Chilaquiles

Happy Memorial Day! Since we have a day off and we're being lazy today, I decided to make a special breakfast. Chilaquiles are one of my favorite dishes for breakfast. I'm not a huge breakfast person, yet I love to put eggs on just about anything. I think I love this so much because it doesn't feel like it has to be for breakfast. My only regret is that I didn't have any beans defrosted, so I couldn't put that on that side.

I had some leftover dried chiles from another red sauce I made for a nacho night with friends. We also had some chips leftover from our Vinyl Party a couple weekends ago, so it wasn't a hard decision to make. I normally either fry my own chips up or, if I'm feeling somewhat healthy, will coat the cut-up tortillas lightly in oil and bake them until nice and crisp. This just made it that much easier.

While the recipe calls for feta or queso fresco, I tend to prefer the simple flavor of grated parmesan on this dish. Ok, actually I used parmesan since I had to buy it for the pizza I'm making tonight anyway, so it was a better choice for our budget. Works out both ways.

No better way to start a lazy holiday than a good breakfast and some Twin Peaks.

Chilaquiles*
Adapted from Bon Appetit


Red chile sauce:
7 dried guajillo or New Mexico chiles, stems and seeds discarded
1 28-ounce can whole tomatoes, drained
1 medium white onion, chopped (1 1/2 cups)
5 garlic cloves, chopped
1 jalapeño, seeds and ribs removed, chopped
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons honey
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Assembly:
Vegetable oil 9 6" corn tortillas, cut into 1.5" pieces, or 36 large tortilla chips 
8 large eggs
Grated parmesan cheese or crumbled queso fresco
Finely chopped white onion
Thinly sliced radishes
Chopped fresh cilantro
Lime wedges

For red chile sauce: Place chiles in a medium bowl; cover with 2 cups boiling water and cover. Let chiles soak until softened, about 15 minutes. Drain, reserving soaking liquid. Place chiles in a blender. Add tomatoes, onion, garlic, jalapeño, and 1 cup reserved soaking liquid; purée until smooth.

For chips: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place tortilla pieces into a bowl and pour about 1-2 Tbsp of oil and toss until all pieces are coated. Spread tortilla into even layer on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until crisp, about 10-15 minutes. Remove from oven until ready to use.

Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add purée (it will splatter) and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, partially covered and stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened, about 15 minutes (add more reserved soaking liquid if too thick). Stir in honey and season to taste with salt and pepper. Once sauce has reduced, coat chips in just enough sauce so they start to absorb and get soft.


Meanwhile, pour oil into a nonstick skillet to lightly coat. Heat over medium-high heat. Add eggs and fry for about 30 seconds until whites are starting to set, cover with lid and allow to fry for an additional 2 minutes until whites are set, but yolks are still runny.

Top chilaquiles with chopped onion, radishes, cilantro, and lime wedges. Top with fried eggs and serve with remaining sauce alongside.

*This recipe says it serves 4, but I don't put a ton of sauce on the chips (just enough to coat), so save half for another time. It freezes beautifully. 

Egg breakfast muffins

Oh breakfast. You "most important meal of the day" vixen, you. I know I need you, but sometimes, I really hate you. Oh sure, weekend you is great. It's all mimosas and eggs benedict and cinnamon rolls and frittatas. But weekday you...ugh. Nothing but yogurt and fruit and oatmeal and cereal. Occasionally, when I'm feeling naughty, a bagel will work its way into the mix, but then the guilt sets in and I go crawling back (because of all the unhealthy carbs I have no energy) to the old standards. Sigh.

Pancetta and Asparagus Fritatta

I was in charge of the majority of Easter brunch this year since I was off the hook for making much of our Easter dinner the night before. As was the request last year as well, I made my grandma's ricotta cheese pancakes. Someday I might feel generous and give you all that recipe. And remember to take pictures...that day has not come. I did, however, manage to remember to take a couple of shots of our frittata. I started off thinking to make this lovely quiche, care of the talented Sacha over at Eating In or Out. But I thought better of it after the pancake request and the fact that we already had a lot of carb and fat deliciousness happening with the pancakes. 

Weekend Breakfast: Eggs Benedict

Yes, this is really what I made for breakfast on Sunday

And no, I didn't just order eggs benedict to go from Sanborn's down the street and pass it off as my own.

Baked Eggs Brunch

Last night we went out for Halloween with our friends to do karaoke at the Bear Paw Inn. A cold conversation the previous Saturday night waiting outside in the rain to see Quasi at Satyricon actually evolved into an plan. Me, Shawn, and our friends Stacey & Chris ended up dressing up as characters from one of our favorite TV shoes, Twin Peaks. Shawn was Agent Cooper, I was Audrey Horne, Stacey was the Log Lady, and Chris was our favorite creepy character, Bob. For having thought it up only a week prior and going shopping the day of, we did pretty well!

Me and Shawn as two of our favorite Twin Peaks characters

I needed an easy breakfast to make for the day after the fun. We've also been in a bit of a breakfast rut of breakfast meat and eggs. Boring. My friend Emy directed me to this baked eggs recipe and I must say, it was both easy and delicious.

To save money, I got the bacon ends and pieces since I would be cutting it up anyway. $.78 sounded like a good price to me! I also decided not to use cream since I didn't have any on hand and didn't want to spend the money. I sprinkled some feta over the eggs before baking--I highly recommend it. I also didn't have another ramekin, so I just used my Le Creuset baking dish. I probably could have taken them out a minute earlier, but I hate runny whites, so I left it in a little longer. I'm guessing that it was not using the ramekins that caused the longer cooking time for my eggs.

Carefully remove the individual servings, it will be slippery!

Baked Eggs with Bacon and Spinach (from Epicurious.com)

6 slices applewood-smoked bacon
1 5-ounce bag baby spinach
2 whole wheat or sourdough English muffins, split horizontally, well toasted (IMPORTANT!)
4 large eggs
4 tablespoons heavy whipping cream


Preheat oven to 400°F. Cook bacon in large skillet over medium heat until crisp; transfer to paper towels. Pour off drippings from skillet; reserve drippings. Add spinach to pan, sprinkle with pepper, and toss over medium heat, 1 minute. Transfer to strainer set over bowl to drain. Brush four 1-cup ramekins with drippings. Crumble bacon.

Place 1 toasted English muffin half, split side up, in each ramekin. Divide spinach among ramekins, then sprinkle bacon over, dividing equally. With back of spoon, shape well in center of each ramekin. Gently crack 1 egg into well in each ramekin, keeping yolk intact. Drizzle 1 tablespoon cream over each egg. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Bake eggs until whites are just set but yolks are still runny, 14 to 16 minutes.

Sunday Breakfast

Tonight I'm not able to make Sunday dinner due to some plans we have this afternoon. I decided I would document our Sunday breakfast instead. Due to my workout schedule, usually my only morning available for making a nice, big breakfast is Sunday. It's been a tradition since Shawn and I first started dating to make breakfast and listen to KMHD or jazz records on Sunday mornings. Over five years later and the tradition still stands strong.

This morning, I made poached eggs over a chilaquiles-type dish. It's not really authentic chilaquiles, but a close rendition of them. Here's how I did it...

5 corn tortillas cut into small squares (about 3/4 inch)
1/2 lb. Mexican pork chorizo
onion (optional)
Bacon fat (or vegetable oil)
Salsa (my mom uses the verde, but I just had a little bit of Emerald Valley salsa left)
Eggs
Avocado, if desired

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Cook the chorizo over medium-high heat until cooked thoroughly. Remove chorizo from pan and place onto a paper-towel lined plate, leaving some of the drippings in the pan. Place the plate in the oven to keep warm while finishing the dish.

Add the bacon fat, or oil, to the pan. When the fat has melted, add your tortillas and fry until slightly golden and starting to harden. Add the onion and continue to cook until the tortillas are pretty firm, but not fried through, and the onion is translucent. Add the salsa and coat tortilla thoroughly. At this point, I added a little water, too, since I was low on salsa. It doesn't take much to coat, though.

While tortilla is cooking, cook your eggs as desired. I poached mine since I had some farm fresh eggs from a friend again. To poach, bring a pan of water to a boil with 2 T white vinegar and 1 t salt. Reduce to a simmer. Add your eggs (recommended to crack them into teacups or small container that can be placed into the simmering water to reduce breakage), remove pan from heat, and cover for 5 minutes, less if you like it runnier.

When tortilla is ready and eggs are cooking, add chorizo from the oven to the tortillas and keep in the oven to stay warm.

Serve tortilla mixture with a sprinkle of cheese, such as queso fresco or I used some grated parmaggiano-reggiano, place eggs on top and serve with a side of avocado, as desired.

Buen provecho!