Migas

The tortilla pieces fried crisp first and the egg poured over them without stirring, so some stay crisp.

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

Ingredients

• 6 corn tortillas, as on their own page, a day old, in squares
• 4 tablespoons oil
• 8 eggs
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 2 serrano chillies, finely chopped
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• salt
• 150 g crumbly white cheese
• a handful of coriander, chopped
• salsa verde, as on its own page, to serve

Method

1. THE PIECES ARE FRIED CRISP FIRST AND THE EGG IS POURED OVER THEM WITHOUT STIRRING, so some of them stay crisp. This is the one tortilla-and-egg dish on this site where contrast is the whole aim, and it is lost by stirring. The squares are fried until genuinely crisp, the vegetables cooked among them, and then the beaten egg is poured over the whole panful and left to set for twenty or thirty seconds before being moved at all -- and then only pulled through in two or three slow strokes. What arrives is a panful in which some pieces have gone soft and eggy and others are still audibly crisp. Stirred from the moment the egg goes in, every piece is coated and softened equally and the dish is uniform scrambled egg with corn in it.
2. IT IS THE OPPOSITE OF THE THREE EGG PLATES BESIDE IT, WHERE THE TORTILLA STAYS WHOLE. Here the tortilla is taken apart into squares about three centimetres across -- squares rather than strips, because they hold their shape better under a weight of egg and are easier to eat with a fork.
3. THE TORTILLAS MUST BE A DAY OLD. Fresh ones are full of water, soak the oil while boiling it off, and come out heavy rather than crisp -- and a heavy piece has no crispness to lose, so the contrast never exists. Dried overnight, they crisp in under a minute.
4. THE TOMATO IS COOKED DOWN BEFORE THE EGG GOES IN. Chopped tomato releases a lot of water and it has to be gone, or the fried squares soften from below while the egg is setting and everything goes limp at once. The pan should look dry before the egg is poured.
5. THE EGGS ARE BEATEN LOOSELY AND THE PAN COMES OFF EARLY. Five or six strokes with a fork, streaks of white still showing. And off the heat while the egg still looks slightly underdone -- there is a lot of hot fried tortilla in the pan carrying residual heat, and it finishes the egg after the pan has left the stove.
6. The tortillas spread out uncovered OVERNIGHT to dry, then cut into SQUARES about 3 cm.
7. The oil heated in a wide pan over a medium-high heat and the squares fried 1 to 2 MINUTES, turned, until genuinely CRISP and pale gold.
8. The onion and chillies added among them and cooked 3 minutes.
9. The tomatoes added and cooked 5 MINUTES until their water has gone and the pan looks DRY.
10. The eggs beaten LOOSELY with a fork -- 5 or 6 strokes, streaks of white showing -- and salted.
11. The heat turned down to medium-low.
12. The egg POURED OVER the whole panful and LEFT UNTOUCHED 20 to 30 SECONDS.
13. PULLED THROUGH in 2 or 3 SLOW strokes only, from the edge to the middle. Not stirred.
14. THE PAN TAKEN OFF THE HEAT while the egg still looks slightly underdone.
15. TESTED: some pieces should be soft and eggy and others still audibly CRISP. If everything is soft, it was stirred.
16. The cheese and coriander scattered over and served straight from the pan with salsa verde.

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