what's for lunch?-- Sante Fe style huevos!

I love eggs, tortillas, and salsa in any form, but this is one of my favorites. I make the red chili with a blend of New Mexico red chili, pasilla chili, ancho chili, and chipotle chili, all bought as pure, ground chili powders on my last pass through New Mexico. It only takes a little chipotle powder to crank up the spice and add a wonderful smokey flavor.


Santa Fe Style Huevos Rancheros

For each plate:

3 strips bacon + extra lard if necessary
3 corn tortillas + extra for serving
3 eggs
1/2 - 3/4 cup Red Chili Sauce (recipe below)
2-3 Tbsp crumpled queso fresca

Fry the bacon slowly in a heavy pan to render as much fat as possible. There should be enough to fry three tortillas and the eggs-- if there isn't, add a little lard as needed. Drain the bacon. Fry the tortillas, one at a time, in the bacon fat for just a minute or so, until they begin to puff and become fragrant. Don't crisp them. Remove the tortillas to drain on paper towels, then spread them on a plate.

Fry the three eggs sunny side up. Yolks should be runny to slightly runny, but not cooked solid unless you just can't eat eggs otherwise. Lay the eggs on top of the tortillas, pour Red Chili Sauce over the egg whites, leaving the yolks uncovered. Crumble some queso fresca over the top. Serve with fresh hot tortillas on the side.


Red Chili Sauce

4 Tbsp lard
4 Tbsp flour
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp salt
1 Tbsp dried Mexican oregano
1 1/2 cups dried red chili powder (NOT the stuff sold as chili powder at most supermarkets outside New Mexico)
4 cups chicken stock + a little water if necessary

Cut onion in half and roast over a flame or in a very hot pan with the garlic until both have significant char, pulling the onion apart while it roasts to achieve more charred surface. Don't blacken the whole thing, just spread some char around. Put the charred onion, charred and peeled garlic, salt, chicken stock, and oregano into a blender and blend until smooth. It will thicken.

Melt the lard in a sauce pan and stir in the flour. Fry over high heat, stirring constantly, for a couple of minutes until the flour starts to darken and smells toasty. Slowly pour in the blended chili/onion mixture, stirring. The oil will splash, so be careful. Cook the mixture over med/low heat for 20-30 minutes, stirring often. Add water if necessary to thin the consistency. Don't let it scorch.

The sauce freezes well.

I went to Costco and replenished the frozen fish stock (I'd given it all away when my power blew up, don't ask), and will be thawing a lovely piece of Copper River salmon for tomorrow. I have some lemon and some thyme, so I imagine I'll be layering a few lemon slices in the bottom of a saucepan, sticking thyme on top, pouring in enough vermouth to get almost to the tops of the lemon slices, and putting the fillet on top of the whole business to steam.

After the fish and lemon are fished out, the vermouth will be reduced slightly and turned into a sauce with butter for the salmon and accompanying rice. Veggie will be a piece of broccoli I need to use up.

Then again, I have refried beans in a bowl in the fridge, might just wimp out and do bean tacos.

This sounds *so* good!!! But I don't have lard... can you substitute? If you can't, where the heck do I get lard?

My absolute favorite condiment right now? The sauce from chipoltle's in adobo... mixed with a little sour cream. Oh, yum!!!!

Makes it taste even better. It is an awesome red chili sauce. Great with enchiladas, etc, too!

Just reread the recipe...

One and a half CUPS of red chili powder????

for some bacon grease. :bounce: What!? I guess a little can't hurt ;)

The packaging is generally pretty restrained, but it's there. A lot of cooks won't bake with anything else.

I agree about chipotle sour cream. It will pick up the blandest of fare.

I had about a dozen jalapenos I needed to use up the other day, plus some pepper jack cheese, and some eggs that were getting on in age.

So, I roasted off the peppers and a couple green onions, chopped 'em up, added 6 eggs and a couple cups of shredded cheese and put it in a baking pan and baked until done.

Similar to my chile relleno quiche but without the crust.

Cut into squares and put in fridge until needed--pop a few pieces in the microwave to warm up, cover with salsa (or chili sauce, which I didn't have) and some refried bean/queso mix.

It was great! And all made from things that I was almost going to have to toss out.

I did something similar (kinda) with a big crowd and lots of leftovers from the Texans that had made the night before..

Threw most of the leftover meats and vegies, chiles, etc. all together in a huge deep dish casserole, layered between flour tortillas, covered with shredded cheese then drowned it all with whipped-up eggs, combined with a little milk and seasonings. Baked till eggs were set. Oh, and salsa was in there somewhere.

Rave reviews.