Huevos Divorciados

A ridge of beans built down the middle of the plate as a wall, so the green sauce and the red one never touch.

Egg. Not vegetarian — contains cheese whose rennet the source does not name, lard.

Ingredients

• 8 eggs
• 8 corn tortillas, as on their own page
• 400 ml salsa verde, as on its own page
• 400 ml salsa, as on its own page
• 400 g refried beans, as on their own page, stiff
• oil, for frying
• 150 g crumbly white cheese
• ½ small white onion, finely chopped
• a handful of coriander, chopped

Method

1. A RIDGE OF BEANS IS BUILT DOWN THE MIDDLE OF THE PLATE AS A WALL, so the green sauce and the red one never touch. That ridge IS the dish -- the name is about two eggs kept apart, and if the sauces run together the whole point has gone. Stiff refried beans are piped or spooned into a bank about two centimetres high straight across the middle of the plate, and an egg goes on either side of it, one under green sauce and one under red. Done properly, the two halves of the plate stay visibly separate until they are eaten. Without the wall -- or with beans merely spread as a layer -- the two sauces meet within thirty seconds and make a muddy brown line, and it becomes a plate of eggs with two salsas on it.
2. THE BEANS MUST BE STIFF ENOUGH TO STAND, WHICH IS STIFFER THAN FOR EATING. The refried beans are dried further in the pan until a spoonful holds a peak and does not slump. Ordinary refried beans spread into a flat strip the moment they hit a warm plate and the wall is gone before the eggs are on.
3. THE PLATES ARE WARM AND NOT HOT. A hot plate softens the bean wall from underneath and it slumps. Warm enough that the eggs do not chill, no more.
4. THE TWO SAUCES ARE AT THE SAME TEMPERATURE AND THE SAME THICKNESS. Both hot, both reduced to the point where they sit rather than run. If one is thinner than the other it will breach the wall at the edges of the plate, where the ridge is shallowest, and it is always the thin one that wins.
5. THE EGGS ARE FRIED SEPARATELY AND LAID ON, which is the opposite of huevos rancheros. Here each egg sits on its own tortilla on its own side of the wall, and they need to be placed precisely -- an egg cooked onto its tortilla in the pan comes out as a wide floppy disc that will not fit neatly beside a ridge.
6. The refried beans warmed and DRIED FURTHER in the pan until a spoonful HOLDS A PEAK and does not slump.
7. Both salsas heated in separate pans and reduced if necessary so each SITS on a spoon rather than running. They must match in thickness.
8. The tortillas warmed 20 seconds a side on a dry griddle and kept in a cloth.
9. Plates WARMED -- warm, not hot.
10. On each plate, a RIDGE of the stiff beans spooned straight across the MIDDLE, about 2 cm high, right to both edges.
11. A warm tortilla laid flat on each side of the ridge.
12. The eggs fried separately in a little oil, whites set and yolks LIQUID.
13. One egg laid on each tortilla, one each side of the wall.
14. The salsa verde ladled over the egg on ONE side only.
15. The red salsa ladled over the egg on the OTHER side only.
16. CHECKED: the ridge must still be standing and the two sauces must not be meeting anywhere, including at the plate edges.
17. The cheese, onion and coriander scattered over both halves, and served at once.

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