Huevos Rancheros

No one says you can’t have breakfast for dinner! So the other day in spite of the freezing weather outside, I decided it was time for some Mexican eggs in the form of Huevos Rancheros. A kick of chilli is the perfect winter warming comfort food when you don’t want to eat something heavy and you also don’t want to spend hours on the stove. 

The combination of flavours in this dish is enticing even when there is no meat involved. If you want to add meat, a couple of strips of Seranno Ham or thinly sliced deli Chorizo would work as a base layer, either to replace or on top of the refried beans. But the one ingredient you cannot make this without is Chipotle paste as it brings the kick to smack everything out of the plate, or as Greg Wallace would say "it comes up and gives you a great big kiss". 

I love it when the yolks are broken and spill all over the tomatoes and chillies so I always make a fried or poached egg for mine. Scrambled just isn't as satisfying. The way I like to fry my eggs for this is to put a lid on the pan so the eggs steam a little which create this white top layer over the yolk, but still allows for a perfectly cooked yolk in the middle.

This dish makes me long for summer again.

Ingredients
1 Avocado, peeled, cored and diced
2 medium Tomatoes, diced
1 can Refried Beans
1 tbsp Chipotle Paste
2 flour or corn Tortillas
1 green Chilli, finely chopped (optional for extra spiciness)
2 Eggs
2 spring Onions, sliced
Cooking Oil
Salt & Pepper
1/2 Lime, juice only
1 tsp Cayenne Pepper
1 tbsp fresh Coriander, chopped

Recipe
Start by pre-heating your oven to about 180 degrees. Then warm through your refried beans in a saucepan over low heat. Use the time while you're waiting for the oven to warm up to chop your vegetables. Then put all the vegetables and chilli in a bowl with some salt, pepper, oil and lime juice. Give it a quick mix but be gentle so you don't break down the avocado. Put this to one side.

Place your tortillas in some foil and then warm them through in the oven. Heat a frying pan with a little cooking oil and crack your eggs in on a medium-high heat. Once the edges start to brown a little, put a lid on for 1 minute or so until the yolks become white. Don't go anywhere because it takes a matter of seconds to go from being perfectly cooked to fully steamed yolks. I like to keep checking under the lid to see how they're doing.

Finally take your tortillas out of the oven, spoon some chipotle paste on the bottom, then a layer of the refried beans. Place the egg in the middle and the vegetable salsa around it. Sprinkle the vegetables with the chopped coriander and the egg with the cayenne pepper. Enjoy. :)