Huevos Motuleños

The yolks left deliberately liquid, because the yolk is part of the sauce that binds everything underneath.

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

Ingredients

the plate

• 8 eggs
• 8 corn tortillas, as on their own page
• oil, for frying
• 400 g refried beans, as on their own page, made with black beans
• 150 g peas, cooked
• 120 g cooked ham, diced small
• 2 ripe plantains, in thick slices
• 150 g crumbly white cheese

the sauce

• 500 g tomatoes
• ¼ onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 habanero, left whole
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 teaspoon salt

Method

1. THE YOLKS ARE LEFT DELIBERATELY LIQUID, because the yolk is part of the sauce that binds everything underneath. That is what this plate is doing and why it is built the way it is. There are a lot of dry, separate things on it -- peas, diced ham, cheese, a fried tortilla, slices of plantain -- and a thin tomato sauce alone does not hold them together. When the yolk is broken it runs down through all of it and coats the lot, and what was a collection of components becomes one dish. Cooked through, the yolk is a crumbly separate item like everything else and the plate stays a collection.
2. THE EGGS ARE FRIED GENTLY AND COVERED FOR THE LAST MINUTE. A low heat, and a lid on for sixty seconds at the end: the trapped steam sets the thin film of white over the top of the yolk without the yolk itself setting. That is how a yolk stays liquid and does not look raw. Fried hard, the white browns and the yolk firms.
3. THERE ARE TWO LAYERS OF TORTILLA AND BEAN AND BOTH ARE NEEDED. A fried tortilla, beans, a second fried tortilla, beans, then the egg. The second tortilla is a barrier that keeps the yolk and the sauce off the lower one for a minute or two longer, and it makes the plate substantial enough to be a meal.
4. THE PEAS, HAM AND CHEESE GO ON AROUND THE EGG AND NOT UNDER IT. Scattered over the exposed beans and the sauce, leaving the yolk clear in the middle. Underneath the egg they are insulated from it and the yolk runs over the top of them instead of through them.
5. THE PLANTAIN IS FRIED SEPARATELY AND IS THE SWEET ELEMENT. Ripe, black-skinned, in thick slices, fried until caramelised at the edges, and set round the rim of the plate. Everything else here is savoury or sharp and it is the only sweetness.
6. The tomatoes charred on a dry griddle 10 minutes, blended with the onion and garlic, then fried in the oil 10 MINUTES with the WHOLE habanero and the salt. The habanero LIFTED OUT. Kept hot.
7. The refried beans warmed and kept spreadable. The peas cooked, the ham diced.
8. The plantain slices fried in oil until deeply caramelised at the edges. Drained and kept warm.
9. The tortillas fried in shallow oil 30 SECONDS a side -- firm but not rigid -- and drained.
10. Plates WARMED and everything laid out before the eggs are started.
11. The eggs fried in a little oil over a LOW heat, and the pan COVERED for the last 60 SECONDS so the film over the yolk sets but the yolk does not.
12. On each plate: a fried tortilla, beans spread over it, a SECOND fried tortilla, more beans.
13. Two eggs laid on top, yolks LIQUID.
14. The hot tomato sauce ladled AROUND the eggs, leaving the yolks clear.
15. The peas, ham and cheese scattered over the beans and sauce around the eggs -- not under them.
16. The fried plantain set round the rim and served at once, the yolks broken at the table.

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