>> Pati: Every now and then, you meet someone who has that special something.

Imagine being born in a tiny town in one of the poorest states in Mexico.

Preserving your traditions and following your passions to become one of Oaxaca's most acclaimed chiefs.

Known, practically, throughout the world.

Her name is Abigail Mandoza and I have come a long way to work with her.

>> Abigail: Laughter >> Pati: In my kitchen >> Oh hoo a roasted Oaxacan chicken with oregano and garlic.

A delightful corn salad.

And a dramatic burnt milk ice cream topped with animal crackers.

Because we are all about contrasts today and drama From the most common beginnings, this episode delivers the unexpected.

♪ ♪ >> Pati's Mexican Table is made possible by: >> Some things are always there for you.

Like your alarm clock, right on time.

Your parking space.

Seriously?

Girl's night, always there.

And avocados from Mexico.

They are always there because they are fresh all year round.

>> ♪ Avocados from Mexico ♪ ♪ ♪ >> La Costena, por sabor!

Taste that transcends.

More information at mexicorico.com Over 40 years, bringing authentic Latin American flavors to your table.

Tropical Cheese.

>> The Ministry Of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries And Food.

Mexbest and The National Agricultural Council.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> Pati: What is this place?

Where the familiar is unfamiliar.

The sounds, the aromas, the colors, the falavors!

I know them all, but not like this.

Definitely yes, I am still in Mexico, but in a place that is called "The land of the Gods" This is Teotitlan del Valle ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> Pati: Teotitlan attracts visitors from around the globe for its beautiful rugs of the native Zapotec peoples.

Using only natural techniques and untold generations of knowledge.

The artisans of the Zapotec create tapestries of incredible vibrancy and intricate design.

Each piece wants to tell the story of the Zapotec and their life here in this land of the Gods About an hour drive east of the city of Oaxaca, Teotitlan is nestled amongst the peaks of Oaxaca Central Valley.

When I arrive Hola I encounter the first of many surprises ♪ ♪ Today is a village party!

We just happen to be here on this day of this Americana celebration, remembering the day that Jesus was given water after 40 days in the desert.

Nieve are famous here in Oaxaca.

I have been dying to try this Nieve for such a long time!

This is burnt milk Nieve.

mmmmm It is really different.

Sort of vanilla flavor, but it has an undertone of smoke.

It is like Mexico is doubly blessed.

We have all of the celebrations that the Spanish brought, and the Catholic church brought.

But then we have all the celebrations that existed in Mexico before the Spanish came.

It just makes for an incredibly rich and diverse place.

♪ ♪ While my thirst has been quenched, the reason I came to Teotitlan in the first place is because I have a hunger to learn about Zapotec skill and tradition Oh that is beautiful It is not the one practice at the loom, it is the one that is made in the kitchen >> Abigail: Hola!

>> Hola!

>> [Converse in Spanish] >> Pati: Let me introduce you guys formally to Abigail, because I am so honored to be here in her house, in her kitchen.

Abigail Mandoza is world wide known.

Her mission and her life's work, which is to share her traditions and her costumes and the food of her community.

So you know how I am obsessed with my blender and how I live my blender.

Well Abigail loves her Matatas So this is her collection of matates.

>> Laugh and joke in Spanish >> Path: Heavy!

That is like 55 pounds Abigail is going to show me a couple of authentic Zapotec dishes.

First up!

Are tamales with a typical Oaxaca mole called Amarillo or yellow mole.

I could tell form the start that this mole and these tamales were going to be unlike any I had ever known.

She has her own Oja Santa or sacred leaf right here!

>> [Speaking in Spanish] >> Path: It is a heart shaped leaf.

It is so beautiful.

>> Path: Woah!

You are really strong >> Path: This is hard!

♪ ♪ >> I have the hang of it.

I like this I am not even near where it needs to be.

It is going to take me all day.

>> Abigail finishes grinding the chilli and Oja Santa and mixes the paste into freshly prepared corn masa.

Then pours that mixture into a pot of simmering chicken broth.

So know, as it cooks, it is really going to thicken.

So Abigail is a proud Zapotecan >> Like the wave themselves together >> What does the Zapotecan part bring to the equation >> The Amarillo mole is ready You have to follow Abigail just like I am following her.

She jumps from all the different parts of her kitchen The last part, is to make the tamales.

I have never seen tamales like this!

Instead of a thick robe of masa, these tamales are wrapped in a thin sleeve of raw tortilla.

The mole is poured over cooked chicken.

A couple of folds, and then wrapped, not in a corn husk or banana a leaf, but in a leaf from the corn plant.

♪ ♪ The tamales the steam in a pot for 15 minutes ♪ ♪ >> [Abigail speaks in spanish] >> Path: So this is the original, the real cliuda, which you use for every meal.

It is your plate and she cuts a piece and it is also your spoon or your fork.

♪ ♪ >> [Abigail speaks in spanish] >> Pati: And at the end you eat your spoon and your plate.

Now for Zapotecan dish number 2.

And it is every bit as stunning as those tamales.

It is called Zequeza So it is an ancient pre-hispanic dish.

They use to make it with deer or wild rabbit before the Spanish brought the pork.

So we have the dried corn and now she is toasting it.

So this is what Abigail wants, to open up like popcorn.

>> Path: Abigail expertly grinds those toasted corn kernels into a coarsely fine flour.

So we have the toasted and ground corn.

Next, she pours water over the corn meal so that the hard kernel shells float to the top and then can be poured off.

The clean corn meal is added to a simple chicken stock that Abigail prepared earlier by simmering a whole chicken, which we will use later, and salt.

That is it!

>> Pati: mmm like popcorn water.

♪ ♪ So you started cooking at home.

How did you open up a restaurant?

>> Pati: So people were coming to buy the rugs >> Pati: Abigale had to risk a lot by doing what she loves and putting herself out there.

To break certain expectations from her community of the role of a woman who decided not to marry, but doing it all to preserve her community's traditions and cuisine, so it's sort of ironic.

>> You're going to add the chilli.

>> Uh huh.

♪ ♪ >> She's keeping the skin?

Oh, ok. >> Mmmmmmm.

(Abigale laughs) >> Pati: This, it tastes like a popcorn mole of sorts.

I can taste the toasted corn and I can taste the oja santa very intensely, and a light shine of the tomato.

But it's very very light, very very flavourful.

>> It's fascinating, it's tasting history, it's tasting what makes Oaxacan cuisine so diverse.

♪ ♪ >> Pati: I so enjoyed my time with Abigale, and it reminded me of how important it is to have some simple family-friendly recipes that you can make in a snap using ingredients that you love, like corn.

But you take those ingredients onto a different direction to a little bit of the extreme and then you come up with really really delicious recipes.

I am making a grilled corn salad.

So these six ears of corn, I just brush them with a little bit of olive oil and I'm going to let these char, roast, slowly so that all the sugar and juices of the corn blooms and comes out, and as this happens I'm going to make the marinade for a Oaxacan-style oregano chicken.

♪ ♪ You know, this food processor is new to me.

I know I'm really going to like it, but it's going to take me a little time.

I'm going to start with 30 cloves of garlic, and then I'm going to add about a cup of fresh oregano leaves.

It's going to be a strong marinade with a lot of personality.

My dad use to make this garlic chicken.

He would marinate with like 100 garlic cloves, I mean, this is really moderate.

He would cook the chicken until it turned to really really crispy bits.

It was really delicious.

Now I'm going to add a little bit of lime juice.

♪ ♪ One and a half teaspoons of salt.

Black pepper.

Five tablespoons of olive oil.

This is our first drive together.

Lets see how it goes.

(Loud blending) I think we're going to get along just fine!

Everything that Abigale was doing with her metate and her molcajete, I do at home with a food processor and a blender.

♪ ♪ Oh this is beautiful, ok, so now I'm going to use my hands.

So what I want here is that really crispy outside of the chicken that I grew up eating with my Dad, but I want the moist pieces inside.

so to accomplish that, I have the oven at 450 degrees, and I'm going to put the chicken skin-side down, and I'm going to let it roast for 15 minutes so the skin gets really crispy.

(Crackling and popping) The corn is screaming at me, and it's starting to char and roast.

It smells delicious!

I'm also going to char my scallions.

I'm going to rub them with a little oil.

♪ ♪ And these are going to be just a few minutes.

Now we're going to shave off the corn kernels, and I really like it when you get big lines of the corn.

See, like this, like not just the kernels but the... Mmmmm!

Mmmmm!

♪ ♪ You're taking ingredients that you see in the grocery store all the time, but you're taking them to the extreme.

Ok, so I'm going to cut this into big chunks.

♪ ♪ Beautiful!

♪ ♪ So it's been 15 minutes at 450 degrees, now I'm going to flip it.

Ooooh!

This is exactly what we want.

The skin has turned crisp and brown and not what we want to achieve is moist chicken inside.

So I'm going to pour 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth from 450 to 375 degrees.

I'm going to put the chicken back in and what's going to happen is that the crisp is going crisp on top and everything else is going to be moist and juicy.

♪ ♪ After I tried that burnt milk ice cream in Teotitlan, I decided I had to try to make it at home.

Get ready for some drama because in this ice cream, you're going to get a really interesting clash between burnt, smokey, ashy, and creamy vanilla.

It's like a, like a, like a, double personality ice cream.

I have two saucepans set over low-medium heat.

I'm going to add 1 1/2 cups of milk, 1 piece of true cinnamon.

(Snap) ♪ ♪ 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

And I'm waiting for it to come to a very gentle simmer, it cannot come to a boil, and while that happens, I'm going to make some caramel here.

In order to make caramel, all you need is 3/4 cups of sugar, a pot, and little patience.

Let the sugar melt of medium-low heat, swirling occasionally, until it turns a dark, copper color.

About 7-8 minutes.

You have to keep an eye on both things, meanwhile, I'm going to whisk a couple of eggs with two tablespoons of sugar.

I recently go a lovely email from a woman named Margarita.

Since she started watching my show, she stopped watching soap operas, which made me very happy, but that puts the pressure on because that means I have to give her a lot of drama.

Luckily, this recipe provides it.

You're going to see why.

♪ ♪ You really want to turn that shiny yellow into a pale yellow.

I love having many things going on at the same time.

It's like, if you're juggling with balls for me, the more balls you throw at me the better I get at it.

So having these two, oh yea!

The caramel is ready.

Take the cinnamon stick out of the hot milk.

And this is where the burnt milk taste comes from, I'm going to burn the milk with the caramel.

♪ ♪ Whoa!

See!

I told you there was a lot of drama!

You need to whisk all the time because the caramel will want to harden.

So now we have the burnt milk.

We're going to fold these into the custard base, and here I have 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream and I'm going to add a little bit of this and then I'm going to slowly start adding the hot milk, so I need to be whisking as I am gently pouring because we don't want the eggs to curdle.

Continue alternating between the cream and the caramel.

And let me taste to see... Mmm.

Mmmm!

It is dramatic.

It is so delicious, but it's like that drama is woven into these really smooth sweet base.

It's going to make for a great ice cream.

I'm going to put it in my ice cream maker.

We have the frozen insert, and then we're going to pour the ice cream mix.

♪ ♪ Now I'm going to turn this on and it's going to churn anywhere from 45 minutes to 1 hour and 15 minutes depending on your manufacturers direction.

So now we have to finish the salad.

I have this skillet over medium-high to high heat and I'm going to add about 5 tablespoons of olive oil.

And here we have 1 1/2 pounds of cherry tomatoes.

Mmmmm!

♪ ♪ (Sizzling) Then I'm going to add 1 teaspoon of salt.

We have a lot of sizzling and smoking and jumping, that's why cooking is so much fun!

I'm going to add black pepper.

While the tomatoes continue to char, I'm going to add my vinegar to the salad and now I'm going to add two tablespoons of red wine vinegar and then I'm adding chives and mint so we have all these charred, rustic tastes, but then we have the fresh herbs.

So I'm going to start mixing these up.

♪ ♪ You can see the thick sweet juices as they're coming out and cooking with the olive oil, that's good.

I'm going to mix these.

♪ ♪ I haven't taken a bite and I'm dying already...

I'm going to toss that gently, so my salad is ready, my chicken is ready too.

The chicken broth that I added when I put the chicken back in the oven is going to make the chicken be really moist but it also cooks off so the chicken continues to brown in the bottom and on top.

♪ ♪ See how crunchy that is?

♪ ♪ Mmm!

I'm getting the crisp and crunchy on the outside and the juicy and moist inside.

It does remind me of that chicken my Dad use to make, and the seasonings, but Papi I made it moist.

♪ ♪ Let's see the salad.

♪ ♪ Crunchy, sweet, fabulous combination.

The chicken and the salad really compliment each other.

What more could you ask for in a meal?

♪ ♪ Look - at - that!

Looks bit like a dolce de leche or a cajeta ice cream, or salted caramel.

♪ ♪ Mmmm!

You can taste that deep dark burnt layer of flavor.

Only one thing can make it better, and that's a little crunch!

Because we're all about contrasts today, So I have animal crackers.

I'm going to sprinkle those on top.

A great idea, no?

Mmm!

♪ ♪ Mmmmmm!

♪ ♪ Mmm, that's it, I'm done!

♪ ♪ For recipes and information from this episode and more, visit patijinich.com and connect!

Find me a Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest @PatiJinich.

Pati's Mexican Table is made possible by: ♪ ♪ The ministry of agriculture, livestock, rural development, fisheries and food.

Mexbest.

And The National Agricultural council.

A tradition of authentic Latin flavors and family recipes.

Tropical Cheese.

♪ ♪ >> La Costena, por sabor!

Taste that transcends.

More information at: mexicorico.com >> Some things are always there for you.

Like your alarm clock, right on time.

Your parking space.

Seriously?

Girl's night, always there.

And avocados from Mexico.

They are always there because theya re fresh all year round.

>> ♪ Avocados from Mexico ♪ >> Proud to support Pati's Mexican Table