[música recurrente] -[Pati V.O.]

In the Sierra de Menchaca, just outside Cuatro Ciénegas in Coahuila, I met Juan Luis Longoria.

He's a historian and one of the leaders and advocates of the Ndé nation, the people the Spanish called Apaches.

I asked him if I could come along to see the valley through his eyes.

He told me that nobody and nothing here exists in solitude.

In his language, there's a word for that: Ndenají.

We are us and we are all connected.

[música animada] Pati's Mexican Table is brought to you by... [música animada] Wells Fargo supports over 3 million small business customers.

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[birds chirping] -[Pati] Juan, ¿hay alguna visión que tú reconoces de la comunidad Ndé con cómo comemos, los alimentos, cómo nos conectamos con lo que consumimos?

Si -[Juan] En las historias de la creación, todos somos familiares y antes nos podíamos comunicar entre todos.

Por eso nosotros sabemos para qué sirven las plantas, porque ellas nos lo dijeron.

Por eso comemos ciertos animales, porque llegamos a un trato con ellos comunicándonos.

Hay algo bien importante que se llaman mitos.

El mito es información codificada.

¿Entiendes el código de la lengua del inglés?

Entonces, si yo te hablo en inglés, me puedes -entender.

-Sí.

Pero si te hablo en otra lengua, en ndémisa, oh, goshó, golgai.

¿Qué dije?

-[Pati] No sé qué idioma es ese.

-[Juan] Es el ndé.

Porque nuestra gente está esparcida en un territorio muy grande.

-Ajá.

-Entonces, a esa grupo de toda nuestra gente que está esparcida, le llamamos nación, porque hemos nacido en Ndé.

En los Estados Unidos de América quedaron otra parte de nuestro pueblo.

Digamos, del río Bravo, doblas al norte, llegas al Black Range, por allá está el río Mimbres.

Allí era la frontera, la de 1848, Ajá.

que cambió en 1853 y se recorrió a la actual que tenemos ahorita.

Pero en ese tratado del 48, cuando la frontera era allá, en el artículo 11 mencionan los salvajes que quedan en ambas repúblicas.

Y la cláusula era que los Estados Unidos Mexicanos no querían batallar con nosotros.

Tanto que en 1839, en el estado de Chihuahua, hubo una ley que, que permitía que nos mataran mercenarios para librarse de lo que llamaban ellos el problema apache, porque es como nos conocen, apaches.

Y además que no somos xenófobos, porque en nuestra entender del mundo, todos somos Ndé, porque todos somos hijos del mismo creador, Big Egoina, el creador de todo.

-[Pati V.O.]

His people lived in this valley alongside the bison, and after the Europeans came, both nearly disappeared.

A hundred and sixty years later, the bison have finally come home, and so has he.

Juan told me about the pact between his people and the bison, older than anyone can count.

-[Juan] En estos mitos, que es con lo que empezamos, llegamos a un acuerdo con el iyané, que le llaman en español bisonte.

Nayenexgani habló con iyané y dijo: "Pues está bien, acepto que me ganas, me derrotas.

Sirvo para ti como alimento para todas tus necesidades.

La regla es no me desperdicies, porque si lo haces, voy a desaparecer".

¿Y qué pasó?

Doscientos años sin bisonte, sin estar en contacto con un ser sabio que nos enseñó mediante un mito el equilibrio.

La idea en esto es aprovechar todo, porque si desperdiciamos ese hábito que se puede hacer: "Ah, desperdicio una vez, no pasó nada".

Desperdicio dos veces y nos volvemos una sociedad que no cuida.

Ahorita nosotros no pensamos en alimentarnos de bisonte.

Tenemos que lograr primero el equilibrio.

-[Pati] A ver, los bisontes ya están aquí.

Estos son bisontes que -existían aquí antes.

-[Juan] Así es.

Pero están regresando a un lugar que ya cambió.

Platícame un -poquito de ese como desfase o... -A ellos los mataban porque eran competencia para el ganado.

Además, eran fuentes de alimentación nuestra.

Era un ataque hacia nosotros también.

-A su forma de vida.

-[Juan] Así es.

Nosotros estamos trayendo ese cambio juntos.

[gruñido de bisonte] -[Juan] Lo que hacen estos, estos son juegos, van estableciendo dominio.

Los machos van diciendo: "A ver, a ver, yo como yo aquí".

"No, pues cómo que yo".

Y ahí, entre juego y juego, se va marcando un dominante.

El dominante aquí es este.

Es Florencio, el que está detrás de este.

Le enseño a señalar en, en, como nosotros los señalamos.

Nosotros no señalamos con el dedo.

Decimos que puede cortar la lluvia.

Este, como estoy dando un beso con, con los labios a aquel.

Es como nosotros señalamos.

Florencio, véngase acá de este lado.

Toma, Florencio.

-[Juan] Eso.

Échesela ahí, échesela ahí.

Ya lo olió, ahí, écheselo ahí porque... Ahí está atento.

Échetele, échetele.

Vámonos acá atrás a buscar leña y candelilla.

La candelilla es de donde sacan la cera.

¿Cómo se dice vela en inglés?

-Candles.

-Candles.

Candelilla.

Esto sí lo juntamos nosotros.

El bisonte lo que quiere es algo plano.

-[Pati] Mmm -[Juan] Y poco a poco ha ido tumbando árboles.

Con un mal manejo, un sobrepastoreo, se acabaron el pasto y las otras plantas fueron tomando su lugar.

Se ve bonito, pero no está equilibrado.

-[Pati V.O.]

The bison is the soul of this valley, imposing yet somehow gentle.

Its hooves break the ground, its grazing brings back the grass, and the grass holds the water.

It's hard to conceive that the shape of this landscape depends on such a simple act.

Aquí donde estamos, donde está el, eh, Iyané... -[Pati] Mmm -... son 400 metros más alto que el valle de Cuatro Ciénegas.

Por gravedad, esta agua que logremos captar aquí va a alimentar los mantos freáticos.

El iyané no nada más va a ser bendición para el pueblo indé, no nada más va a ser bendición para el espacio donde está, va a ser bendición para todos.

[música suave] Véngase para echar la lumbre.

Tengo unos frijolitos que vamos a hacer con carne seca... -Mmm -... y, y vamos a hacer atole de mezquite.

Este es el fruto, nosotros le llamamos nastañé.

Este lo molemos y tenemos, eh, la harinita de, de mezquite... -[Pati] Ajá -[Juan] ... que eso es lo que le vamos a usar para espesar y que se haga el, el atolito.

Un atole.

-[Pati V.O.]

The taste of mezquite left such an imprint on me.

I want to bring it to the kitchen to make a hearty breakfast full of soul.

When I think about mezquite now, I think about Juan and that mezquite atole that we made together, having such a hearty meal and such an incredible conversation.

And that mezquite atole made me dream up of these mezquite pancakes that I'm gonna make with you.

So we're making a full breakfast.

It's gonna be mezquite flour pancakes with a little bacon on the side and sunny-side-up eggs.

I decided to combine three different flours, the mezquite flour with all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour.

All-purpose flour is gonna give it, like, a fluffy texture and good structure, and whole wheat flour is gonna give it an even more nutty taste, and it's also gonna give my pancakes some chew.

So you're getting the best of all worlds.

I'm gonna now add two teaspoons of baking powder and baking soda because we gotta help these pancakes fluff, and I love using them together.

I'm adding a pinch of salt, a tablespoon of sugar.

I want, like, different layers of sweet.

So I'm gonna whisk my dry ingredients here.

[soft music] I'm gonna crack two eggs.

[egg cracking against the table] [egg cracking] And then I'm gonna add vanilla extract, whole milk.

You could use whatever milk you wanted.

I love using whole milk for pancakes.

Okay, so I'm gonna beat my wet ingredients.

Then I'm gonna mash one banana here.

The banana is gonna give it a little bit of a moist texture.

I knew of mezquite flour because of my travels in Arizona.

The Tohono O'odham from Southern Arizona also use a lot of mezquite flour.

It's such an incredible and rich ingredient, and it's become a part of my pantry now.

Two tablespoons vegetable oil.

This will also help give the pancakes texture and will help them not stick.

And now I'm going to mix my wet and dry ingredients.

Once you mix everything together, you wanna let the mixture sit for, like, 10 or 15 minutes because the flours are gonna continue hydrating and changing the structure of the dough, and you also want the baking powder and the baking soda to get activated.

So once you mix the dough, don't start making pancakes.

Get busy doing something else.

Like right now, I'm gonna get busy by frying some bacon.

[bacon sizzling] I like to start with my pan already preheated at medium heat, and then just add the bacon, like, no fuss.

[bacon sizzling] Okay.

As the bacon crisps, I wanna add butter.

And I like combining the butter with the oil because it helps the butter not burn.

[butter sizzling] Okay, let me... I don't know what to do, flip my bacon, put the pancakes.

I don't want the bacon to burn.

[bacon sizzling] Okay, okay, okay.

[música suave] Low heat.

[pan sizzling].

Ooh, lovely sizzle.

Whatever you do, don't press the pancakes as they're cooking because we've been working so hard to make them fluff with the mix of flours and the baking soda and the baking powder and the eggs and the bananas.

You don't wanna go like that.

Just let them do their thing, let them cook, let them fluff.

I want them nicely browned 'cause it goes with the mesquite flavor.

Okay, as these continue to cook, I've been preheating this little skillet over medium to medium-low heat.

I'm gonna add a little bit of oil.

Gonna crack a couple of eggs.

[eggs cracking] [pan sizzling] Salt, pepper.

Cover them.

My last piece of bacon.

And these are super ready to flip.

Oh, I hope I didn't burn them.

Yum.

I want them rustic.

Ah!

Okay, that one broke a little.

I don't consider myself a perfectionist, but I do think I have extremely high expectations [chuckles] of myself.

So it's not like I need to have things be super perfect.

Like now, the pancakes broke a little maybe, but I expect them to be out of this world delicious.

One, [spatula scraping plate] two, three.

Oh, these eggs are perfect.

I love breakfast.

I think it's my favorite meal of the day.

I mean, o sea, este es desayuno de campeones.

Ah, y todavía le falta, todavía le falta.

Butter.

My goal is to have all of the members of my team wanna dive into this plate when we're finished shooting, okay?

Of course, we must do either confectioners' sugar or maple syrup or agave syrup.

I just love confectioners' sugar so much.

Okay.

Primero pancake.

Mmm, mmm, mmm.

It's like caramelized caramel.

So we have the savory, smoky egg, sweet confectioners' sugar.

Mmm, mm-hmm.

Mmm, mmm, mm-hmm, mmm.

You guys.

¿Comes tocino?

Mm.

Did you mix all of the things?

Mm-hmm.

Incredible.

Es que I like it because they're fluffy.

Aquí.

Come, come.

Excuse me.

Sí está muy buenísimo, ¿eh?

Gaby, ven.

Esto es para Mau.

[laughs] -[Pati V.O.]

Back in the plains, Juan and I prepared a meal to take on the go, refried beans with dried beef and a mesquite atole drink.

-[Juan] Ya está la lumbre a punto.

Vamos a tostar... -[Pati] La carne seca.

-[Juan] ...la carne seca y luego se lo echamos a los frijolitos.

Nuestro mesquite ahora vamos a echar también a tostar un poquito.

Nomás voy agarrando calorcito -porque el agua de mesquite, -[Pati] Ajá.

... esa se puede tomar como si fuera una, un tecito.

-[Pati] Mmm.

-Se toma calientito pa' tiempo de frío.

En tiempo de calor, pues lo se puede dejar enfriar.

-[Pati] Mmm.

Lo tomamos fresco.

En este caso, lo vamosa usar ahorita para estar aquí.

¿Tiene buen brazo, chef?

-[Pati] Mhm.

-¿Soporta el calor?

-[Pati] Mmm, ¿Qué quieres que haga?.

-[Juan] Porque vamos a estar aquí -[Juan] meneando, meneando.

-[Pati] Claro, claro, claro.

-[Juan] Fíjese que el colorcito que agarra.

-[Pati] Precioso, como caramelo.

-[Juan] Y el humito nos va a dar un toque tambiénde sabor.

-[Pati] Mmm, el sabor del... -[Juan] Le damos agüita.

-[Juan] Y déjeme ir a machucar el, la vaina del mesquite.

-[Pati] Me fascina cómo en Chihuahua dicen la "sh".

-[Juan] Yo creo un rasgo de la lengua en Ndé.

-[Pati] ¿También?

Mmm.

-[Juan] Chef, voltee la, la carnita seca, -[Pati] ¿Con éste?

-[Juan] y váyase... Sí, es un cuchillo de piedra.

-[Pati] Quiero probar a qué sabe la carnita seca tostada.

-[Jaun] Ya con, con los frijolitos, no, hombre, le da un saborcito.

Con los frijolitos, con la carne seca, la tortilla y el atole, ya estamos.

-[Pati V.O.]

Juan tells me he takes turns with another caretaker, sleeping out there so the bison never spend the night alone.

La última vez que me quedé, me desperté y no me... estaba la luna lo suficiente para alumbrar los ojitos y se miran cómo brillaban y yo: "Ah, caray".

Rodeado de -bisontes aquí.

-Guau.

Todo... Digo, a las tres de la mañana, corriendo el viento, los escuchaba el pisar de los bisontes, se oía su, cuando hacen su, su rumble que hacen como [imita rugido] , lo hacen ellos así, muy sonoro.

-[Pati] Está riquísimo.

-Sabe a mesquite, pero... Un poquito amarguito, un poquito dulcecito.

-Y esto ya, o sea, -Un poquito a nuez.

Dulce natural.

-[Pati] Y hablando de dulces, te traje un ate de membrillo.

-[Juan] Órale, órale.

-[Pati] Te traje una miel de maguey, de ahí de Villa de Patos.

-[Juan] Súper, súper.

-Em, -¿Una gloria nos compartimos?

-Esta sí.

-¿Sí?

-Súper, súper.

[ríe] -Sí.

-Me gustan mucho.

A mí también.

-[Pati] ¿Cuál es tu sueño?

-[Juan] Es poder tener este ciclo de vida equilibrado.

Que esta generación que está atrás de nosotros pueda vivir desde su infancia toda esta relación con la tierra equilibrada.

Es, es importante que nosotros los padres les enseñemos esa, esa información, esa relación, ese respeto y que, digo, nosotros luchamos por esto para que ellos lo mantengan.

[gentle music] -[Pati V.O.]

To protect this land, striving to restore balance after centuries of conflict between mankind and nature is a task that people like Juan carry every day.

Just as the bison have been given a new chance, his hope is that we can also have a new opportunity to live in harmony with nature.

Now, I wanna whip up a special guacamole with some of the flavors from Coahuila, a chile piquín and agave guacamole.

I don't know how many different kinds of guacamole I've made in my life, but I think it goes up to the hundreds.

And I never have trouble coming up with more because every time that I go to a different region of Mexico, I get inspired with new ingredients.

So for example, now that I went to Coahuila, they use a lot of chile piquín, which there they also know as chile japonés.

So I decided to base my guacamole on chile piquín.

I have my comal set over medium-low heat, and you can adjust to taste.

I'm gonna add like this much.

Toasting them really unlocks so much of what's been preserved with the dehydrating process.

And I can smell they're spicy, they're feisty, they're a little bit fruity.

And you wanna stop until you get some fumes coming out of them.

I'm also going to toast, um, about a quarter cup of pecans.

[upbeat music] These are from Coahuila.

Super sweet.

They're so fresh, I swear you bite into them, it feels like milk is gonna come out of them.

Don't wanna burn them.

The, uh, toasted pecans are going to be for garnish.

[clears throat] Now, since I have my comal going, I'm going to toast fresh-made corn tortillas.

So I'm gonna just leave them be as I continue making the guacamole.

So we have the chile piquín.

Then I'm going to add some spearmint, or hierbabuena.

Talking about the ingredients makes me think about Juan Longoria's conversation when he was telling me that he and his community are really trying to, like, be more whole again with the environment.

And I really think we can all take lessons for that.

I really try to have my approach to cooking be one where I'm in conversation with the ingredients.

I'm gonna chop the spearmint just a little.

I wanna zest a lime.

I feel like when I'm cooking for my family or for friends, people are eating it.

It, like, becomes part of who they are.

It's a really powerful way of communicating.

Now, we're gonna take guacamole out of the box.

Yes, it has a chile, the chile piquín.

Instead of cilantro, I'm using spearmint.

Yes, I'm using the lime, but I'm using the lime zest as well as the juice.

I'm also adding agave honey or agave syrup, salt.

I'm gonna mash these ingredients to turn them into a paste.

Like, I want all of these flavors combined.

Okay, so we have the seasoning base.

Now, avocados.

It is super important that when you make guacamole, you choose a ripe avocado that's ready to be mashed, because if you try to make guacamole with a green avocado, it's gonna be very, very frustrating and it's not gonna live up to its promise.

You just hold it, give it a gentle squeeze, and if it lets you in a little, it's ready for you to cut through it.

I'm just gonna dice it so that it's easier to mash.

[upbeat music] And now, because I mashed the seasoning base, the entirety of the guacamole is seasoned.

Now, we're gonna dress it.

I'm gonna chop the pecans.

Yum.

Okay, I think this is the first time that I'm using pitaya, or dragon fruit, in Pati's Mexican Table.

You peel it like a tuna, like the fruit of a cactus, because this is the fruit of a cactus.

And just remove the skin like that.

Oof, it's almost surreal, the color.

This is the Mexican pink.

Okay, I'm gonna dice it into little squares.

Oof.

[upbeat music] Mm.

I don't know how to describe it.

It's like, it's refreshing, it's thirst-quenching, it's like a cross between a kiwi and a little bit of watermelon.

Just a little bit more pecans.

Okay.

And then we just need to jump in.

So I have tostadas here that have been toasting.

I'm gonna toast one a little bit more.

I just grab the tortilla and put it directly over the flame, right?

I am gonna add a sprinkle of salt over the pitaya.

A sprinkle of salt sometimes makes all the difference.

Okay, [toast breaking] crack the tortilla.

Oof, corrocitas.

I love it when there's pieces of the tortilla that are not completely toasted but a little chewy.

Mm.

Mm.

We want guacamole with pecans and pitaya.

[upbeat music] Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

The guacamole has slightly minty, spicy.

It has such a delicious kick from the chiles and a little sweet from the agave.

Mm.

And the lime zest and, oof, the crunch of the nori pecans.

And then the pitaya is like, "What is this?"

I mean, creo que me la volé.

[instrumental music] -[Pati V.O.]

Back in Coahuila, I'm making my way from Sierra de Menchaca to Cuatro Ciénegas, where I'm about to find a truly unique place on Earth.

[instrumental music] All the stories I hear along the way, the tender hands of the friends that I meet, the incredible flavors of the foods that I taste are all connected by the desert, which has such a rich and bright inner life underneath its surface.

[instrumental music] In the valley of Cuatro Ciénegas, there are hundreds of lakes and lagoons that have sustained life for millions of years.

Out of sight, ancient creeks stream through the veins of the earth, welling up water to valleys all around, allowing life to grow.

[instrumental music] I found it easy to feel in balance in Cuatro Ciénegas.

I left with a deep desire to share all that I've learned at the start of a brand-new day.

[instrumental music] For recipes and information from this episode and more, visit patijinich.com and connect.

Find me on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, X, Pinterest and YouTube @patijinich.

Pati's Mexican Table is brought to you by... [upbeat music] Wells Fargo supports over 3 million small business customers.

[upbeat music] La costeña, por sabor.

Avocados from Mexico.

[gentle music] Eggland's Best, available in your grocer's egg aisle.

Visit egglandsbest.com.

[birds chirping] Proud to support Pati's Mexican Table on public televisi [instrumental music]