Pati's Mexican Table

Pati, voice over: I'm headed back to my hometown, Mexico City, where my whole family lives.

This time, I'm not just visiting the places I love, but tracing the journey of my paternal grandparents, who came here in the early 1900s seeking safety and freedom.

I, as a Mexican Jew, have learned so much.

Pati, voice over: At her restaurant Niddo, my sister Karen weaves our grandmother's recipes into the menu.

We honor our Jewish heritage and cook the dishes we grew up with, while dreaming up new ones for the future.

Cheers to family!

Pati, voice over: Back home, Sami and I make my bubbe's recipe for gefilte fish a la veracruzana.

You have one bite and you just get it.

Pati, voice over: And I can't help but round it all up with a new take for challah.

Now you're just being a kid!

Pati, voice over: Filled with marzipan and the scent of fragrant oranges, which I think would have made my bubbe proud.

If you keep making food like this, I keep coming home.

Oh, then I'm gonna keep making food like this.

Mm!

Mm-hmm.

Pati: This is so beautiful.

That's fabulous.

[Laughing] Est delicioso.

[Bell rings] Announcer: "Pati's Mexican Table" is brought to you by... Announcer: La Costea.

Por sabor!

Announcer: From the flavors of the Caribbean to the taste of Latin America, on the menu with Marriott Bonvoy.

Avocados from Mexico [Acoustic guitar plays Avocados from Mexico jingle Announcer: Over 40 years, bringing authentic Latin American flavors to your table.

Tropical Cheese.

Announcer: Eggland's Best, available in your grocer's egg aisle.

Visit egglandsbest.com.

[Acoustic guitar playing Nationwide jingle] [Horn] Pati, voice over: Down the road from her house in Colonia Jurez, in the Alcalda Cuauhtmoc, my sister Karen runs a crazy popular restaurant called Niddo.

Whenever I come to Mexico City, it's my first stop.

[Knocking] Hello, gey!

[Laughing] Kar, I'm so proud of all you've built.

Pati, voice over: Karen has always had an entrepreneurial spirit.

As the oldest of four sisters, she started cooking young after years in the food world.

She partnered with her youngest son Eduardo to open a tiny four-table spot, which has now grown to 9 locations across the city.

Her comfort food is both beautiful and deeply personal, telling the story of our family's journey.

Karen: My children grew up with the pancakes.

So the pancakes was a Sunday thing, and it was a pampering thing.

So that's why all the cooking from my family came in here.

Pati: So it's Niddo, which translates to home, nest.

You are like the epitome of the mother.

I am.

Pati, voice over: Since we were kids, Karen's maternal energy has touched everyone around her.

Today, she blurs the line between home and restaurant, creating spaces where people truly connect.

Pati: When I'm going in your kitchen in any of the Niddos, I feel like I'm going into your home.

I feel rested.

It's full of flowers.

It smells beautiful.

Why don't we go in?

Let's go in and cook.

Everything happens in the kitchen.

[Laughs] I know.

Karen: So we're having molletes.

Pati: Yes.

Karen: Karen style.

Pati: Yes.

Karen: Nuestros rancheros.

Pati: Yes.

Karen: Niddo style.

And for dessert-- Pati: And your pancakes.

Karen: Cheese is melting for the molletes, and the rancheros are being made.

Pati: Tu ranchero salsa?

Karen: We make it with green tomatoes and red tomatoes.

[Speaking Spanish] It's mixed.

Pati: [Speaking Spanish] Karen: One and two.

[Both speaking Spanish] Pickled jalapeo?

S.

[Both speaking Spanish] It's gonna be delicious.

Now we're going... I'm so proud of what you've built and what you cook.

[Speaking Spanish] It's my passion, what I do every day.

You're an inspiration for me.

You are an inspiration too.

Don't cry.

So we are both an inspiration, and we're sisters.

Mm-hmm.

[Kisses] Pati: And this, with the fruit of the season.

You are such an artist.

I love this so much.

I really like doing what I do, you know.

Are we ready to eat?

Let's!

Yes!

Let's!

OK.

Pati, voice over: It almost feels like a crime to eat something so beautiful.

But come on, that's why we're here.

Yummy!

We have the same cravings.

I know.

[Speaking Spanish] It's Mexican, nurturing, healthy.

[Speaking Spanish] Mm!

[Speaking Spanish] It's delicious.

[Speaking Spanish] Give it a try?

[Speaking Spanish] Mm!

[Speaking Spanish] Is it good?

Shall I try?

This is what you want to eat every day.

[Speaking Spanish] Like, yes, it's bread, it's beans, it's cheese.

Pero it's like, what kind of bread?

What kind of beans?

What kind of cheese?

And this is so beautiful.

Pati, voice over: Karen continuously reimagines the foods we grew up with, the recipes our grandmothers taught us when we were young.

Beautiful food that honors our heritage, our hometown, and helped tell the story of migration.

Our grandmothers have been such an example for me of how to weave what you've inherited.

[Speaking Spanish] Like their lessons of how they grew roots in Mexico and wove their Austrian, Middle Eastern, Jewish roots with Mexico.

And now you're doing the same in your kitchen.

What do you think you've taken from our grandmothers?

I was in their kitchen every Shabbat and every weekday that we went for lunch.

Because you all run to the garden, I went to the kitchen.

Like from a very early age, I knew that I loved this.

Mm-hmm.

Cheers to life.

Cheers to family.

Cheers to love.

I think you've made so many challahs with me over the years.

And then I learned from my sister Lisa about Uri Scheft's marzipan challah.

We've been slowly but surely making it our own.

Yeah.

So now we're going to add orange blossom water to the dough.

And we're going to add orange zest to the filling.

Orange blossom water is water that's distilled from the flowers and the leaves from the orange tree.

It smells like a spa.

It does.

[Laughs] So we have two teaspoons instant yeast.

And then we're going to put one cup and a third of water.

Five and a half cups of flour.

I have a third of a cup of sugar.

We're going to add two eggs and 4 tablespoons of butter.

You add everything and then you let the mixture do its thing.

OK.

Pati: You can crack two eggs in here.

And then one more because we're going to use one for the egg wash.

And we're going to add the butter.

I look forward to making challah every Friday because it makes me stop.

Because you know you have to wait for the rises.

Yeah.

Do you want to put that in there?

My friends also... I feel like always look forward to Shabbat and coming to our house because of the marzipan challah.

Yeah.

Makes me so happy.

We're going to beat until it's all super well mixed.

So you can add two teaspoons salt.

Let's add two tablespoons orange blossom water.

We can raise the speed to medium.

Let's clear this.

Do you see how much the dough wants to hang on to the hook?

That's when you know it's ready.

I'm always so tempted to just take a bite out of the dough.

Of the raw dough?

Now that you have your dough like this, we have to do the stretch and fold method.

It's going to make for a really elastic puffy dough.

Put a little bit of flour in the bottom, and you stretch.

You tear apart a little bit.

[Speaking Spanish] And then you roll it like this and you flip it a quarter.

And then you do it again.

Shh-ch.

Like... Sami: As?

Pati: Yep.

You can fold it or roll it.

And then... and I do that like 4 times.

One more.

Amazing.

And once you have it like that, we're going to put a little flour here.

OK.

And it smells good too.

Put it here.

A little more flour on top.

And then we're going to cover it with a clean kitchen towel.

You let it rise in a warm area of your kitchen that doesn't have wind drafts.

So now we're going to do the filling.

We have seven ounces of marzipan.

We're going to break this into little pieces.

I don't think I know another family where every member of the family is as obsessed with marzipan as we are.

[Speaking Spanish] That's 7 tablespoons of unsalted butter.

OK.

We have half a cup of sugar, because first we're going to mix the marzipan with the sugar and then we're going to add the butter and then the flour.

Mix it into a paste.

That is perfect.

So now I'm going to add the butter.

Now let's mix it.

OK.

Now I'm going to add three tablespoons of flour, which will help with that stickiness.

Orange zest.

OK.

You can combine that now.

And now you're just being a kid.

We're going to use the swap that I had because that one hasn't risen fully.

OK.

I'm going to give you the joy of like... Ah, so satisfying.

OK.

And now let's cut into 6 as even as you can pieces.

Sami: Should I just cut it in half once and then... Pati: Oh, yeah.

This feels a lot more chubby than that one.

OK.

So we're going to roll.

We add a little bit more flour.

You want to do like a 10 or 11 inch length and like a 4 inch depth.

Sami: So this is where we stop making regular challah, right?

Because now we have to change it so we can put the marzipan in.

Exactly.

So let's roll it.

Now you continue with the rest.

[Speaking Spanish] And I'm going to take about a sixth of this.

And so now I'm going to put a strip of the marzipan filling along the edge.

And then you encase it.

Once you encase it, you press the dough.

Now we can shape.

You are an expert at braiding challah.

Pati, voice over: You want to make three ropes.

Pinch them at the top.

Make a braid.

And then pinch again at the bottom.

[Speaking Spanish] We're going to cover our challah.

We're going to let them rest in here, where it's nice and cozy, for a couple of hours.

Do you know why we egg wash?

To make it shiny?

Yeah.

But it also gives a light texture.

And the brush is fun too.

And the brush is fun.

Beat, beat, beat.

I'm going to bring the bread from the back, OK?

OK.

Sami: Oh, wow.

Pati: Now we brush.

I have the oven at 350.

And we're going to bake the challahs for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, we're going to take them out, rotate them, switch spots.

OK.

And bake them for another 10 minutes.

And then sprinkle salt on top.

Pati, voice over: My journey in Mexico City has been about relearning the place I once called home.

Even though I no longer live here, this city has left its imprint on every part of my identity.

Before leaving, there's a piece of my history I need to connect with.

Two blocks from the Zcalo is the street where many Jewish immigrants to Mexico City first laid their roots.

After arriving from Poland in the 1920s, my paternal grandparents landed in Veracruz and eventually made it to Mexico City.

This bustling commercial area is where my grandfather and his brother set up shop.

Inside this unassuming building on Calle Repblica de Uruguay is where they lived and where my father was born.

[Speaking Spanish] I know.

Pati, voice over: My sister Karen and I have enlisted the help of Mnica Unikel-Fasja to track down that part of our family history.

Mnica is a Mexican Jewish ethnologist, cultural historian, and creative director of the historic synagogue of Justo Sierra.

[Speaking Spanish] [Speaking Spanish] [Speaking Spanish] Yeah, we're going in.

We're going in.

S.

Karen: Can you imagine the laundry, like, outside the windows, getting dry?

And the gefilte fish smell coming out of the kitchen.

Because my grandma, our bubbe, taught us how to cook when we were super, super little.

So, she started cooking here.

If you can't find something, you have to be resourceful of, like, how to make it.

Karen: Make Passover wine in the bathtub with your feet.

You guys, someone's playing the piano.

[Piano playing] Man: [Indistinct] inside, you're more than welcome.

We can record in there?

Man: Of course.

Karen: It's just a beautiful place.

[Pati speaking Spanish] that he remembers that there were a lot of people all the time in the courtyard.

Yeah, they get together.

They get together and they share, like, "I cook this, you cook that, give me some, I give you some."

But also, look, they walk to the synagogue from here.

Yeah, yeah.

For Shabbat.

Pati, voice over: While my great-grandmother was making Passover wine in the bathtub, my grandfather and his brother were making shirts just next door.

Pati: So, this is the directory.

You can see it has buttons, zippers, all kinds of, like, textiles and things to make clothes.

So, one of these was my zeide's.

[Both speaking Spanish] Pati, voice over: Like so many others, they left all they knew behind.

They risked it all to find safety in Mexico and built a new life from scratch.

Mexico took them in and let them belong.

Each week, on Shabbat, my grandparents would walk down these busy market streets to the synagogue, right next door to a church.

Mnica: This place was the center of the Ashkenazi life for more than 20 years, since 1941 until the 1960s, when most of the Ashkenazi Jews moved to other neighborhoods.

To Condesa, to Hipdromo.

That's where our family moved to.

And this started to be abandoned.

And in 2008 and 2009, it was restored.

And 2010, it was reopened as a cultural center, open to all.

Pati, voice over: This is the synagogue my father had his bar mitzvah in.

Downstairs, Mnica still displays the menu that would be served on momentous occasions for the Jewish community across the city.

Pati: I'm looking at the menu and I'm remembering the taste of all those foods.

Because that was the menu of the celebrations, but that was the menu of every Friday Shabbat at my bubbe.

That's what she used to make.

Mnica: A lot of people think that the Jews are something... like one thing, that we are all the same.

And there is such a diversity in being Jewish that I think it's very... it's fascinating.

So that's what we want to share with the people from this place.

I, as a Mexican Jew, have learned so much about the Mexican Jewish history from you, so I am very grateful.

Well, and I am more grateful that you included these stories and that you invited me to participate because it has been such a gift for me also.

Thank you so much.

We think we know ourselves, and the most that we have to learn is about ourselves.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

We have a tough job, because gefilte fish doesn't have a great reputation in terms of tasting.

Like people really think you need an acquired taste to love gefilte fish.

Yeah.

But gefilte fish a la Veracruzana, Mexican style, everybody can love.

We're going to make the gefilte fish that my bubbe, Esther, used to make.

When Jews came from Eastern Europe, gefilte fish was made with carp, which is fish that is a little bit more harsh, intense tasting.

But when Jews grew roots in Mexico, they started using red snapper, which is a warm tasting, almost sweet fish.

So we have one pound flounder and one pound red snapper.

We're going to add all the fish in there.

We have the filet.

You're going to cut through the filet until you get to the skin.

You're going to use the skin as your handle.

You're going to start like going like this between the filet and the skin.

Uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

[Speaking Spanish] That's looking stunning.

I'm going to take a second to take out the challah.

Sami: Wow.

Pati: So stunning.

Pati, voice over: And I'm going to let that cool for a little while.

OK, keep on doing the fish.

Pull, I'll hold this for you.

You're doing so well.

Gorgeous.

OK.

We chop the fish first because we don't want to turn it into a paste.

So let's add the fish in there.

OK.

So now we can both rinse our hands.

Go for it.

I think that's good.

OK.

We're going to add everything in there that's going to season the gefilte fish.

You can add two carrots that are already peeled and chop them into pieces.

Sami: This knife is so good.

Big chunks is fine.

And then... like cut this in chunks.

Ah, thank you so much.

Three eggs.

I'm going to start getting this going.

And then half a cup of the matzo meal.

Two teaspoons salt.

A teaspoon ground white pepper.

Pulse that until smooth.

[Buzzing] I like my gefilte fish with texture.

That's perfect, Sami.

You can pour that in there.

Now, let's fold this mixture.

And as you do that, we're going to add three tablespoons of vegetable oil in here.

We're going to make the salsa a la veracruzana.

Then I'm going to chop the onion.

So once it's all really nice and mixed, moisten your hands.

OK.

And shape the gefilte fish.

I would say... yeah.

OK.

OK, and now shape in an oval.

Here, I'll make one too.

You use the water.

So you make it more like a matzo ball first and then you can shape it the way you want.

Exactly.

And then pat.

I love mine like this.

Nice and more narrow.

That's perfect.

Yeah.

But try to make them all similar.

Pati, voice over: So they can cook evenly.

OK, I'm adding the onion.

So we want to cook the onion until it softens and wilts.

So you know my bubbe used to make every Friday, Sami, her beloved gefilte fish a la veracruzana and her white traditional gefilte fish.

And whatever gefilte fish you chose, she would end up putting both kinds on your plate.

I'm adding a 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes.

One teaspoon of ground white pepper.

I'm going to add one teaspoon of salt.

Sami: I think Mila wants some gefilte fish.

Pati: Yes.

Can you grab the broth?

Pati, voice over: It's three cups fish broth.

Help me slice the olives.

You don't want to add the olives whole.

I'm going to add the tomato paste.

Two tablespoons of tomato paste.

Two tablespoons of capers.

Just give them a coarse chop so that they will really blend in with the sauce.

So I'm going to add the peperoncini.

And I'm also adding the brine.

We're adding the olives.

OK.

And now we need to add the patties.

When you add the gefilte fish, you want to do it ever so gently.

Sami: Just kind of place it in slowly.

[Pati speaking Spanish] Like lay it in there.

Mira, it's so happy in there.

Wherever you find them space.

OK.

So that's it.

I'm going to partially cover.

And we're going to cook this for like 20 minutes.

The gefilte fish is about to be ready.

Beautiful.

So we're just going to put the whole thing on the plate.

OK.

All right, ready?

Ooh, mrala.

Oh, baby.

That's all for you.

[Speaking Spanish] Sami: Oh, I want this piece.

L'chaim.

Mmm, l'chaim.

I think I like this better with the orange.

Mm-hmm.

This is just the best.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm!

Mm!

Mm-hmm.

I grew up eating it with pickles.

So I brought some pickles out.

Mm!

Mm-hmm.

Now, you don't need an acquired taste to like or understand this.

Or to like or understand Ashkenazi Jewish history into Mexico, because you have one bite and you just get it.

If you keep making food like this, I keep coming home.

Oh, then I'm going to keep making food like this.

I'm kidding.

I come home to feed Mila.

[Laughs] True.

Pati, voice over: For recipes and information from this episode and more, visit patijinich.com.

And connect.

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

Announcer: "Pati's Mexican Table" is brought to you by... Announcer: La Costea.

Por sabor!

Announcer: From the flavors of the Caribbean to the taste of Latin America, on the menu with Marriott Bonvoy.

Avocados from Mexico [Acoustic guitar plays Avocados from Mexico jingle] Announcer: A tradition of authentic Latin flavors and family recipes.

Tropical Cheese.

Announcer: Eggland's Best, available in your grocer's egg aisle.

Visit egglandsbest.com.

[Acoustic guitar playing Nationwide jingle] Announcer: Proud to support "Pati's Mexican Table" on public television.