Huevos Ahogados en Chile Pasilla Oaxaqueño

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet for toasting and charring
• •Blender
• •Wide 12-inch cazuela de barro or deep skillet with a lid
• •Heatproof bowl for soaking chiles

Instructions

1. 1

   Toast the chiles

   Heat a dry comal or cast iron skillet over medium heat. Press each chile flat against the surface with a spatula and toast for 15 to 20 seconds per side. The pasilla oaxaqueño is already smoked, so you are not building flavor from nothing here. You are waking it up. The skin will puff slightly and the kitchen will fill with a dark, campfire-like scent that smells nothing like a regular dried chile. That is the wood smoke locked in the skin. If the chile turns black or smells acrid, you have gone too far. Start with a new one.

   The pasilla oaxaqueño is thinner and drier than most dried chiles. It toasts fast. Stay at the comal and do not walk away.
2. 2

   Soak the chiles

   Transfer the toasted chiles to a heatproof bowl and cover with hot tap water. Not boiling. Boiling water cooks the skin and turns the salsa bitter. Hot water softens the flesh and lets the smoky flavor come through clean. Soak for 15 minutes. The chiles will darken the water to a deep brown. That is normal.

3. 3

   Char the tomatoes, onion, and garlic

   While the chiles soak, place the whole Roma tomatoes, the quarter onion, and the unpeeled garlic cloves directly on the dry comal. Let them sit. The tomatoes need four to five minutes per side until the skin blisters and blackens in spots and the flesh softens through. The onion wants deep char on the cut face, about five minutes without moving it. The garlic is done when the papery skin is spotted brown and the clove inside feels soft when you press it, about four minutes. Peel the garlic when it is cool enough to handle.

   Do not core the tomatoes or remove the charred skin. The blackened bits add a roasted bitterness that balances the smoke of the chile. This is a comal salsa, not a clean one.
4. 4

   Blend the salsa

   Drain the chiles, reserving the soaking liquid. Place the softened chiles, charred tomatoes, charred onion, peeled garlic, salt, and the half cup of water or broth into a blender. Blend until smooth. The color should be a deep brownish red, darker than a guajillo salsa, with visible flecks from the charred tomato skin. Taste it now. It should be smoky first, then tomatoey, with a moderate heat that sits at the back of the throat. Adjust salt. If it is too thick to pour, add a splash more of the chile soaking liquid.

5. 5

   Fry the salsa in asiento

   Heat the asiento in a wide, deep cazuela or a 12-inch skillet over medium heat. When the fat shimmers and smells porky, pour in the blended salsa all at once. It will sputter. Stir constantly for three to four minutes as the salsa darkens, thickens slightly, and the fat begins to separate at the edges. Drop in the sprig of epazote. This step is not optional. Frying the salsa in asiento marries the smoke of the chile to the depth of the rendered fat. La manteca es el sabor. Reduce heat to medium-low and let the salsa simmer gently for two more minutes.

   If you cannot find asiento, use manteca de cerdo (pork lard) as a compromise. The dish will still be good. But asiento carries a concentrated, almost caramelized pork flavor that clean lard does not have. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
6. 6

   Poach the eggs in the salsa

   Make sure the salsa is at a gentle simmer, with small bubbles breaking the surface but not a rolling boil. Use the back of a spoon to create eight shallow wells in the salsa. Crack one egg into each well. Do not stir. Cover the cazuela with a lid or a sheet of foil and let the eggs poach for four to five minutes, until the whites are set and opaque but the yolks still tremble when you shake the pan. The yolks must be runny. They become the second sauce when you break them with a tortilla. Overcooked yolks mean you have eggs in salsa, not huevos ahogados.

7. 7

   Blanket with quesillo

   Remove the lid. Lay the pulled strips of quesillo across the top of the eggs and salsa, distributing them so every egg gets covered. Put the lid back on for one minute, no more. The quesillo should soften and begin to melt into long, stretchy threads that cling to the eggs and pool into the salsa. It should not brown. It should not fully dissolve. You want that pull, that stretch when you lift a piece with your tortilla. That is quesillo doing what no other cheese in Mexico does the same way.

   Pull the quesillo into strips by hand. Never slice it. The strands should be uneven and stringy. That is the texture of quesillo, and slicing it with a knife destroys the structure that makes it melt properly.
8. 8

   Serve in the cazuela

   Bring the cazuela directly to the table. This is not a dish you plate on individual plates. You serve it family-style, in the vessel it was cooked in, with a stack of warm corn tortillas wrapped in a cloth servilleta, sliced avocado on the side, and a bowl of frijoles negros de olla if you have them. Each person tears a tortilla, scoops an egg with salsa and cheese, and eats. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •The chile pasilla oaxaqueño is not the same chile as the pasilla negro sold in most Mexican grocery stores outside Oaxaca. The regular pasilla is sun-dried and tastes of raisin and cocoa. The Oaxacan one is smoke-dried and tastes of wood fire and tobacco. If the package does not say 'oaxaqueno' or 'pasilla de Oaxaca,' it is the wrong chile. Look for them at Oaxacan specialty vendors online or at mercados that carry regional Mexican goods.
• •Asiento is sold by the scoop at lard vendors in every Oaxacan market. Outside Oaxaca, it is harder to find. If you render your own pork lard at home, the dark residue at the bottom of the pot is your asiento. Save it. Refrigerated, it lasts for weeks. Spread it on a tlayuda or use it to fry these eggs. It is worth more than the clean lard above it.
• •The quesillo must be Oaxacan quesillo, the string cheese that comes wound into a ball. Monterey Jack is not a substitute. Mozzarella is closer in melt but wrong in flavor. If you cannot find quesillo, use the best whole-milk mozzarella you can find and accept what you are missing. Cada estado, su propia cocina, and this cheese belongs to Oaxaca.
• •Frijoles negros de olla on the side are not optional in spirit. In Oaxaca, a plate of eggs without black beans beside it is an incomplete breakfast. Cook them with a leaf of hierba santa or avocado leaf if you can find either.

Advance Preparation

• •The salsa can be made through the frying step up to two days ahead and refrigerated. Reheat gently in the cazuela, bring to a simmer, and then poach the eggs fresh. The smoke flavor deepens overnight.
• •The quesillo should be pulled into strips just before cooking. Pulled ahead of time, the strands dry out and lose their stretch.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 380g)