Cinco!

Happy Cinco de Mayo, everybody!

In recognition, for dinner I had left-over pasta marinara accompanied by left-over roasted root vegetables, roasted mushrooms, and roasted garlic. Matt had a bowl of cereal. How very celebratory of us.

I had every intention of making Huevos Whatevers tonight, but somehow that didn't happen. Don't tell anyone I told you this, but throwing something together that's even slightly multi-step is really hard after a full day of work.

Here is a recipe for Mojo de Ajo (courtesy of the lovely and talented Rick Bayless, just like every other mexican recipe we make). It's good for everything. Seriously.

MOJO DE AJO
(makes about 3 cups)

Ingredients
4 large heads garlic:

OR 10 ounces (about 1 3/4 cups) peeled garlic cloves
2 cups fruity olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
*optional: chile flakes, added at the same time as the lime juice. Optional recipe calls for 1/2 tsp. Adjust as needed.

Directions:

Heat the oven to 325˚.

"Break the heads of garlic apart, then mash each clove (a fist against the side of a knife is what I do) to release the clove from its papery skin; if using already-peeled garlic, scoop the cloves into a heavy recloseable plastic bag and use a rolling pin to mash them slightly.

Stir together the garlic, oil and salt in an 8x8-inch pan (make sure all the garlic is submerged), slide it into the oven and bake until the garlic is soft and lightly brown, about 45 to 55 minutes. Add the lime juice and return to the oven for 20 minutes for the garlic to absorb the lime and turn golden brown.


Using an old-fashioned potato masher or large fork, mash the garlic into a coarse puree. Pour the mixture into a wide-mouth storage container and refrigerate it until you’re ready to enjoy some deliciousness. This mojo will keep for up to three months in the refrigerator as long as there's enough oil to keep the garlic covered."

As I said, this is fantastic for anything. Cook with it, use it in a dressing, drizzle it, breathe it. It will become your best friend, and you will be grateful.

Now, go have another Margarita!

Huevos Whatevers

We've been on a Mexican kick lately.

When that happens, you just know that certain stand-bys are going to pop up on the menu. One of those stand-bys is Huevos Whatevers. It's like Huevos Rancheros, but from a different part of Mexico, though I can never remember the name of the region it's actually from.

It's freaking incredible, and it uses three of our favorite staples.

(Not that kind of staples.)


Eggs, obviously, are a rather key ingredient. Without those you would just have Whatevers. Those are probably passably good (and more akin to a pre-Columbian Mexican dish), but it's just not the same without that little golden spot of yolk.

Under the egg is a crispy tortilla, and sandwiched between the two are black beans that have been mashed and cooked down with garlic until they resemble the texture of lumpy mashed potatoes, but taste more delicious than that sounds. Traditionally, pork fat is used in the cooking of the beans, which imparts a smokey, sophisticated saltiness. We rarely have that on hand, though, so usually we just use a good quality olive oil. (If you're going to make these, keep some liquid on hand to add to them as they cook, in case they start cooking down too quickly. I usually put some water in the can I poured them out of and slosh it around really well, so that as I add liquid I'm also adding more beany-ness. And don't salt them until you're ready to serve! Sometimes you don't need any salt at all.)

Over all of everything goes what is possibly the easiest-to-make sauce ever. Pour a 28-once can of crushed tomatoes in a pot. Split one or two serrano chiles length-wise and add them to the pot, as well. Simmer the two together (covered) for 30 minutes, and add a little salt "to taste." Tada! (For a thinner sauce, I use the same trick with the can as I do with the beans, above. Why just add water when you can add flavor?)

So, from the bottom up, the order goes: tostada (the crispy tortilla), beans, egg, sauce. End result:

Nirvana.

It all goes so great together - it's like all the disparate ingredients have found their polygamitic soul mates! You've got the crispness of the tostada, the creaminess of the beans, the spicy acidity of the sauce, all tied together by the richness of the still-runny yolk and the nicely bland white of the egg. (You can cook the egg for longer if you want, but that would mean you're crazy.)

Garnishes could include crumbled chorizo sausage, fresh cheese, or fried plantains. Ideally all three. Weirdly, we seem to only make this on a whim, so we usually only have fresh cheese (queso fresco). On this particular night, we didn't even have that, and it was still fantastic. We usually serve it with a bottle of hot sauce on the side - usually Tapatio or Cholula.

mwah!