Huevos a la Albanil del Bajio

Guanajuato, in the Bajio, is where I place this version: market fondas near the Alhondiga, desayunos in Dolores Hidalgo, kitchens where the panaderia bag is already on the table before the eggs hit the cazuela. Huevos a la albanil means brickmason eggs, food for people who need breakfast to hold them until afternoon, not a little plate arranged like jewelry.

The salsa defines the dish. Tomatillo, chile serrano, white onion, garlic, cilantro. Not a loose salsa poured over dry eggs. The tomatillos are roasted or boiled, crushed rough, then fried in manteca de cerdo until the sauce thickens and darkens a little at the edge. Then the eggs go in and are stirred into the salsa until they form soft curds. The sauce becomes the mortar. Now the name makes sense.

I learned this style from a senora in Guanajuato capital who served it in a chipped Dolores Hidalgo majolica dish with bolillos split down the middle. She did not ask whether I wanted flour tortillas. Flour tortillas belong to the north. Here the bread is for dragging through the salsa, and the salsa should be thick enough to cling. Cada estado, su propia cocina.

No me vengas con atajos. A blender works if you leave texture. Manteca works better than oil because la manteca es el sabor. And if your tomatillos are pale, hard, and sour like bad gossip, wait a few days or ask the women at the market which crate came in best that morning.