 Welcome to Welcoming Week. This is recipes for welcoming. I know that many of you are logged into Facebook Live right now and logging into Zoom. We're gonna give everyone a few minutes to get started, but if you rejoin us, feel free to add comments into the chat boxes. We love your emojis or any noise you wanna make in celebration of these chefs that we have today. My name is Angelina Cluthis and I work in the Office of Economic Opportunity for the City of Portland. Welcoming Week is an opportunity for all of our community members to feel like they truly belong in Portland, Maine. Celebrated across the nation and thousands of cities across the U.S., this is Welcoming Week. Many of you joined us last night to cook with me at catering and tonight we get to cook with Quiero Cafe, one of my favorite restaurants in Portland, Maine. They're world-famous award-winning rice and beans or what's on the menu for tonight. So we're going to get started and I'll just ask our chefs to introduce themselves. Carlos. Hola, mi nombre es Carlos. Soy de Colombia. Dueño de Quiero Cafe con mi esposa Alejandra. Ella es Marisol de México. Nos acompaña desde hace un año y medio. Nos ha ayudado mucho en la cocina de las mejores cocineras que hemos tenido. Los dejo que se presenten. Okay, and I will do it in English so because it's, everyone is welcome. So my name is Alejandra Herrera. I have been in Maine for over 13 years. Six, five years ago I married Carlos. We had some big dreams but we didn't think it was possible but three years ago, three years and a half, we opened Quiero Cafe Sacco and a year and a half later we opened Quiero Cafe Portland because people were waiting for us and we're so excited to be here. The city have been really welcoming so I'm very excited to be here. Last year we welcomed our son Rafael. He's nine months old now and so that's a little bit about us and what I can tell you, it's about Marisol. She started working since last year when we opened Quiero Cafe Portland because we needed more help and she's from Mexico. She loves to cook and you can really taste it in everything we make. So we are so grateful to have us and enjoy what we're making. Thank you all so much. I do see a lot of actual questions coming in through the chat box. So many of you are curious about why we're doing the show in both Spanish and English. Spanish is one of the top languages spoken in the city of Portland, Maine so this is a really great opportunity for our Spanish speaking neighbors to feel like they can participate. I will do my very best to ask questions clearly in English and I can always count on Carlos to help us out in Spanish. Alejandra is gonna do the show with us in English. That would be get a little bit of everything. All right, and so I do see a lot more questions coming in but these beans do take a while to cook and I wanna get us started. Chefs, what do we need to get out of our meal kit to get started? All of you at home, I hope you have your orange bag, your meal kit. So what are we gonna need to get the, to get this stuff to keep going? Okay, In four languages. In four languages. In four languages. Sorry. Alejandra, can you just tell us about this in English? Yes, so here you're going to get the recipes and the instructions how to make it. So we have the rice and beans and we're going to start with the beans and everything you will have it in the meal kit. Okay. And it comes in four languages. So everybody can try and pinch it. Okay. Lo primero que vamos a sacar de nuestro kit de comida es los frijoles, frijoles negros. Esto alcanza más o menos para seis personas. Lo primero que tenemos que hacer es lavar los frijoles. Nosotros ya los tenemos listos lavados acá para cocinar. So what he's saying is that the first ingredient will be the beans and it will come for serving size of six people and we have to wash them and rinse them before to use them and they are already done for us. I do have a quick question, I'm sorry guys. I'm not a professional chef like you. How exactly do you wash black beans in your own kitchen? Okay. Okay, so you put them in here under the sink in the running water and just wash them and rinse them and they are good to go. Make sure helping us skip a step and save some time on the cooking show for all of you at home. You're welcome to try to wash your beans now and stick along with us or you can just kind of enjoy the instructions and cook your beans whenever is a good time for you. So what do we need next? We've got our black beans out, we wash them. Next step. So we're going to start with the oil and put it in the pan so it starts warming up to go with the next step. Okay. So we find here the onions and also the garlic. So we're going to start with the oil and then it's the next step to put into the pan. For those of you who drank this yesterday, it's that same how to garlic you used to shut that clean loop but you just need a couple of cloves for both of the recipes. So if you can just hop off. Do you need two cloves of garlic? Yeah. And I do have a question coming in through the chat but it's how do you cut the onion? And so Alecandra would you be willing to let us know about how much garlic and how much onion and then also how to cut it and then we'll let Carlos chime in with how to cut it in Spanish. So for the garlic, it's three garlic cloves actually and we cut them like small pieces enough to like give it a nice golden color and for the onions in squares. So it's easier to cut them in like slices and then cut it the other way. Perfect, awesome. And Carlos, could you tell us how to cut the onions in Spanish as well? Hey, what's the next step? The garlic. Give it up, fine, until they start getting like a nice golden color. So do you have a couple of more questions coming in on the Zoom and on the Facebook Live and it's asking about COVID, how has your business been impacted by COVID? I'm sure the masks are the normal part of your everyday. For the moment, it has been a little difficult to work separately from my colleagues and the kitchen is very difficult to work with. But we have fixed it thanks to the rules that the state of Maine has put in place. We have been trying to get it to work well. Before I even answer English, we do need to get these beans in the pot. Marty, so it's like just ready. So our washed beans. So I'm going to make seven of these beans. We toss into the beans. And start mixing them all together. So Alejandro, would you do willing to share that's a little bit about some of the COVID changes you've had to make in the business? It seems like Carlos gave us a great explanation of Spanish, but I'd love to hear the English version as well. Yeah, yeah, so for us, the hard thing is about like what he was saying, being away in a small place that we have. But thank goodness, we have a business that it's a lot of takeout and we were doing that before. So it hasn't been a big impact. But it's just, having to have people inside. I don't know, a little changes that we have to make but we manage and still applaud. Yeah, and it looks like all food here is being taken care of really safely. You've got gloves and masks and all of your workers that are doing their best to stay as we say in Maine. Wicked, pa, apas, right? So I'm going to make two, three minutes of bricol. We pour the water in, after two, three minutes of mixing the beans para que lo suficiente para que tape el bricol y pueda coserse el tiempo que le dimos. So like to cover the beans and let it cook for the time like two hours of pretty much take the beans to cook again. Y le soltamos la cucharadita de sauce. In the salt, we added a teaspoon of salt. Tablespoon, I'm sorry. No, teaspoon, teaspoon. The salt to taste, your choice. Yes, that's what I wanted to say, salt to taste. Loteriamente, esperamos a que hierva. Después de que hierva, lo vamos a bajar a, lo tapamos y lo ponemos a fuego lento. Solo esperar el tiempo adecuado que desde una a dos horas que se cocina los frijoles. Y listo. So we just have to wait until they boil and when they boil, you cover them up and lower the temperature. Awesome, so it looks like the beans are in a good place for us to get started perhaps with the next phase. So we're not just cooking black beans today, you're also getting the secret recipe to the rice here at Cairo Cafe. So we can wait for that to boil, maybe get started with the rice. What do we need to take out of our meal kit for the rice? So what we need. First ingredient, rice, of course. Oh, the bag is over here. So your bag should look like that. It's already been measured for you carefully by volunteers at Wayside Food Programs. Thank you so much, Wayside, for letting us use your distribution house and helping to get these meal kits out. And to all the Wayside, well, cheers for helping us to measure out these ingredients. So also we're going to need tomatoes that we already have all set up in there. We're going to need some garlic. Never gonna have enough garlic, right? Yes. Also we're going to need some onions and salt to taste again. And also we're going to need some oil. And then, what's the secret? Yes, like I would say the secret touch. The seasoning, like very Latin Hispanic from Goya, or whichever you think it's the brand that you want to choose. But this is the one that we use and we recommend it. And so Carlos, would you be willing to tell us what we need to take out of our meal kit? Now in Spanish, I know we've got it all on the table. If you'll just run it really quick. Okay, the principal is arroz, arroz blanco, preferablemente. Tenemos ajo, tomate. In este caso necesitamos dos tomates. Aceite. Cebolla. Y el toque secreto que son condimentos goya o maqui, condimento latino. I think like Magda, Maggi brand in the Goya brand. I've seen them all over the world. You can find them in India, you can find them in Niger. So I feel like maybe the rice and beans, even though it feels truly like Latino, perhaps it also is no matter where you are in the world, rice and beans is a part of your culture. Yes. Yes. So, principal, nalicuador. Deblender. Deblender. What's the... Beans aren't dwelling yet. So it seems like we might have time to take that next step and get the rice ready to go. Is that... All right, what do we do first? Okay. Marie? Claro. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Since all the products are there, we already have everything chopped up. Everything is ready to go. We put all the products in the blender. We grab all the ingredients that we go into the blender, like the tomatoes, the onions, the garlic... Maggi. And... What are we going to do? Pour it in Maggi? Okay. Opening the ingredients. Secret. Have some people in. The secret is by hand. All this? Okay. We're going to add all the Maggi's paste. So we'll use the whole amount that comes in the kit. Okay. It goes right into the blender. This doesn't mean... So we're going to... Water? No, it's going to be like this. This is going to be water? Yes. So that's ready to go. This teamwork makes the dream work. Yes. Okay. I'm going to pour something. That's so long, since I've been in a bar. The COVID is kind of like the backstage here. We're going to pour it. Since it's very soft. How is it? No, it needs a little bit of water. A little bit. A little bit, because these are the notes. We have a question coming in from the audience. If I don't have a blender at home, can I still make this rice? And what would I need in order to make the... How would I do without a blender? So we chop it very finely. That would be my recommendation if it cannot be done without a blender. It's because we, for the kitchen, we have a different blender. And it uses liquid. Carlos, the question coming in from the audience. No, it's not. You have to chop the onion well. That's why we need to chop the onion a little bit more. In small pieces, chop the onion and chop the tomato well. And we make a tomato paste. What is this? It's the same amount of rice and water. You have to blend it. And now it's like all mixed in, so... Just waiting. On the next step. And I do want to take a quick moment to cut to our beans, which seem like they've come to a boil. If I recall correctly, after they've come to a boil, we're supposed to reduce the heat and put a lid on it. Yes, yes. And only wait for the beans to cook. Yes, they're going to come out. So you're welcome to put a timer on for two hours, the longer the beans cook, the more delicious they are. So what he's saying to keep an eye on the beans, if you see like the water is reduced a lot, add a little more. And he's saying like every check over, every 30 minutes, just to make sure like he hasn't asked water to keep soaking, like getting all that water. So they don't dry out. Okay. The rice is already washed. And we wash it the same way we wash the beans in just a strainer. Yes, yes. We wash it the same way we wash the beans in just a strainer. So we added the oil, let it cook, like heat up a little bit, and then when it's warm enough, hot enough, we add the rice. It looks like you just pinched a little bit of rice off to check and see how hot the oil is. That must be a pro tip from Kero Cafe. Oh, I didn't see that. So it seems like you might have to be doing this for the rice for like three, four, even five minutes. And how do I know when it's done, Alejandra? When it's done is when you can see the rice is almost gold, like a brown, so... Yeah, so just a few more minutes. I've never done this stuff with making rice. This could be why my rice is never as good as it should be. And you want to make it like a... What's the word? Like all the rice got into the... get the oil. Like to get it evenly. That's what I wanted to say. So I do actually have a lot of questions coming in from our audience here that's joining us on Facebook Live and on the Zoom. Lots of people want to know, is this a family recipe? Is this a combination of your family recipes? You come from two totally different cultures, Chile and Colombia, here in Berlin, Maine. All of that must have influenced your special recipes. Plus, a Mexican chef in your kitchen, that must be a lot of different things. How did you guys come up with some of your recipes? My wife is from Chile, I'm from Colombia, Marisol is from Mexico. We always have the approval of all of the restaurants. We have people from Salvador, we have people from Honduras, Guatemala. So we always have the approval of all kinds of flags from South America. So what he's saying is that we put recipes from different countries. He said the countries where we're from, Marisol from Mexico and from Chile, Carlos from Colombia. So the recipes are pretty similar within the countries. But we try to make food that it's from one country, another country, my country, and a little bit of everything. Just a quick peek at that rice. It's turning like a golden brown. It's like it's getting a nice sun tan and the oil. So that's how we know it's almost ready. So this is what came out of the blender, plus the same amount of water as the rice. Or double the water. Salty too, right? So for a lot of people, they won't add as much salt, it just depends on... Yeah. I'm checking it to make sure it doesn't stick. So same thing, we boil, and then we turn... Put the cover on to the... Wait a minute. Yes, yes. And then be checking once in a while how it's doing. So you guys do have this fancy six burner stove, but it seems like this would be possible even in my apartment, right? You just need two burners and some patience to make this recipe happen. Yeah. So where we're from and our parents, the way they make it, our mom, so it's the way we grew up with. Yeah. So no need for a commercial kitchen. Yeah, no, not at all. Yeah, very homemade, very homemade. So you're actually getting a ton of compliments right now. So I can see them just pouring in through Facebook. People are asking about your empanadas, that they're the thing, my favorite thing on your menu. And also it seems like Julia's favorite thing. So Julia, thanks for chiming in. Super curious if you could tell us a little bit more about some of the other items on your menu while we wait for these rice and beans to cook. Yeah. Nosotros tenemos casi 15 sabores de empanadas y usamos en tres clases de empanadas y usamos el arroz y el frijol. El tenemos la empanada de frijol que va con arroz y frijol y guiso. Tenemos la empanada de pollo que va con arroz, carne y tenemos la empanada de pollo que es arroz, pollo. Y tenemos otra clase de empanadas que es puerco, chorizo, tomate. So he's saying that we have around 15 different styles of empanadas. He's saying the rice goes in three of them, the frijol, but it's a vegetarian. Also we have, and we can make a vegan without doing the egg wash. And we have the chicken and the beef and those are made with the rice. And so while you were saying more about like the menu, we started at the beginning with empanadas and a few other items and eventually we will add in more things as we started to go knowing what people were willing to try and new recipes as people join our team. We decided to do more things that are appealing to them and to us, to our customers. So that's how we started growing the menu. And one that is very popular is the patacón. It's a green plantain that we smash and fry. And then different toppings on top. So we have veggies and it's gluten free. It can be vegetarian and vegan. And then we have for the meatlovers. That's one of our biggest sellers and also the lunch. We call it like that because we were open for lunch and our biggest meal of the day is during lunch time. So it has protein, rice and beans. So you can make it at home now. A mini salad. And then it comes with sweet plantains that I like to eat at the end. So kind of like my dessert. Coach, you want to share a little bit about maybe your favorite lunch time menu in Spanish? Like matchsticks. So I know for many of you you are cooking at home this rice and beans and you've got your timers going it's almost dinner time. We do want to take a few more minutes here to field a couple of more questions and make sure that everyone is comfortable with their rice and beans. The big question is it looks like you didn't dirty very many dishes. What is your secret to keeping your kitchen so clean? We need to know so we can all have clean kitchens like here at Cafe. Having an amazing cook. Our secret is all the guys who work with us give them a lot of love respect each other and that we all do a good job to thank all the customers who come here to eat here. Portland Saco Main has been very grateful to us for the food we are offering we want to offer the same to them. Before we close out maybe each one of you could share in the language of your choice something that makes you feel like you belong here in Portland. There is something special about Portland that makes you feel that you belong here and if you could share it with the people who are watching this Facebook Live with us today. Me? Yes, your son. Our food will give us to know our cultures of each country which is the happiest the same people here we give them to know our food and that they like it and that they are happy. Perfect, thank you. For me the truth we are very enthusiastic and we are very excited that our food is well received that people like it and that we are grateful to each dish we give that makes us very happy. It is true because I also feel very happy that people accept what we are offering that they treat us well that they want you to listen that people come they look for us they write to us that makes us feel super welcomed. Really. So it sounds like food is the thing that really brings us together that you can always make someone feel comfortable about your culture through food and that's why our theme recipes for welcoming is a great way to help our neighbors feel welcomed into our homes especially when we have to stay far apart and knowing that we've got some great immigrant owned restaurants for welcoming week there's no place I'd rather be than Kiero Cafe today yesterday with Niat catering we're learning all about healthy great foods that are always available at Wayside if you don't know how to get access to food check in with Wayside they can give you great information especially if you're experiencing food insecurity in these difficult COVID times if you're not experiencing food insecurity and you want to learn more about these restaurants you can always check out Niat catering on Facebook and of course Kiero Cafe I highly recommend you come down and you have some or an empanada or all of the above there's nothing on the menu that I don't love thank you so much for joining us before you sign off we'd love to invite you to say something that makes you feel like you belong here in Portland, Maine we want to take this feedback and share it with the city we all belong here in Portland thank you so much for joining us for welcoming week before we go it is time to taste the beans we do have a special experience just like Rachel Ray a famous cooking show situation they pre-made it and so we're going to stand a few feet apart from each other and try the beans I know you can't yet but when you do get a chance to try yours and then we'll just all kind of take a quick little break and we'll go sit at a table and try some of this amazing food Josh can you set up the camera really quick over there and maybe do a quick tour of the restaurant and we'll meet you over there so it's now time to finally try the rice and beans we are lucky here because Marty pre-made some beans for us for those of you at home we still have a few more minutes to keep those things cooking the rice just finished up so the rice just finished up a little bit earlier how does it look so far do you guys approve yes yes some changes or adjustments with the sazón suddenly with the the goya the sazón goya or the maggi is the taste of each person can you lower or increase the sazón so what he was saying it's about the seasoning same as the salt it can be added to taste so maybe a little less than what we added smells incredible and I hope your kitchen is at home smells incredible as this does I think it's it's time to give it a try which is the highlight of welcoming me for me is all of the food that I get to try I hope you guys are enjoying it too I'm going to go all in beans and rice together it's incredible and healthy and easy and cheap and delicious it's like everything I want in food I agree any final comments from you all about here at our cafe that we want to share with our audience before we let them clean up their kitchens and take their rice off the stove I'm just grateful to be part of this for thinking of us we're happy to share what we make and we make it with love we are just a happy family just had two of us plus a friend and now we have grown to like 12 employees that we get together anytime we can and make it more homey so that's important to be in a foreign country and make it your own so very thankful and grateful we're really grateful for here at our cafe for having us Carlos do you want to give a quick summary of that amazing explanation in English thank you no we just want to say thank you to the state of Maine to Portland I get to receive our food what is Alejandra we started only Alejandra a friend and I the three of us in a business and now at the moment we have 12 people 13 people of a single plant and every time we are growing more thank you well I hope that everyone in the audience will be joining you soon here at Kiro Cafe in Deering and if you're even farther away in Soco you can always try that out but there's no place like Kiro Cafe on Deering Avenue in Portland, Maine thanks everyone for joining us if you're joining the hashtag conversation this is welcoming week this is today we're doing recipes for welcoming and of course in this difficult COVID time please stay the course wear your mask and celebration