Machacado con Huevo

Dried beef dropped into the hot pan dry, so it takes up fat before any egg is added.

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

Ingredients

• 120 g machaca, as on its own page
• 8 eggs
• 2 tablespoons oil or lard
• 1 small white onion, finely chopped
• 2 tomatoes, finely chopped
• 2 serrano chillies, finely chopped
• salt
• flour tortillas, as on their own page, to serve

Method

1. THE DRIED BEEF GOES INTO THE HOT PAN DRY, BEFORE ANY EGG, AND TAKES UP FAT FIRST. Machaca is bone dry and will absorb whatever it meets. Dropped into hot oil on its own for a minute it drinks the fat, swells slightly and goes from woolly to tender, and only then is it ready to meet anything wet. Added at the same time as the egg it competes with the egg for the liquid, takes it from the egg, and the result is dry scrambled egg with chewy threads in it -- which is the usual way this dish goes wrong.
2. IT IS NOT SOAKED IN WATER FIRST, WHICH IS THE OTHER WAY IT GOES WRONG. Soaking rehydrates it, certainly, and also washes out the concentrated beef flavour that eight hours of drying produced and leaves it in the bowl. The fat in the pan does the same softening and carries flavour in rather than out.
3. THE TOMATO GOES IN AND IS COOKED DOWN BEFORE THE EGG. Chopped tomato releases a surprising amount of water. In the pan with the onion and chilli for four or five minutes until that water has gone and the pan is almost dry, and then the egg sets in it cleanly. Added with the egg, the eggs weep in the pan and the whole thing turns watery on the plate.
4. THE EGGS ARE BEATEN ONLY LOOSELY AND PULLED, NOT STIRRED. Five or six strokes with a fork, so streaks of white remain. Then poured in and pulled through with a spatula in long slow strokes from the edge to the middle, off the heat for the last part. Beaten smooth and stirred fast, they go uniform, pale and squeaky.
5. IT IS SALTED AT THE VERY END AND SPARINGLY. Machaca is cured and carries a lot of salt, and how much it gives up into the pan is not predictable. Nothing is salted until the eggs are nearly set, and then it is tasted first.
6. The oil heated in a frying pan over a medium-high heat until it shimmers.
7. The machaca added DRY, with no soaking, and turned in the fat 1 MINUTE until it has taken up the oil and softened.
8. The onion and chillies added and cooked 3 minutes until soft.
9. The tomato added and cooked 4 to 5 MINUTES, until its water has gone and the pan is almost dry.
10. The eggs beaten LOOSELY with a fork -- 5 or 6 strokes, streaks of white still showing.
11. The heat turned down to medium-low and the eggs poured in all at once.
12. PULLED through with a spatula in long slow strokes from the edge to the centre. Not stirred.
13. Taken OFF THE HEAT while still visibly loose, and pulled twice more as the pan finishes them.
14. TASTED, and salted only then -- the machaca will have given up a good deal.
15. Served straight from the pan with flour 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