>> Pati Narrates: Travelling through Sinaloa, I'm struck by the miles and miles of beautiful, largely untouched beaches.

Here in the Southern part of the Sinaloa coast between the small villages of Celestino Gasca and Las Barras you'll find just that.

For years this area has been a favorite stretch of beach for local surfers.

They come all the way from Mazatlan and Culiacan to camp and have a few miles of Pacific Ocean all to themselves.

Luckily for me, I have 2 longtime surfers as my guides for today.

They're giving me an insiders tour of this gorgeous part of the Sinaloa coast.

We're meeting up with local chef Carmen to get the secrets of her Pescado Zarandeado.

This recipe is hers!

And one of the bravest fishermen I've ever met with the most beautiful smile, Jorge takes us on the hunt for a true delicacy here in Sinaloa, Percebes.

In my kitchen, recipes inspired by the Sinaloa surf.

An Habanero Shrimp Burger dressed with crisp bacon, ripe avocado, and a creamy tarter sauce.

Mmm, mhmm!

And I'm making french fries from scratch, and tossing them with a Mexican style crumbled queso mix, and I know a hungry boy who will eat this right up.

Cheers!

♪ ♪ >> Announcer: Pati's Mexican Table is made possible by: ♪ >> La Costena.

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>> Pati Narrates: I don't think I could ever get sick of this view, what seems like a never-ending stretch of completely untouched beach, a rare find these days.

My new friends know this place like the back of their hands, and the beauty is not lost on them.

>> Sergio: We came here first to learn to surf, and then just to keep doing it.

>> Pati Narrates: Sergio and Omar have been riding these waves for almost 30 years.

They love the area so much, they decided to build a small boutique hotel right here on the beach.

>> Sergio: Used to be nothing here, you know?

>> Pati: Nothing!

>> Omar: Not even a road.

>> Sergio: (laughs) >> Omar: The area started getting known first for the oysters, and then a few restaurants opened, so people start coming.

>> Pati: What kind of people come now?

>> Omar: Mostly countries that have a surfing culture.

The USA, especially California.

>> Pati Narrates: I've always wanted to learn to surf, but not today.

Sergio and Omar have a Sinaloa specialty in store for me.

>> Omar: Senora Carmen, you're gonna meet, she's the best.

>> Pati Narrates: Senora Carmen.

This busy lady is the owner of this restaurant.

She and her family have one of the best little seaside shacks on this stretch of the coast.

Sergio and Omar are so fond of it they wanted to keep it a secret, but I can be persuasive.

Ready?

Pati Narrates: Carmen is known for miles around as having one of the most amazing recipes for Pescado Zarandeado, a whole fish split down the middle, seasoned and cooked over hot coals.

It's a Sinaloa staple.

>> Pati Narrates: When Carmen moved here about 30 years ago Celestino wasn't even a town on the map, it was just that piece of pristine beach.

Oh wow!

>> Pati: Also on the menu today, a fresh locally caught gigantic lobster.

She said she used this so much it broke in half.

Strong!

>> Pati: She's preparing the grills.

Garlic, salt, soy sauce.

>> Pati: Oh!

She lets it have a first grill, and then she flips it, and then she adds more sauces and seasonings, and then it continues cooking.

>> Pati: She says "If you've tried Pescado Zarandeado in other places, now you can compare" because her method has different stages of cooking.

Ah, que rico!

If she had put the mayo and everything there it doesn't get browned.

Ah, and butter!

Ah - it's mayo and mustard mixed together, so it's a recipe she has made for 23 years.

>> (Pati laughs) >> Pati: This recipe is hers!

Just like the zarandeado, Carmen gives the same treatment to the lobster.

Some seasoning, soy sauce, and onto the coals.

Pati: Carmen - mmm!

This is so incredibly delicious!

The salsa is spicy, and the mustard and mayo, mmm!

What does this food mean to you, being from Sinaloa?

>> Sergio: I love seafood, you know?

Zarandeado for me is the best.

>> Pati: But you've been eating this fish for how many years?

>> Sergio: Since we started coming down here.

>> Pati: Has it always been the same?

>> Sergio: Yeah, always the same recipe, and she never wanted to give us the recipe (laughs) never.

>> Omar: We've been trying for years!

>> Sergio: Now we're gonna figure out the recipe with the cameras.

>> (Pati laughs) >> Sergio: Finally we got it.

>> Pati: Sinaloa really has such a bounty of seafood, and they love eating seafood in so many different ways all day, but I think that their key and king ingredient really is shrimp, and that love for shrimp inspired me in making for you a shrimp burger.

I have 2 pounds of shrimp that I already peeled, deveined, took the shells off.

You want to try to get shrimp that still has the shells and tails on because shrimp survives the freezing and thawing process much better with tails and shells.

You want shrimp that are firm, that look shiny and almost translucent.

You don't want any mushy raw shrimp.

I have my food processor, I'm gonna add a couple of shrimp that I'm gonna cut and mix with my binding mixture for the shrimp patties.

Along with 1 whole egg.

The reason I'm adding the shrimp is because I want to get a burger texture.

We want shrimp on shrimp on shrimp, that's what we want.

I have 3 tbsp of breadcrumbs and these are unflavored, just plain.

1 tbsp of mayo.

I can do this.

I'm adding 1 tbsp of already chopped habaneros that you can get at the store along with their liquid because it's tasty.

Now I'm adding 3/4 tsp of salt.

Then I'm adding 1/2 cup of chopped carrot.

I don't want to eat the chunks of carrot, I want the carrot to flavor my binding mixture.

About 1 tbsp of cilantro which I'll just break in here.

1 tbsp of freshly squeezed lime juice.

I'm gonna add a little bit of pepper.

Mexican chiles, no matter how hot they are, even habaneros, love the company of black pepper.

So I'll puree this until completely smooth.

You want to make sure the carrot is really pureed because when you make the patties you don't want to bite into the hard carrot, you wanna bite into the plump, crunchy shrimp.

Okay.

Now I have the rest of my shrimp, I'm gonna add them in there because I want them to break.

You don't want to make shrimp burgers that have the whole shrimp because that's really hard to bind.

If you are a fan of shrimp then you have to go to Sinaloa because they eat shrimp from morning until night, and they eat it raw, grilled, broiled, and they love shrimp with a lot of mayo, and it actually works really well.

And now I'm going to pulse just a couple of times for the shrimp to be coarsely chopped.

(food processor whirs) A little bit more.

And there we go.

So this is the texture that we want.

You can still see little pieces of shrimp.

I have some water to help me shape the shrimp patties.

I'm gonna wet my hands.

I want the patties to be 3/4 of an inch thick cause I want to bite into it and feel the chunks of shrimp.

I love burgers, but I always go for beef burgers, but my husband will go for any burger on the menu that is not beef.

Juju loves anything that has anything.

Now I'm gonna put the shrimp patties in the refrigerator for at least half an hour so they chill and are ready to be nicely grilled.

>> Pati Narrates: Few things get me more excited than trying something I've never tasted before.

I get to travel Mexico eating such fabulous things, but when I get the opportunity to try something really rare, I dive right in.

Las Barras is a small dirt road village about an hour North of Mazatlan.

The locals tell stories of a fisherman that is truly one with the water.

Willing to brave roaring waves and jagged rocks in pursuit of one unique treasure of the sea, Percebes.

So we tracked him down, followed him to the beach, and gave him a camera.

Pati Narrates: Percebes, sometimes called "Goose Barnacles" are a finicky group of crustaceans.

Their preferred home?

The rocky shoreline right at that point where crashing waves meet the rocks.

Jorge braves these conditions almost everyday on his hunt for this stubborn catch.

(waves crash) >> Pati: (gasps) Come see, come see, come see!

We come to you, we come to you!

(laughs) (Pati gasps) These are really strange looking!

It's like metal mesh almost.

What do you eat?

>> (Jorge laughs) >> Pati: As soon as the water boils, he adds the percebes and counts 90 seconds, and he says time is crucial.

>> Pati: Okay.

>> Pati: Okay.

Mmm.

Mmm!

Ah!

It's so delightful.

For Jorge and his family the best way to eat percebes is the simple way.

Ceviche with tomato, onion and cucumber, and there's one more essential ingredient.

Ah!

I finally meet the super famous Chiltepin chile.

This super spicy little chile, Chiltepin.

It's the seasoning of choice in Sinaloa.

>> Pati: Ah, so it's a very generous plant that apparently produces chiles every day, but he just has to water it all the time.

The Chiltepin and lime juice together make the ideal spicy sour dressing for the percebes ceviche.

>> Pati: When Alan was in 5th grade he had to choose a state for a state project, and he chose Idaho because he knew there were a lot of potatoes in Idaho, and in this house we love anything and everything potato, especially french fries.

I'm going to show you the technique for what I think is one of the best ways of making irresistible french fries.

I promised I would take Alan to Idaho, and I never have, and he's already in college!

He's gonna take me one day maybe.

I like french fries to be thin, but I want the outside to be crunchy and I want the inside to be creamy and mushy, and I want my french fries to have a really nice seasoning.

We're cutting them in matchsticks like this, and then we're dropping them in ice cold water and what this part will do is remove some of the starchiness of the potatoes and make them be really creamy inside when they fry.

I'm patting them dry because if not, that oil is gonna go wild.

The oil is at 325 degrees.

It does not matter if it's at 320 or 340 degrees.

You want to fry the french fries until they become opaque.

This has a double frying method.

This is gonna be the first fry where we are just frying the potatoes until they soften.

When you make french fries you just have to be focused on this and not do other things because the oil fluctuates when you add the cold french fries.

We are making these french fries very Sinaloa.

I'll show you why when the fries are ready.

Now I'm gonna up the temperature to 375 degrees and give them a second fry.

Meanwhile I'm going to make a cheesy, spicy, citrusy mix that's gonna coat those french fries.

So I'm going to add about 1 cup of cotija cheese.

I'll mix this with the zest of a lime.

We're gonna add some salt, about 1 tsp, you can see how pretty that's looking.

And then I'm going to add the very Sinaloa thing of the chiltepin, I mean, how incredibly proud the Sinaloans are of their chile.

People grow it in their front or back yards, or just in a planter on their windows, wherever they can, and they just snatch it and eat it fresh or dried.

It's a prized possession.

Think about the chile de arbol and up the heat 10 times.

This is my personal chiltepin masher and this is where you mash it.

It's like making red pepper flakes but with the incredible chiltepin a little at a time.

I am adding a lot of chiltepin because I love the taste and I love the heat, but if you've never used chiltepin you may want to use 3 or 4.

Okay so we're ready with the mix.

My oil is where it needs to be.

You want the oil to be between 375 and 400 degrees, and this is the second fry.

The great thing with the double frying method is that in the first fry you're cooking the overall french fry.

In the second fry you're getting the outside super brown and crispy which is happening now.

It's like tortilla chips, you want them to be golden brown but you don't want them to be super dark brown because if not when you take them out they may have burnt.

Look at the skin, how it's crisping up.

These are so pretty.

I'm gonna turn my oil off.

I'm gonna add some salt all over.

Let me try.

Mmm.

Mmm!

Mhmm!

The inside of the potato is like mashed potatoes, but the outside of the potato is super brown and crispy, and with this mixture, this is insane.

This has the saltiness from the cotija, and then you get the chile, so good!

So the oven is at 250 degrees and I'm gonna put my french fries in there so they stay warm and crispy.

The last thing I'll make before Juju can come join me is a tartar sauce.

I love the word tartar, in Spanish you would say "tar-tar" I'm gonna make my tartar with 1 cup of mayo, and then we'll mix some yummy things in here.

About 1 tbsp of the same habaneros I used in my shrimp burger.

This is going to marry the burger with the sauce.

2 tbsp of cilantro.

And 2 tbsp of mint, both of which come from my garden which makes me happy.

I love the combination of mint and cilantro.

Both very fresh, very fragrant, but with a very different taste.

I'll add a 1/2 tsp of salt.

3 scallions.

I'm gonna thinly slice the white parts and the light green parts.

And all I am missing is some fresh squeezed lime juice, about 1 tbsp because we don't want the tartar sauce to be too runny.

Mmm, that's spicy!

I'll sprinkle my shrimp burgers with salt.

Thick slices of bacon.

We cooked the shrimp burgers, they're at medium heat, for about 4 minutes per side.

How hungry are you?

>> Juju: Really hungry (laughs) >> Pati: So this is what I need you to do.

You're gonna put this mix in here, all of it.

Made these fries earlier, you're gonna shake the bowl so they mix.

Yeah, I think those are enough french fries for me.

>> (Juju laughs) Juju: What does it have?

>> Pati: Mayonesa.

Okay, mmm, okay.

>> (Juju laughs) Should I put fries on it?

>> Pati: It's your shrimp burger, you do whatever you want to it!

Okay, yours looks better than mine.

(Pati laughs) Cheers!

>> Juju: Mmm.

>> Pati: Mmm.

>> Juju: So good, all the different layers.

>> Pati: The lettuce leaf that is so delicate but it has a nice refreshing green taste.

The shrimp burger has such a delicious texture and consistency, and then I'm biting into the pieces of shrimp.

>> Juju: Fries with cheese on its own is really good, but then you have other flavors there too with the spices and the chile.

It's really good.

>> Pati: Do you think this is a meal worth repeating?

>> Juju: Definitely.

I'm almost done, you have to catch up.

>> Pati: Oh my gosh!

>> Pati Narrates: For recipes and information from this episode and more, visit PatiJinich.com, and connect!

Find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest @PatiJinich.

>> Announcer: Pati's Mexican Table is made possible by: ♪ >> La Costena.

A tradition of authentic Latin flavors and family recipes.

Tropical Cheese.

♪ ♪ Avocados from Mexico >> BanCoppel.

Your recipe for sending money to Mexico.

>> Chilorio.

La Chata.

>> Announcer: Proud to support Pati's Mexican Table on public television.