Aporreadillo

Dried beef simmered into a tomato and chilli sauce, with the egg stirred through the sauce rather than scrambled round the meat.

Beef, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains beef, lard.

Ingredients

• 150 g machaca, as on its own page
• 4 eggs
• 600 g tomatoes
• 3 guajillo chillies, soaked and drained
• 1 chile de árbol
• 3 cloves garlic
• ½ white onion
• 2 tablespoons lard or oil
• salt
• corn tortillas, as on their own page, to serve

Method

1. THE EGG IS STIRRED THROUGH THE SAUCE AND NOT SCRAMBLED ROUND THE MEAT, which is the whole difference between this and a machacado. There the beef and egg are the dish and there is barely any liquid. Here a proper tomato and chilli sauce is built first, the dried beef is SIMMERED in it until it has rehydrated and gone soft, and the beaten egg goes in last, poured over the surface and stirred slowly through so it sets in ribbons suspended in the sauce. What arrives is a saucy dish eaten with a spoon, not a panful of eggs.
2. THE BEEF IS REHYDRATED BY THE SAUCE AND IS GIVEN TIME TO DO IT. Ten minutes at a simmer. It goes in dry, straight into the liquid, and comes out tender and tasting of the chilli; the sauce in turn goes noticeably beefier, which no amount of stock achieves. This is the one dried-beef dish where soaking is unnecessary because the dish itself is the soak.
3. THE SAUCE IS FRIED AFTER BLENDING AND BEFORE THE BEEF ARRIVES. Blended raw tomato and chilli is thin and tastes of neither. Poured into hot lard and cooked down eight minutes it darkens and thickens, and only a sauce that has already thickened will hold the egg ribbons at the end rather than letting them sink.
4. THE EGG GOES IN OFF A HARD BOIL AND IS STIRRED SLOWLY. On a rolling simmer it seizes into hard grains the moment it touches the pan. The heat down low, the egg poured over the surface, and three or four slow strokes only -- it sets in soft ribbons. Stirred briskly, it disappears and merely thickens the sauce, which is a different and worse dish.
5. IT WANTS TO BE LOOSE AT THE END AND USUALLY IS NOT. The dried beef goes on absorbing after the heat is off and the pan tightens in the few minutes before it reaches the table. A splash of water or stock just before serving, and it should still move when the pan is tilted.
6. The tomatoes charred on a dry griddle over a high heat 10 minutes until blackened in patches.
7. Blended UNPEELED with the soaked guajillos, the chile de árbol, garlic and onion until smooth.
8. The lard heated in a wide pan and the blended sauce poured in. Cooked 8 MINUTES over a medium heat until darkened and thickened.
9. The machaca added DRY, straight into the sauce, and stirred through.
10. SIMMERED 10 MINUTES, until the beef has rehydrated, gone soft and the sauce tastes beefy. A little water added if it tightens too far.
11. Tasted and salted -- the machaca will have given up salt of its own.
12. The eggs beaten in a cup.
13. THE HEAT TURNED DOWN LOW, so the sauce is barely moving.
14. The egg POURED OVER THE SURFACE and left 20 seconds untouched.
15. STIRRED SLOWLY through, 3 or 4 strokes only, so it sets in RIBBONS suspended in the sauce rather than disappearing into it.
16. Loosened with a splash of water if needed -- it should still move in the pan -- and served with tortillas.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes