US.
13:50
Speaker: Um massarina dried chilies.
13:53
Speaker: There's a section in the pantry where there's pictures of the
13:56
Speaker: different dried chilies.
13:57
Speaker: There's also a table that will show you what the fresh form of
14:01
Speaker: the chili is.
14:01
Speaker: And when they dry it, what it's called.
14:03
Speaker: So it's a different name.
14:05
Speaker: Yeah.
14:06
Speaker: And so dried chilies is
14:07
Speaker: something that, you know, people
14:09
Speaker: kind of get intimidated by them,
14:11
Speaker: but they're very, very easy to
14:12
Speaker: use.
14:13
Speaker: They're so easy to use.
14:14
Speaker: So I would encourage you to do dried chilies, fresh chilies,
14:18
Speaker: massarina for sure.
14:20
Speaker: And then maybe, you know, people very familiar with cilantro, but
14:24
Speaker: there's also an herb called basil tea that is more widely
14:28
Speaker: available than hoja Santa.
14:30
Speaker: And then there's also kind of like more specialty or niche
14:34
Speaker: products like Scotch, which is what I was talking earlier, like
14:37
Speaker: the corn fungus.
14:39
Speaker: Um, um, or there's like zucchini
14:41
Speaker: blossoms, which is not, are not
14:43
Speaker: hard to find when they're in
14:44
Speaker: season and also used very
14:46
Speaker: commonly in central and southern
14:47
Speaker: Mexico.
14:48
Speaker: Yeah.
14:49
Speaker: And then San Antonio and other places around the US, I would
14:53
Speaker: suspect that there is a larger availability of ingredients and
14:57
Speaker: things that people can buy.
14:58
Speaker: You did offer substitutions.
15:00
Speaker: I'd like to talk a little bit about dried chilies.
15:02
Speaker: I know that those play a large
15:04
Speaker: role in the creation of a lot of
15:05
Speaker: sauces.
15:06
Speaker: Would you have any tips for people if they're buying the
15:08
Speaker: chilies or wanting to use them to make a sauce with?
15:13
Speaker: Yes.
15:13
Speaker: Um, sometimes I would start by
15:16
Speaker: going to your local Mexican
15:18
Speaker: market or grocery store because
15:20
Speaker: they usually have fresher
15:21
Speaker: chilies and like the big, um,
15:24
Speaker: big stores.
15:26
Speaker: So when, if you're, if you choose your dried chili, you
15:29
Speaker: want to try and choose one.
15:31
Speaker: Choose some that look whole, you know, that are not very brittle
15:34
Speaker: or easily break.
15:36
Speaker: If they're kind of on the
15:37
Speaker: fresher side, they're going to
15:38
Speaker: be a little more flexible and
15:40
Speaker: you can still work with the
15:41
Speaker: older ones.
15:42
Speaker: But I do feel that they lose some of their flavor.
15:46
Speaker: And then it's also really hard to kind of take the seeds out if
15:49
Speaker: you're working with like something that's super crispy.
15:51
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
15:53
Speaker: So I would say look for chilies that look cool.
15:56
Speaker: Look for some that are a little bit flexible and not really hard
16:00
Speaker: that have good coloring.
16:01
Speaker: There are some that over time, they kind of get discolored and
16:04
Speaker: you'll see that discoloration.
16:05
Speaker: So an even color all throughout.
16:08
Speaker: And yeah, so try your Mexican market first.
16:11
Speaker: And usually their stock, they either stock up like packaged
16:15
Speaker: versions of dried chilies or they sell them.
16:18
Speaker: Um, I forgot the word I think
16:21
Speaker: individually or in bulk
16:22
Speaker: sometimes.
16:23
Speaker: Yeah.
16:23
Speaker: Yeah.
16:24
Speaker: That's the word.
16:24
Speaker: Right.
16:25
Speaker: They might have them in a bin and you could pick out a couple
16:27
Speaker: of different kinds.
16:28
Speaker: Mhm.
16:29
Speaker: Um, I think that it's nice for people to, uh, see the table and
16:32
Speaker: to know that it could be the very same chili dried.
16:36
Speaker: It's called one thing fresh.
16:38
Speaker: It's called another.
16:39
Speaker: So, um, pay attention to that.
16:41
Speaker: It's a nice photo that you have there to help people do that.
16:43
Speaker: And then I'm along with these chilies and herbs.
16:47
Speaker: There's other ingredients in
16:48
Speaker: your basics chapter that you
16:50
Speaker: talk about people having on hand
16:52
Speaker: or making in order to prepare
16:54
Speaker: the recipes that are in the
16:55
Speaker: book, everything from like,
16:58
Speaker: there's cashew cheeses, there's
16:59
Speaker: sauces, there's salsas, uh,
17:02
Speaker: tortillas.
17:02
Speaker: So tell us a little bit about the basics chapter.
17:06
Speaker: So the basics chapter is when you know what I would say, you
17:11
Speaker: know, the basics, the basics.
17:12
Speaker: Rice, beans, yeah.
17:14
Speaker: Salsas, uh, not only salsas, but also there's one recipe for
17:18
Speaker: chilies, Doritos, which is a kind of way of like pan roasting
17:23
Speaker: serrano peppers, a little bit of lime and soy sauce is very
17:26
Speaker: common here in northern Mexico to eat that with your tacos.
17:29
Speaker: So all very classic compliments to Mexican cuisine.
17:34
Speaker: There's a big section on vegan dairy.
17:36
Speaker: Um, I, I'm not a big fan of processed vegan cheese, so I
17:40
Speaker: usually make my own.
17:41
Speaker: So there's recipes to make your own, like melty vegan cheese,
17:44
Speaker: your own crema, your own, like soft fresh cheese.
17:48
Speaker: And they're all very simple recipes that really complement
17:52
Speaker: the food and really help you not miss, you know, like that, like
17:56
Speaker: dairy aspect of it.
17:58
Speaker: Yeah.
17:58
Speaker: Yeah.
17:58
Speaker: And if that's something you're
18:00
Speaker: able to do and accomplish with
18:02
Speaker: three children, I'm sure that
18:03
Speaker: it's something that we can all
18:04
Speaker: do in our kitchen if we want to
18:06
Speaker: make it.
18:07
Speaker: And it does make a difference, I
18:08
Speaker: think, to make those things
18:09
Speaker: fresh and not buy them prepared
18:11
Speaker: or processed, I think I don't
18:14
Speaker: know this for sure, but I might
18:15
Speaker: be a little more cost effective
18:17
Speaker: to to make them on your own than
18:18
Speaker: buy them.
18:20
Speaker: It depends because a lot of them are nut based.
18:22
Speaker: So if you can find like a good price on nuts.
18:25
Speaker: Yeah.
18:25
Speaker: That's true.
18:26
Speaker: Yeah.
18:26
Speaker: I think that's probably the thing that people would want to
18:28
Speaker: keep their eyes open for.
18:30
Speaker: Almonds are used.
18:32
Speaker: Cashews mainly.
18:34
Speaker: any other two two other nuts other than those.
18:38
Speaker: Now usually the vegan cheese I either use cashews or almonds.
18:42
Speaker: Yeah.
18:42
Speaker: Yeah.
18:43
Speaker: Very good.
18:43
Speaker: So that's great.
18:44
Speaker: Nice descriptions on how to do all of that.
18:47
Speaker: All right.
18:47
Speaker: In the first chapter you
18:48
Speaker: mentioned uh the indigenous
18:50
Speaker: kitchen.
18:50
Speaker: And what can people expect to find in this chapter?
18:54
Speaker: Um, that sets it apart from the rest of the book.
18:58
Speaker: So this is my favorite chapter.
19:00
Speaker: It was an experience.
19:02
Speaker: It was a, it was a collaboration
19:04
Speaker: between a group of indigenous
19:06
Speaker: cooks.
19:06
Speaker: They're called Cocina from Mexico City, Oaxaca, Yucatan.
19:12
Speaker: And we collaborated together to write this chapter.
19:16
Speaker: And what I really did was travel
19:18
Speaker: to them and document their
19:20
Speaker: recipes.
19:20
Speaker: And so I went in.
19:22
Speaker: The really fun part is that I took the children with me.
19:25
Speaker: So it became like a huge family experience.
19:28
Speaker: And I was kind of nervous about it.
19:30
Speaker: You know, if we were going to be
19:31
Speaker: able to coordinate with the
19:32
Speaker: children.
19:33
Speaker: But the indigenous people are so welcoming of children.
19:35
Speaker: They're like, no, bring them.
19:37
Speaker: We'll have them work.
19:38
Speaker: And so they did.
19:39
Speaker: They ended up like making
19:40
Speaker: tortillas and like peeling
19:42
Speaker: things and like grinding pumpkin
19:43
Speaker: seeds.
19:44
Speaker: But the whole experience was so amazing because the indigenous
19:48
Speaker: people really, really took me into their homes and let me
19:52
Speaker: document what they were doing.
19:54
Speaker: And so that chapter itself, I
19:56
Speaker: did not change any part of the
19:58
Speaker: recipe.
19:59
Speaker: I documented the recipe as it was made.
20:01
Speaker: I took my little scale, took my notebook, I took a video camera
20:05
Speaker: in my phone, and as they were making the recipes, I would stop
20:10
Speaker: and be like, can we weigh that?
20:11
Speaker: And so we were like, way whatever, you know, like in
20:14
Speaker: Spanish, you say like they'd be like, do you just need like a
20:16
Speaker: little bit of this?
20:17
Speaker: And I'm like, let's weigh it.
20:19
Speaker: Yeah.
20:20
Speaker: And so everything has been weighed and documented.
20:23
Speaker: And then in the bottom of the
20:25
Speaker: recipe, I put my notes where I
20:28
Speaker: recreate this recipe at home
20:30
Speaker: with the ingredients available
20:32
Speaker: to me.
20:32
Speaker: And then I give you tips on how
20:34
Speaker: you can do that in your own
20:35
Speaker: home.
20:35
Speaker: But the the original recipe is a recipe that was documented, and
20:40
Speaker: the goal was to share.
20:42
Speaker: Some of these recipes are family recipes, or they're called
20:46
Speaker: recetas de rescate.
20:47
Speaker: They're recipes that these indigenous women are trying to
20:49
Speaker: promote and rescue.
20:51
Speaker: Um, and so this is such a special chapter to be able to
20:56
Speaker: bring those recipes to life in English and to document them
21:01
Speaker: just as they are, without adapting, without changing them
21:04
Speaker: and just kind of sharing their history and their culture, which
21:10
Speaker: is also my culture with you.
21:12
Speaker: Yes.
21:12
Speaker: So would you be willing to share
21:14
Speaker: a story of one of the cooks and
21:17
Speaker: something that you prepared
21:18
Speaker: together?
21:19
Speaker: Yes, the first and it was actually one of the first
21:21
Speaker: recipes we made.
21:22
Speaker: It's called Chichilo, and it's a mole that's very specific to the
21:29
Speaker: Cholula de Matamoros and Oaxaca.
21:31
Speaker: And so this mole and the woman
21:33
Speaker: who wrote the recipe, or who did
21:36
Speaker: the recipe in Miss Angelina, and
21:38
Speaker: she is a Zapotec indigenous
21:41
Speaker: person.
21:42
Speaker: And she told us a wonderful
21:45
Speaker: story on how this mole is a
21:48
Speaker: funeral mole.
21:49
Speaker: So it's usually called a mole or like a bitter mole, because they
21:54
Speaker: believe that when you're making it, the more keeps the feeling
22:00
Speaker: of the person making it.
22:01
Speaker: So whenever they make it, they make it for funerals.
22:03
Speaker: They're always sad.
22:04
Speaker: So it's always like a sad little bit of a bitter mole.
22:07
Speaker: And it's a community cooking.
22:10
Speaker: So somebody dies.
22:12
Speaker: And then the person, you know, the closest person to the person
22:16
Speaker: who died will gather everybody and give them assignments.
22:20
Speaker: You bring this ingredient, you
22:21
Speaker: bring this ingredient, you bring
22:22
Speaker: this ingredient.
22:23
Speaker: And then they all gather together in the home of the
22:26
Speaker: person who died and make the them all together.
22:29
Speaker: And so the loved one who
22:31
Speaker: survived is the one kind of
22:33
Speaker: directing.
22:33
Speaker: But they make the modeling community and then they eat it.
22:37
Speaker: And so it's a very ceremonial, spiritual kind of model.
22:42
Speaker: And so it was so amazing to have it recreated before me, and then
22:49
Speaker: have Evangelina kind of share her story with it and say that
22:52
Speaker: she dedicates her time to promote this model because it's
22:55
Speaker: a recipe that is now being lost.
22:57
Speaker: The younger generation is not really interested in doing the
23:01
Speaker: whole ceremony of gathering and making the mole.
23:04
Speaker: And so it's kind of getting lost within the community.
23:07
Speaker: And so she's dedicated her time
23:08
Speaker: to promoting this recipe, to
23:10
Speaker: sharing it.
23:11
Speaker: And so, and when she told us a story and when she tried it,
23:15
Speaker: like there were literal tears in her eyes, she's like, I just
23:17
Speaker: can't help it.
23:18
Speaker: Every time I eat this mole, like all I feel is sadness.
23:22
Speaker: Yeah.
23:22
Speaker: So it was like very special, special recipe.
23:25
Speaker: Yeah.
23:25
Speaker: It's great to have access to that here in the book.
23:28
Speaker: And it looks like it says she
23:29
Speaker: went on to win in twenty twenty
23:32
Speaker: two, the cooking competition,
23:35
Speaker: uh, the fourth encounter of the
23:37
Speaker: oxygen.
23:39
Speaker: Is it, uh, the a traditional oxygen, I guess, some sort of a
23:43
Speaker: competition and that she serves it just with rice.
23:46
Speaker: And then also you formed a patty out of.
23:51
Speaker: Tell me a little bit about what you serve it with.
23:54
Speaker: Is she served it with a patty made out of colitus.
23:56
Speaker: And so Colitus is just like a blanket term for wild greens.
24:00
Speaker: And in the US, you would consider these weeds.
24:04
Speaker: Um, in Mexico there's a very big variety of wild greens.
24:09
Speaker: And so she boiled them in salted water with garlic and onion.
24:13
Speaker: And then she kind of squeezed the water out and like formed it
24:16
Speaker: into a patty.
24:18
Speaker: And then that's what she served the mole over.
24:20
Speaker: And then rice.
24:21
Speaker: Rice, beautiful.
24:22
Speaker: And a beautiful picture of her and of the dish and a wonderful
24:27
Speaker: explanation of it.
24:28
Speaker: So that's a. I can see why it's so important to have a recipe
24:32
Speaker: like that here in the book.
24:35
Speaker: But I want to talk about another indigenous recipe.
24:38
Speaker: Um, there's other women and, you know, cooks that have provided
24:44
Speaker: these for you.
24:46
Speaker: Um, let's do one more.
24:48
Speaker: Which one do you think we'd like to talk about next?
24:51
Speaker: The other one, which is one of my favorites.
24:54
Speaker: It's from a Mayan priest and his name is Bruno Cocom.
24:58
Speaker: And the recipe is almost like a pumpkin seed meatball.
25:05
Speaker: And so this one just blew my mind.
25:09
Speaker: And it's a recipe that's also very regional because we did
25:12
Speaker: travel a little bit in Yucatan.
25:15
Speaker: And like I asked people about it and they're like, no, we've
25:19
Speaker: never had it.
25:19
Speaker: We've never had it.
25:20
Speaker: So it seems like it's a very, very specific regional recipe
25:23
Speaker: and it's really amazing because the pumpkin seeds are toasted
25:28
Speaker: and then ground like in a mill, and then they're a dough is made
25:33
Speaker: with that kind of pumpkin seed flour and spices are added to it
25:37
Speaker: and then it's formed.
25:39
Speaker: It's needed.
25:39
Speaker: So when you need that kind of dough, it starts releasing oils.
25:44
Speaker: And so he saves the oil that's released.
25:46
Speaker: And as it releases oil, the flour that's left kind of
25:50
Speaker: congeals like that same oil helps it kind of stick together.
25:54
Speaker: And so he forms it into little patties and then drops it into a
25:58
Speaker: broth of water.
26:01
Speaker: And China.
26:01
Speaker: Now China is called in English tree spinach.
26:05
Speaker: It's kind of like a shrub.
26:08
Speaker: It's very similar to spinach.
26:09
Speaker: And it's got a kind of a mild flavor.
26:11
Speaker: It's a very typical plant eaten in Yucatan.
26:16
Speaker: And so the broth itself, it was
26:18
Speaker: just like water, garlic and the
26:21
Speaker: chia leaves.
26:22
Speaker: And then he drops the patties in there and they form meatballs
26:27
Speaker: like you taste them, and they're so meaty and, like, so hearty.
26:31
Speaker: And it's like a little broth
26:32
Speaker: with like, a pumpkin seed
26:34
Speaker: meatball.
26:35
Speaker: Yeah.
26:35
Speaker: Like even the kids, like when I
26:37
Speaker: asked, out of all the recipes we
26:39
Speaker: made, which one was your
26:40
Speaker: favorite?
26:40
Speaker: And that one was their favorite as well.
26:43
Speaker: Interesting.
26:44
Speaker: And there's a story in the head.
26:46
Speaker: Note that if someone stops by
26:48
Speaker: while someone is making the dish
26:50
Speaker: and interrupts making the dish,
26:53
Speaker: the patties or the meatballs
26:55
Speaker: will fall apart in the broth and
26:56
Speaker: all your work will be for
26:57
Speaker: nothing.
26:58
Speaker: Yes.
27:00
Speaker: So I guess if if they someone you have to go.
27:03
Speaker: If you're going to watch them make this at the beginning of
27:05
Speaker: the process, you can't just come in in the middle.
27:08
Speaker: Yeah.
27:09
Speaker: And he did say we were making it and he was like, well, you
27:11
Speaker: better pray nobody stops by or this is not going to work out.
27:14
Speaker: Isn't that fascinating?
27:16
Speaker: I think that's kind of the neat thing about those two is it's
27:18
Speaker: really not just about the recipe itself and the food.
27:22
Speaker: It's the story that goes along with it.
27:27
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
27:28
Speaker: And for that specific chapter, I mean, it was so incredible to
27:33
Speaker: meet all the different eras and all the different cooks, and to
27:37
Speaker: listen to their story and to bring that story to life.
27:40
Speaker: Yeah.
27:40
Speaker: With the food.
27:41
Speaker: Yeah.
27:42
Speaker: You know, some of my favorite cookbooks.
27:43
Speaker: Um, there's a woman that did
27:45
Speaker: that with grandma's from Italy
27:47
Speaker: just making all these different
27:49
Speaker: pasta shapes.
27:50
Speaker: Um, a recent cookbook that was I
27:53
Speaker: had on the show all about these
27:55
Speaker: little bakeries in Italy, like
27:57
Speaker: making still family, you know,
27:59
Speaker: Italian cookies, just tons of
28:01
Speaker: different varieties.
28:02
Speaker: But it's not again, about the cookie itself.
28:05
Speaker: It's about the people are still
28:06
Speaker: doing this, and they're making
28:09
Speaker: an effort to continue these
28:10
Speaker: traditions and to make sure that
28:13
Speaker: they're documented and passing
28:14
Speaker: them on.
28:15
Speaker: What kind of hope do you have for younger generations to pick
28:18
Speaker: up on these recipes?
28:21
Speaker: You know, it's hard because I have young children.
28:23
Speaker: Yeah.
28:25
Speaker: And they're not interested in food yet.
28:27
Speaker: And I've met a lot of young people that are just not
28:29
Speaker: interested in food.
28:31
Speaker: I think that by incorporating a story into it, it really brings
28:36
Speaker: it to life.
28:37
Speaker: And I can see that like when
28:38
Speaker: because I recorded videos and
28:39
Speaker: then I upload these videos to
28:41
Speaker: social media.
28:42
Speaker: Yeah.
28:42
Speaker: And so that changes the way that people see these recipes.
28:46
Speaker: They're not only, you know,
28:48
Speaker: because some of some especially
28:50
Speaker: older recipes, they might be
28:51
Speaker: unappealing.
28:52
Speaker: They're not as viral, they're not as colorful, they're not,
28:55
Speaker: you know, like rainbow colored.
28:56
Speaker: So bringing that story aspect
29:00
Speaker: into it, I think, could really
29:01
Speaker: help bridge that connection
29:03
Speaker: between tradition and the
29:06
Speaker: younger generation.
29:07
Speaker: Right?
29:08
Speaker: Yeah.
29:08
Speaker: I think it's unfortunate that
29:11
Speaker: that does drive a lot of
29:13
Speaker: people's interest in things as
29:15
Speaker: the appearance or the video or
29:18
Speaker: the photos.
29:19
Speaker: And, uh, really when you think about the importance of it, it's
29:23
Speaker: so much deeper than that.
29:24
Speaker: And it's usually rooted to people in the land.
29:27
Speaker: And, uh, communicating that connection with a modern culture
29:31
Speaker: is, is a little bit more difficult to do.
29:33
Speaker: So, um, I hope that through
29:35
Speaker: talking about it here, we've
29:36
Speaker: been able to spark some interest
29:38
Speaker: in it.
29:39
Speaker: Uh, get some people interested in talking about the importance
29:42
Speaker: of it and sharing it with people that need to know.
29:46
Speaker: So that's so neat that you were able to do that about traveling
29:49
Speaker: to meet these people was a joy.
29:52
Speaker: And what a great thing that you got to take your kids with you
29:54
Speaker: as well as well.
29:56
Speaker: Yeah, it was a great experience.
29:58
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
29:59
Speaker: So once you go through the
30:00
Speaker: indigenous section, the book
30:02
Speaker: kind of takes a little bit of a
30:03
Speaker: different journey than it's
30:04
Speaker: almost like we're going through
30:06
Speaker: different types of eateries in
30:09
Speaker: Mexico.
30:09
Speaker: So I'd love if you would, um, tell us a little bit about how
30:13
Speaker: the rest of the book is laid out and maybe we can talk about a
30:15
Speaker: few of the chapters.
30:17
Speaker: So my goal was to have it be kind of like a culinary journey.
30:22
Speaker: So that's why we start at the
30:24
Speaker: indigenous kitchen, and then you
30:25
Speaker: go to like culinary landmarks in
30:28
Speaker: Mexico.
30:29
Speaker: And so you would say the market,
30:31
Speaker: huge landmark in Mexico, street
30:33
Speaker: food.
30:34
Speaker: And then we have home cooking,
30:36
Speaker: which is the name of the book,
30:37
Speaker: home Cooking.
30:38
Speaker: A lot of the recipes that are
30:40
Speaker: near and dear to our hearts are
30:42
Speaker: all mom's or grandma's home
30:44
Speaker: cooking.
30:44
Speaker: So that was a very important chapter.
30:47
Speaker: There's also the market chapter is called mole from the market.
30:51
Speaker: And so that one explores all the different types of moles that
30:54
Speaker: you can find at the market or that you can find in different
30:58
Speaker: regions of Mexico.
31:00
Speaker: We also stopped by LA malaria, so there are all actual places.
31:06
Speaker: So that's why it's kind of like a journey through different
31:09
Speaker: types of eateries or landmarks.
31:11
Speaker: Within Mexico, there's a Panaderia, which is a shop that
31:15
Speaker: sells baked goods.
31:16
Speaker: There's La Nia, which sells popsicles and ice cream.
31:20
Speaker: And so I kind my goal was to
31:21
Speaker: take you kind of like a trip
31:23
Speaker: through Mexico.
31:23
Speaker: If you travel to Mexico, these are the places that I would want
31:27
Speaker: you to stop and try.
31:29
Speaker: Nice.
31:30
Speaker: Well, let's start with the home.
31:31
Speaker: I think that's the a place that you named the book after home
31:36
Speaker: Cooking in Mexico.
31:37
Speaker: And I'd love to hear how it's
31:39
Speaker: different than from what you can
31:41
Speaker: get if we go out onto into the
31:43
Speaker: town or into the markets or into
31:45
Speaker: the bakeries.
31:46
Speaker: And what makes home cooking different in Mexico?
31:50
Speaker: So home cooking, I would say the same as in the US.
31:53
Speaker: It's, I think, simpler versions.
31:56
Speaker: There's.
31:57
Speaker: And it's also a lot of comfort food.
31:59
Speaker: But comfort food in Mexico is
32:01
Speaker: different from comfort food in
32:03
Speaker: the US.
32:03
Speaker: When you think comfort food.
32:04
Speaker: Well, one, I think comfort food
32:05
Speaker: in the US, you might think of
32:07
Speaker: like casseroles, um, like cheesy
32:10
Speaker: things or like kind of what
32:13
Speaker: comes to mind is like hearty,
32:15
Speaker: very kind of like luscious
32:17
Speaker: eating.
32:18
Speaker: But you know, you're making it at home.
32:20
Speaker: But in Mexico, I think it's just more you have to have rice and
32:24
Speaker: beans for sure.
32:26
Speaker: Rice and beans and tortillas, all the meals.
32:28
Speaker: And then from there, usually there's a guisado, which is some
32:33
Speaker: type of stew, and then a pita, which could be, um, like a pita
32:40
Speaker: Fidel, which is kind of like a Mexican noodle soup.
32:42
Speaker: And there's like different like puzzles, like another soup.
32:46
Speaker: So I kind of touch a little bit of all of it.
32:49
Speaker: Um, what I, and it's a bit of home cooking that I ate growing
32:55
Speaker: up or dishes from my family restaurant, which was my home
32:59
Speaker: cooking because I grew up, um, eating at the restaurant.
33:04
Speaker: But it's a lot of dishes that I think this chapter specifically
33:07
Speaker: was made for Mexicans and Mexican Americans where you
33:11
Speaker: would say, ah, I just really miss my mom's cooking.
33:14
Speaker: And then this is it.
33:15
Speaker: There's, like, meatballs and chipotle sauce.
33:17
Speaker: There's enchiladas, salsa verde, you know, all these dishes that
33:21
Speaker: are not complicated, but that they're very, very good and
33:24
Speaker: they're so close to our hearts.
33:26
Speaker: Yeah.
33:27
Speaker: And I think maybe that's the
33:28
Speaker: thing that I can see, even just
33:30
Speaker: being from the US is when I look
33:32
Speaker: then at the other chapters, like
33:34
Speaker: making mole, making tamales,
33:36
Speaker: those are a little bit more
33:37
Speaker: complicated dishes, maybe more
33:39
Speaker: multi-step preparations, and
33:41
Speaker: might not be something that you
33:42
Speaker: would make at home on a regular
33:44
Speaker: basis.
33:45
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
33:46
Speaker: Or if people in Mexico, rather than making them at home, they
33:49
Speaker: would just go out to get them.
33:50
Speaker: Correct.
33:51
Speaker: Yes.
33:52
Speaker: Yeah.
33:52
Speaker: Yeah.
33:53
Speaker: Um, I know we went to, I went to
33:55
Speaker: a market in um, Los Angeles and
33:59
Speaker: I remember the mole stand, like
34:01
Speaker: in the market, all the different
34:03
Speaker: varieties of mole that people
34:04
Speaker: could get.
34:05
Speaker: Um, I mean, I'm sure you can visualize what I'm talking
34:09
Speaker: about, but I guess there just wasn't one or two flavors.
34:12
Speaker: There was like a lot.
34:13
Speaker: Yes.
34:14
Speaker: Different colors, different, I'm sure.
34:16
Speaker: Different bases, different textures, different ingredients.
34:19
Speaker: And that would be something that people would maybe perhaps buy,
34:24
Speaker: um, then make it home.
34:27
Speaker: Unless you are following the
34:29
Speaker: indigenous tradition, there are
34:30
Speaker: certain times you maybe would
34:31
Speaker: make a meal with other people at
34:33
Speaker: home.
34:35
Speaker: Yeah.
34:35
Speaker: The Malay chapter is not for the weak.
34:38
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
34:40
Speaker: Because usually people, you
34:41
Speaker: know, you go to the market to
34:43
Speaker: buy Malay and you'll buy the
34:44
Speaker: Malay paste.
34:45
Speaker: Yeah.
34:46
Speaker: And so the Malay paste is really basically the Malay itself.
34:48
Speaker: And you just have to add the liquid to it.
34:51
Speaker: If your preference you might add a little bit more peanuts.
34:54
Speaker: You might add a little bit more sweetener.
34:56
Speaker: You might add a little bit more
34:57
Speaker: chocolate, but the whole work is
34:59
Speaker: already done.
35:00
Speaker: You're just buying the paste.
35:01
Speaker: And so the Malay chapter, I wanted to teach you how to make
35:05
Speaker: a Malay from scratch.
35:07
Speaker: And so you can see, I would say
35:09
Speaker: the most complicated one is Mole
35:11
Speaker: Negro.
35:11
Speaker: And so you can see you look at that.
35:14
Speaker: The publisher is like, do we
35:15
Speaker: have to put how much time this
35:17
Speaker: takes?
35:18
Speaker: Because I think it's a six hours.
35:20
Speaker: Yeah.
35:21
Speaker: You said yes, we have to put out.
35:23
Speaker: You want it to be true to the recipe and true to the.
35:26
Speaker: Yes, yes.
35:28
Speaker: So yeah, it takes six hours.
35:29
Speaker: And so what I. But what I did try to do was in most of the
35:34
Speaker: models, the complicated ones and the notes, I tell you how to do
35:38
Speaker: it in several days so you don't have to spend like six solid
35:42
Speaker: hours doing it.
35:43
Speaker: You know, I say you can toast the chilies like the day before
35:47
Speaker: you can do that.
35:47
Speaker: So kind of break it down so that it's more manageable.
35:51
Speaker: Yeah.
35:51
Speaker: I mean, people make sourdough
35:53
Speaker: all the time and you know, it's
35:55
Speaker: the starter and you got to feed
35:56
Speaker: it and then you got to make the
35:57
Speaker: bread.
35:57
Speaker: You gotta let it rise.
35:58
Speaker: So to me, if there are people that invest time in making
36:02
Speaker: homemade sourdough bread and the starter, there isn't any reason
36:05
Speaker: that people wouldn't want to invest time in making mole.
36:08
Speaker: I think that it looks like there's about ten, maybe eleven
36:11
Speaker: different types in this book, which is amazing.
36:14
Speaker: Um, a really good study in it.
36:16
Speaker: So if someone really wants to spend some time taking a journey
36:19
Speaker: through the different kinds, I mean, this is a beautiful
36:22
Speaker: example of how they might be able to do that.
36:25
Speaker: Yes.
36:25
Speaker: And they're not all complicated.
36:27
Speaker: There are some models that are more home cooked, more or less
36:30
Speaker: where, you know, they'll be done in forty, forty five minutes.
36:33
Speaker: You know, there's not a six hour process.
36:35
Speaker: Right.
36:35
Speaker: Did you have to veganize these or are they traditionally vegan?
36:40
Speaker: Well, they're traditionally they use chicken broth.
36:43
Speaker: So all I really had to do was
36:44
Speaker: kind of change the chicken
36:45
Speaker: broth.
36:46
Speaker: And then instead of lard, I used oil.
36:49
Speaker: So it wasn't like I wouldn't say I veganized them because you
36:53
Speaker: could use those ingredients.
36:54
Speaker: Yes.
36:54
Speaker: Yes.
36:55
Speaker: Yeah.
36:55
Speaker: Mhm.
36:55
Speaker: Yeah.
36:56
Speaker: That's neat.
36:57
Speaker: Yeah.
36:57
Speaker: So that's wonderful.
36:58
Speaker: Uh, section, let's talk a little
36:59
Speaker: bit about, uh, street food and
37:01
Speaker: the role it plays in Mexican
37:04
Speaker: cuisine.
37:05
Speaker: So a lot of the best Mexican food is street food, a lot of
37:09
Speaker: tacos, you know, and it comes to mind like nights out partying.
37:14
Speaker: The first thing you want to do when you're done, you leave, you
37:16
Speaker: know, the bar or the club, you want to go get tacos.
37:19
Speaker: And you know, those are some of the best meals I've had, you
37:22
Speaker: know, eating tacos on the street or now that I'm vegan, a Mexico
37:27
Speaker: City is the king of quesadillas and quesadillas in Mexico City.
37:33
Speaker: Cheese is optional.
37:36
Speaker: Like they will ask you.
37:37
Speaker: You want a quesadilla with cheese or without cheese.
37:40
Speaker: And so to be able to kind of experience kind of like that
37:44
Speaker: same feeling of, oh, I'm going to go have tacos on the street
37:46
Speaker: and then go to Mexico City.
37:48
Speaker: And you know, when I worked with a woman in, in Mexico City who
37:52
Speaker: makes quesadillas and tlacoyos and tlacoyos are like kind of
37:56
Speaker: football shaped masa little boats, and they're filled with
38:01
Speaker: ground up fava beans or they're filled with mushrooms.
38:05
Speaker: And so she grinds the corn like she symbolizes the corn herself
38:10
Speaker: and then brings it.
38:12
Speaker: She doesn't even live in Mexico City.
38:13
Speaker: She lives like an hour away, like drives into Mexico City
38:17
Speaker: with her little sand.
38:18
Speaker: And she's, you know, symbolizing her own corn.
38:21
Speaker: She does all the sides like she
38:22
Speaker: grows her own, you know, like
38:24
Speaker: forages her mushrooms, all this
38:26
Speaker: stuff.
38:26
Speaker: And I'm eating on the street and I'm like, this could be a
38:29
Speaker: Michelin star restaurant.
38:30
Speaker: You know, like the sourcing of the ingredients, the techniques,
38:34
Speaker: you know, except it's a little stand outside of a market.
38:37
Speaker: Wow.
38:37
Speaker: And so you can find all different levels of cuisine.
38:41
Speaker: I would say in street food, it's
38:43
Speaker: not necessarily cheap or easy
38:46
Speaker: food.
38:46
Speaker: It's just most of the time just really good food.
38:49
Speaker: Yeah, fascinating.
38:51
Speaker: I think that's a neat way to think about it and not, again,
38:54
Speaker: things that you would necessarily make at home, um, on
38:57
Speaker: a regular basis.
38:58
Speaker: Right.
38:59
Speaker: So what else we've got tamales.
39:00
Speaker: And then there's also a section on modern Mexico.
39:05
Speaker: Yeah.
39:06
Speaker: So modern Mexico is one of the
39:08
Speaker: landmarks because Mexican
39:10
Speaker: cooking has evolved so much,
39:12
Speaker: especially in the last twenty
39:14
Speaker: years.
39:14
Speaker: You know, thirty, forty years
39:17
Speaker: ago, Mexican cooking was kind of
39:18
Speaker: getting its own legs, you know,
39:20
Speaker: before it was a lot of European
39:22
Speaker: influences.
39:23
Speaker: And then all of a sudden, you
39:25
Speaker: know, we're using Mexican
39:27
Speaker: ingredients.
39:28
Speaker: We're trying to promote Mexican cooking.
39:30
Speaker: And so the modern Mexico chapter was kind of like a little peek
39:34
Speaker: into modern Mexican restaurants, but also what I would serve if I
39:40
Speaker: had my own restaurant.
39:41
Speaker: So that was a fun chapter to do kind of picture.
39:44
Speaker: Like if I had my own restaurant and it's a modern Mexican
39:47
Speaker: restaurant, what would I serve?
39:49
Speaker: And that's what that chapter.
39:50
Speaker: I think it's a fun chapter because there's things like
39:53
Speaker: there's a, a tartare that's made out of watermelon and it's got
39:57
Speaker: like Asian and Mexican flavors.
40:00
Speaker: There's, um, a nixtamalized like butternut squash.
40:05
Speaker: So applying that same technique of like soaking in lime to a
40:09
Speaker: squash and it produces like a very creamy interior.
40:13
Speaker: And so I kind of played around a little bit in that chapter, and
40:16
Speaker: I had a lot of fun with it.
40:17
Speaker: Yeah.
40:18
Speaker: That's beautiful.
40:19
Speaker: A lot of really looks more
40:20
Speaker: upscale even in the photography
40:23
Speaker: for that section, you can
40:24
Speaker: definitely tell that it takes a
40:25
Speaker: little bit of a leap, but, um,
40:27
Speaker: it's a really great way to,
40:29
Speaker: again, um, take this journey
40:31
Speaker: with you through different types
40:33
Speaker: of establishments that serve
40:34
Speaker: Mexican cuisine.
40:37
Speaker: All right, let's talk a little bit about, I think the beverages
40:41
Speaker: are really interesting.
40:42
Speaker: Also, I'd love to talk about those.
40:44
Speaker: And then you've got to tell me about the desserts or the ice
40:48
Speaker: cream and popsicles.
40:51
Speaker: Yeah.
40:51
Speaker: So the beverages are I was frescas and I was frescas.
40:56
Speaker: I mean, I think most people are
40:57
Speaker: familiar with just because it's
40:59
Speaker: usually fruit and water and
41:00
Speaker: sugar.
41:01
Speaker: Mhm.
41:01
Speaker: And so there's kind of like
41:02
Speaker: fresh water is the direct
41:04
Speaker: translation.
41:05
Speaker: But depending on the region in
41:06
Speaker: Mexico that you're in, the fruit
41:07
Speaker: changes.
41:08
Speaker: And so it's a beautiful, beautiful way of using fruit
41:12
Speaker: that maybe is a little too ripe.
41:15
Speaker: And so you can just blend it with water, add some sugar, and
41:18
Speaker: then that's what you're having with your meals instead of a
41:21
Speaker: soda instead of a lemonade, like something really high in sugar.
41:24
Speaker: And so some of my favorites are in there.
41:27
Speaker: There's a beet in orange,
41:28
Speaker: there's a cucumber lime, there's
41:32
Speaker: a tamarindo tamarindo, which is
41:34
Speaker: tamarind, which is the same
41:36
Speaker: concept.
41:36
Speaker: You know, you kind of boil the
41:38
Speaker: tamarind and puree it with water
41:40
Speaker: and sweetener, and then there's
41:43
Speaker: atolls.
41:44
Speaker: And so atolls is a very traditional, very indigenous
41:48
Speaker: drink, which is just ground up.
41:51
Speaker: Corn, like in the indigenous way would be like the nixtamalized
41:56
Speaker: corn masa is diluted with water and flavoring is added to it.
42:00
Speaker: The modern interpretation is using Massarina.
42:03
Speaker: And so it's very typically had in the winter because it's a hot
42:08
Speaker: like thick drink.
42:10
Speaker: And you can do strawberry, you
42:12
Speaker: can do if it's chocolate, it's
42:14
Speaker: called champurrado.
42:15
Speaker: It's like hot Mexican hot
42:16
Speaker: chocolate thickened with
42:17
Speaker: massarina.
42:19
Speaker: There's also a guayaba atole,
42:21
Speaker: which is also a winter seasonal
42:24
Speaker: fruit in here in northern
42:26
Speaker: Mexico.
42:27
Speaker: It's kind of, um, winterish.
42:30
Speaker: Yeah, but you can do any fruit, any fruit.
42:35
Speaker: And it's such a very filling
42:37
Speaker: drink and it's usually had with
42:40
Speaker: tamales.
42:41
Speaker: So that's a very like Christmas thing.
42:43
Speaker: You're having tamales.
42:43
Speaker: You're having a doll.
42:45
Speaker: Yeah.
42:46
Speaker: Lovely.
42:46
Speaker: Those are very refreshing looking drinks.
42:49
Speaker: There's also some hot chocolates, corn thickened.
42:52
Speaker: And like you said, the drinks that actually are served during
42:55
Speaker: warm weather also.
42:58
Speaker: All right.
42:58
Speaker: Let's talk a little bit about the the sweets.
43:02
Speaker: I know there's cakes, uh, things
43:04
Speaker: you might get at a bakery, but
43:05
Speaker: there's also ice creams and ice
43:07
Speaker: pops.
43:09
Speaker: Yes.
43:10
Speaker: The cakes are the very typical.
43:13
Speaker: You know what I would say?
43:14
Speaker: Classic Mexican desserts.
43:15
Speaker: There's, there's um we call it imposible or choco flan, which
43:20
Speaker: is a bottomless chocolate.
43:21
Speaker: In the top is a flan.
43:23
Speaker: There's flan.
43:24
Speaker: So that a lot of it is a very, I
43:27
Speaker: would say it's a very veganized
43:29
Speaker: chapter.
43:29
Speaker: So I took classic staples and then did do some substitutions
43:34
Speaker: so that I could do vegan versions of them.
43:36
Speaker: They are lower in sugar than the typical dessert would be, and so
43:43
Speaker: also lower in fat because there's no butter, there's no I
43:47
Speaker: mean, there is fat, right?
43:48
Speaker: But no, no whipped cream or heavy cream.
43:51
Speaker: Yes.
43:52
Speaker: Yeah.
43:53
Speaker: Um, my favorite is a cake called Mustachian.
43:59
Speaker: It's a very northern Mexico cake.
44:01
Speaker: In the bottom, it's like a
44:02
Speaker: cookie base made with pecans and
44:05
Speaker: Ritz crackers.
44:07
Speaker: It's up in.
44:08
Speaker: If you're doing it non-plant based, it's a meringue.
44:11
Speaker: So you whip egg whites and you kind of put that together.
44:14
Speaker: And so instead of that, I used Aquafaba, which is the can the
44:18
Speaker: liquid in the can of chickpeas.
44:19
Speaker: Mhm.
44:20
Speaker: And so you can whip that like egg whites.
44:22
Speaker: And that's what I use to bind it.
44:23
Speaker: And so that you bake it and that's the bottom of the cake.
44:26
Speaker: I guess it's more like a tart tart.
44:28
Speaker: And then you top it with like macerated strawberries.
44:32
Speaker: And I made like a cashew cream cheese to go with it.
44:39
Speaker: Yeah.
44:40
Speaker: It looks really great.
44:41
Speaker: Um, kind of a version of it's almost like a, um, the layer on
44:45
Speaker: the bottom is very thin.
44:46
Speaker: And I had a discussion about Aquafaba with someone as a guest
44:50
Speaker: on another show.
44:51
Speaker: If chickpea liquid is the only
44:53
Speaker: bean liquid that you can use to
44:56
Speaker: make the cream or the whipped
44:58
Speaker: topping.
44:58
Speaker: Do other beans work, or are they too discolored or.
45:03
Speaker: No, they do.
45:04
Speaker: They do work.
45:05
Speaker: What you do have to sometimes reduce it.
45:08
Speaker: So the.
45:09
Speaker: Because I know I've tried it with not canned version like you
45:13
Speaker: can do it also with the liquid from the chickpeas.
45:15
Speaker: But sometimes with that one you have to reduce it.
45:18
Speaker: So simmer it until it thickens a
45:19
Speaker: little bit and then you can whip
45:21
Speaker: it.
45:21
Speaker: But I've done it with white beans.
45:24
Speaker: So also the liquid from white
45:25
Speaker: beans and chickpeas are the most
45:28
Speaker: common.
45:28
Speaker: MM. And I guess like I think
45:30
Speaker: about if you have black beans or
45:32
Speaker: kidney beans, sometimes that
45:34
Speaker: liquid is colored from the
45:35
Speaker: beans.
45:35
Speaker: So you would have a cream that would not be white.
45:38
Speaker: It would be, yeah, red or it would be black, I guess, which
45:42
Speaker: would be kind of a creative way to do it.
45:44
Speaker: But yeah, I was just curious if it worked from any being.
45:48
Speaker: So you did answer my question, but if you want the color to be
45:50
Speaker: pure, you probably need to focus on the beans that have a lighter
45:54
Speaker: color when they're in the can.
45:56
Speaker: Yeah.
45:56
Speaker: Yes.
45:57
Speaker: Yeah.
45:58
Speaker: Very good.
45:58
Speaker: And tell us a little bit about Ice Pops.
46:02
Speaker: Yes.
46:02
Speaker: You know, Mexico has a very big ice cream and popsicle culture.
46:07
Speaker: There's all kinds of flavors.
46:09
Speaker: I think the craziest flavor.
46:13
Speaker: Think about it.
46:15
Speaker: It's probably cheese.
46:17
Speaker: There's like a cheese popsicle or like a cheese ice cream.
46:21
Speaker: Um, but there's corn.
46:22
Speaker: There's avocado.
46:23
Speaker: There's all the fruits that you can think of.
46:26
Speaker: There's a arroz con leche
46:28
Speaker: popsicle, which is like a rice
46:30
Speaker: pudding popsicle.
46:31
Speaker: So it's a lot.
46:32
Speaker: It's kind of the same concept as Aguas frescas.
46:35
Speaker: It's all using seasonal regional fruit and then making a popsicle
46:41
Speaker: out of it or making an ice cream out of it.
46:42
Speaker: So there is a corn ice cream in
46:45
Speaker: the book, which is one of my
46:46
Speaker: favorites.
46:47
Speaker: If you've never tried corn ice
46:48
Speaker: cream, please make this recipe
46:50
Speaker: because not only, I mean corn is
46:53
Speaker: sweet already.
46:55
Speaker: But you know, in the US we eat a lot of sweet corn, corn flakes,
47:00
Speaker: you know, like Captain Crunch is made with corn.
47:03
Speaker: Like all we.
47:04
Speaker: There's a lot of corn sweetness,
47:05
Speaker: so it's not going to be
47:07
Speaker: unfamiliar.
47:08
Speaker: Yeah.
47:08
Speaker: And you're using fresh corn.
47:11
Speaker: It's going to be so good.
47:12
Speaker: And then I use to make kind of like the base.
47:15
Speaker: I simmer the like, I cut the corn off the cob, but then I
47:19
Speaker: simmer the cob in there.
47:20
Speaker: So then that releases the starches in there.
47:23
Speaker: So it makes it very creamy ice cream without having to add, you
47:27
Speaker: know, like heavy cream or egg.
47:29
Speaker: Yeah.
47:30
Speaker: Interesting.
47:31
Speaker: And it's perfect time of year to do that in the summer.
47:33
Speaker: Uh, corn is going to be at least where, where we live now.
47:38
Speaker: Um, talk about seasonality is
47:40
Speaker: kind of tricky when people
47:41
Speaker: listed around the world, but
47:42
Speaker: we're currently, you know,
47:43
Speaker: headed into mid late July and it
47:46
Speaker: will be, um, it's corn time,
47:48
Speaker: especially here.
47:49
Speaker: I live in northern Kentucky, but in Kentucky, parts of the South.
47:52
Speaker: You know, a lot of corn and people can.
47:54
Speaker: Of course, you probably can buy it at the supermarket, but if
47:58
Speaker: it's fresh corn, more seasonally grown from a place where it's
48:02
Speaker: coming off the vine.
48:03
Speaker: You know, now it's a delicious time of year to have corn.
48:06
Speaker: So I might have to give those a try.
48:10
Speaker: Yeah.
48:10
Speaker: Yeah.
48:11
Speaker: So usually at the, as we're wrapping up the show, talk to
48:14
Speaker: people about cookbooks.
48:15
Speaker: If there's favorite cookbooks,
48:16
Speaker: but you have something unique
48:17
Speaker: going on that none of my other
48:20
Speaker: authors have really talked about
48:22
Speaker: doing.
48:22
Speaker: So tell us a little bit about your online cookbook club.
48:27
Speaker: So I just started it.
48:28
Speaker: This is our first month, but I'm a huge cookbook lover.
48:32
Speaker: Like even before I went vegan,
48:34
Speaker: I've always had a big cookbook
48:37
Speaker: collection.
48:38
Speaker: And so when I decided that my thing was going to be Mexican
48:42
Speaker: Mexican food, um, I started collecting Mexican cookbooks.
48:46
Speaker: So I do have a large collection of Mexican cookbooks.
48:49
Speaker: And then I also have access here in San.
48:52
Speaker: Well, I'm not saying right now, but in San Antonio.
48:54
Speaker: Yeah.
48:54
Speaker: To the UTSA Special Collections Library, which holds the largest
49:00
Speaker: Mexican cookbook collection in all of the US.
49:03
Speaker: And so I'm able.
49:04
Speaker: Of Texas at San Antonio, correct?
49:07
Speaker: Yes.
49:07
Speaker: Okay.
49:08
Speaker: All right.
49:08
Speaker: Yes.
49:09
Speaker: And if you ever visit San Antonio, I recommend you make an
49:12
Speaker: appointment because anybody can make an appointment.
49:14
Speaker: And all you have to do is tell
49:17
Speaker: them what books you want to see,
49:18
Speaker: and they'll bring the books out
49:19
Speaker: for you.
49:20
Speaker: And I think the oldest book, oh, I'm going to mess it up, but
49:24
Speaker: it's from the eighteen hundreds that they have.
49:26
Speaker: Yeah.
49:27
Speaker: And they also have, you know, like modern Mexican cookbooks.
49:31
Speaker: So I have my own collection and
49:33
Speaker: then I have access to the
49:34
Speaker: collection at the UTSA Special
49:36
Speaker: Collections Library.
49:38
Speaker: And I love that.
49:39
Speaker: I mean, that's my passion project.
49:41
Speaker: I love looking at them.
49:42
Speaker: I love recreating the recipes.
49:44
Speaker: I do a lot of vegetarian
49:45
Speaker: recipes, but then I also try to
49:47
Speaker: veganize recipes that are not
49:49
Speaker: vegetarian.
49:50
Speaker: And I've learned so much, so much from the different cookbook
49:54
Speaker: authors about the ingredients available at that time.
49:58
Speaker: And so I wanted to share that with my audience.
50:01
Speaker: And so what we're doing is every
50:03
Speaker: week I choose a different
50:05
Speaker: cookbook.
50:07
Speaker: I share the cook.
50:08
Speaker: If I have the cookbook in a
50:09
Speaker: digital version, I'll share the
50:10
Speaker: digital version of the whole
50:12
Speaker: cookbook.
50:12
Speaker: And if I don't, I'll take a
50:14
Speaker: picture of the cover and the
50:15
Speaker: recipe.
50:16
Speaker: And so I'll share that.
50:18
Speaker: Usually all the recipes are in
50:19
Speaker: Spanish because these are we're
50:21
Speaker: working with cookbooks from the
50:23
Speaker: nineteen forties, from the
50:24
Speaker: nineteen sixties, from the
50:25
Speaker: nineteen seventies.
50:27
Speaker: And so they're all in Spanish.
50:29
Speaker: And so I share the original photo of the of the book, the
50:33
Speaker: cookbook, the recipe, and then I translate it for you.
50:35
Speaker: I'll do a direct translation,
50:37
Speaker: and then I'll do what I call the
50:41
Speaker: modern interpretation.
50:42
Speaker: And so the modern interpretation
50:43
Speaker: is really modern recipe writing
50:46
Speaker: because recipe writing done in
50:48
Speaker: nineteen forty.
50:49
Speaker: Basically saying the roasted tomato needs to go with this and
50:53
Speaker: then blend in this.
50:54
Speaker: And so people are very used to
50:58
Speaker: modern recipe writing, which is
50:59
Speaker: very descriptive.
51:01
Speaker: And so what I do is I take that original translated recipe and
51:05
Speaker: do a more descriptive version of it kind of step by step.
51:09
Speaker: So like put the pumpkin seeds in the pan, toast them at this
51:13
Speaker: temperature, because what I really want is for the people in
51:17
Speaker: the club to be able to make it at home and not to be kind of
51:20
Speaker: wondering, like, I wonder what she means by this, or I wonder
51:24
Speaker: what the author meant.
51:24
Speaker: And so I'm kind of doing my own
51:26
Speaker: interpretation of that and
51:28
Speaker: putting it in a modern recipe
51:30
Speaker: format so that you can make it
51:32
Speaker: at home.
51:33
Speaker: Nice.
51:33
Speaker: And then I'll share a video of me making that recipe so that
51:38
Speaker: you can also make it at home and, you know, not wonder.
51:42
Speaker: I wonder if I did this right or if I didn't do it right.
51:44
Speaker: And then we share the pictures.
51:46
Speaker: Like if you made the recipe, you can go on to the community and
51:49
Speaker: share the picture of your recipe and kind of talk about it and
51:53
Speaker: what you thought about it.
51:54
Speaker: If you didn't like it, if you liked it.
51:56
Speaker: And so it's just starting out.
51:58
Speaker: Um, but I'm super excited about it.
52:00
Speaker: It's kind of bringing a new kind of like refreshing, um, idea and
52:05
Speaker: like project into my life.
52:07
Speaker: Yeah.
52:07
Speaker: Because when you finish writing
52:09
Speaker: a cookbook and I mean, you're
52:10
Speaker: promoting it, but things kind of
52:12
Speaker: like change in your talk a
52:14
Speaker: little bit about what life was
52:15
Speaker: like with your kids writing the
52:17
Speaker: book.
52:18
Speaker: And then, uh, you know, just
52:21
Speaker: what, what life was like being a
52:23
Speaker: cookbook writer.
52:24
Speaker: Yeah.
52:25
Speaker: So when I started the process, I, I mean, I spoke to a lot of
52:28
Speaker: authors beforehand and they're like, it's really hard.
52:31
Speaker: You know, it's going to need a lot of coordination.
52:33
Speaker: And, and I naively thought,
52:36
Speaker: well, I already recipe
52:37
Speaker: developing like I'm already
52:39
Speaker: doing this.
52:39
Speaker: Like, really, how hard is this going to be?
52:43
Speaker: Yeah, I was wrong.
52:45
Speaker: Um, it was very difficult, but
52:48
Speaker: not the actual writing and the
52:51
Speaker: photography.
52:51
Speaker: Like the not none of that was hard.
52:53
Speaker: That was fun.
52:54
Speaker: It was coordinating my entire life to fit into this new
52:59
Speaker: schedule and this new deadline.
53:01
Speaker: And then at the same time, you
53:03
Speaker: know, having to continue to do
53:04
Speaker: all the things that I did with
53:06
Speaker: the kids, you know, taking to
53:08
Speaker: school, feeding them, you know,
53:10
Speaker: everything that entails raising
53:12
Speaker: children.
53:13
Speaker: And so we started, we, I think the first year, because it was a
53:18
Speaker: three year, almost a three year process, writing the book was
53:22
Speaker: very fun for me.
53:24
Speaker: It's stressful because of the coordination of schedules, but
53:27
Speaker: halfway through I got a divorce.
53:30
Speaker: And so that kind of thankfully,
53:32
Speaker: I had already written the
53:33
Speaker: manuscript.
53:34
Speaker: So the manuscript was written
53:36
Speaker: and that was kind of like in
53:37
Speaker: editing phases.
53:38
Speaker: So it wasn't as time consuming,
53:40
Speaker: which left me time to cry, you
53:43
Speaker: know?
53:43
Speaker: Yeah, It's true.
53:45
Speaker: You know, it's it's a lot.
53:46
Speaker: And I think that if you're at that phase, though, where you're
53:48
Speaker: reviewing edits that have been made, it's a different types of
53:51
Speaker: attention you have to pay to it than actually writing it.
53:54
Speaker: So yeah.
53:55
Speaker: Yeah.
53:55
Speaker: So it was challenging and a personal aspect because of the
53:59
Speaker: divorce and, you know, going from, you know, raising kids
54:04
Speaker: with another person to then raising kids by myself.
54:06
Speaker: Yes.
54:07
Speaker: Um, but the process itself of
54:09
Speaker: writing the cookbook I found
54:11
Speaker: very rewarding.
54:13
Speaker: Yeah.
54:14
Speaker: And all your hard work now in print and bound.
54:17
Speaker: And I think the cook, the online
54:19
Speaker: cookbook club then allows you to
54:21
Speaker: explore these recipes in a
54:22
Speaker: deeper way.
54:23
Speaker: Different people's recipes, you know, veganizing them, looking
54:26
Speaker: at different traditions and the way even recipes were written.
54:30
Speaker: Like you said, you know, fifty
54:32
Speaker: years ago versus how they're
54:33
Speaker: written now.
54:34
Speaker: How's the club going?
54:35
Speaker: And, uh, what's the response been so far?
54:38
Speaker: Yeah, it's been going really well.
54:41
Speaker: I still I'm looking for more people so that we can have a, I
54:46
Speaker: think, greater participation.
54:48
Speaker: Yeah.
54:48
Speaker: People have been sharing their pictures, but I would say a
54:51
Speaker: small percentage of them.
54:52
Speaker: So my vision is that we have a large amount of people so that
54:56
Speaker: every week we can share each other's, you know, pictures and
54:59
Speaker: show each other what we made.
55:01
Speaker: And then, you know, I think as
55:02
Speaker: we grow, we'll be able to
55:04
Speaker: explore maybe different areas
55:06
Speaker: that other people are interested
55:07
Speaker: in.
55:07
Speaker: Right now, I'm just choosing whatever, you know, I like, but
55:11
Speaker: I think the more people we have and the more input there is
55:14
Speaker: that's going to change, kind of like the vision of it.
55:17
Speaker: If people are more interested,
55:18
Speaker: let's say, for example, in
55:20
Speaker: Veganizing meat recipes, then we
55:22
Speaker: might do like a month where
55:24
Speaker: we're only veganizing recipes
55:26
Speaker: that traditionally traditionally
55:27
Speaker: have meat.
55:28
Speaker: I see.
55:28
Speaker: Or if people are more interested
55:30
Speaker: in indigenous recipes and we
55:32
Speaker: might focus on indigenous
55:33
Speaker: cookbooks.
55:34
Speaker: So right now it's just kind of
55:35
Speaker: like me choosing whatever I
55:37
Speaker: want.
55:37
Speaker: But I think the more people we
55:39
Speaker: have, then that would enrich it
55:41
Speaker: and we can explore all the
55:42
Speaker: different areas.
55:43
Speaker: Yeah.
55:44
Speaker: That's great.
55:44
Speaker: So this is a perfect time to ask you then if people do want to
55:48
Speaker: connect with you online or learn about your online cookbook club,
55:52
Speaker: how might they do that?
55:54
Speaker: So I'm on all social media as at Doris table.
56:00
Speaker: And I also have a website, Doris dot com.
56:05
Speaker: And so if you go to any of my
56:07
Speaker: social media or my website,
56:09
Speaker: you'll be able to find
56:11
Speaker: information about the cookbook
56:12
Speaker: club.
56:13
Speaker: And also I have a on my website, you can sign up for my
56:17
Speaker: newsletter and for the newsletter, I'll just send out
56:19
Speaker: maybe like seasonal recipes, like it was fourth of July.
56:22
Speaker: And I sent out an email like fourth of July as a piece.
56:25
Speaker: But then I also, that's, that's the place where I, I share news.
56:29
Speaker: So like if I'm having an event
56:31
Speaker: or like the cookbook club or I
56:32
Speaker: also give online cooking
56:34
Speaker: classes.
56:34
Speaker: So I'm having an online cooking class.
56:36
Speaker: And that's where all the really information goes to wonderful.
56:41
Speaker: So people can head on over to your website, Dora's table dot
56:45
Speaker: com, to get more information.
56:48
Speaker: So it's been wonderful to have you on the show.
56:50
Speaker: So, uh, wow, we talked about a
56:53
Speaker: lot of this journey through, um,
56:55
Speaker: the culinary landmarks, your
56:57
Speaker: visits with the indigenous cooks
57:00
Speaker: and you're veganizing of recipes
57:02
Speaker: is, I mean, we filled a full
57:04
Speaker: hour here with talking just
57:05
Speaker: about that.
57:06
Speaker: It's been terrific to hear about it.
57:08
Speaker: I wish you, um, nothing but the best.
57:10
Speaker: Your beautiful book.
57:12
Speaker: Sarah.
57:12
Speaker: More than one hundred Vegan recipes from traditional to
57:16
Speaker: modern Mexican dishes.
57:19
Speaker: And thank you for having me.
57:20
Speaker: Yeah.
57:20
Speaker: Thank you again and welcome.
57:22
Speaker: I mean, congratulations again on
57:24
Speaker: your James Beard Award is well
57:26
Speaker: deserved.
57:26
Speaker: And, um, hope you have a great rest of your month and enjoy the
57:30
Speaker: promotion of your book.
57:32
Speaker: Thank you.
57:34
Speaker: Thank you so much for joining us today for this episode of the
57:37
Speaker: Cookbook Love podcast.
57:38
Speaker: Again.
57:38
Speaker: All the links can be found in
57:40
Speaker: the show notes at w w w dot dot
57:43
Speaker: co.
57:44
Speaker: And if you are interested in
57:46
Speaker: writing a cookbook of your own,
57:47
Speaker: please check out the free
57:49
Speaker: Cookbook Writing Masterclass
57:51
Speaker: called How to Get Paid to Write
57:52
Speaker: a Cookbook.
57:54
Speaker: It is designed specifically for
57:55
Speaker: food or nutrition experts, and
57:58
Speaker: you can check that out at w w w
58:00
Speaker: dot cookbook writers academy dot
58:03
Speaker: com.
58:05
Speaker: So that's it for today's episode of the Cookbook Love Podcast.
58:08
Speaker: This is your host, Maggie Green.
58:10
Speaker: And until next time, have a
58:12
Speaker: great day and keep loving your
58:14
Speaker: cookbooks.
58:19
Speaker: Thanks for listening to the Cookbook Love podcast.
58:22
Speaker: You can find out more information at w w w dot
58:24
Speaker: cookbook dot co.