Huevos Divorciados Capitalinos

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet for charring vegetables and warming tortillas
• •High-powered blender
• •Fine-mesh strainer for the salsa roja
• •Two small skillets for frying the salsas separately
• •Wide skillet for frying the eggs
• •Wooden spoon for mashing the beans

Instructions

1. 1

   Char the vegetables for both salsas

   Heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium-high. Place the tomatillos, serranos, the garlic for both salsas, both quarter-onions, the Roma tomatoes, and the dried guajillo and arbol on the comal. The tomatillos and tomatoes need about 8 to 10 minutes, turning, until the skins blister and blacken in patches. The garlic and onion get pulled when they show color, about 5 minutes. The dried chiles only need 20 to 30 seconds per side. Watch the arbol. It is thin and it burns in the time it takes to look away.

   Charring is not optional. A raw-tomatillo salsa verde tastes grassy and a raw-tomato salsa roja tastes flat. The comal smoke is half the flavor.
2. 2

   Blend the salsa verde

   Peel the garlic for the verde. Drop the charred tomatillos, the serranos, the garlic, the onion quarter, the cilantro, and the half teaspoon of salt into a blender. Pulse just enough to break it down. You want texture, not a smoothie. A salsa verde for divorciados should still show flecks of cilantro and a little chile skin. Pour it into a small bowl and taste. Adjust salt.

3. 3

   Soak and blend the salsa roja

   Place the toasted guajillo and arbol in a heatproof bowl. Cover with hot tap water, not boiling, and let them soften for 10 minutes. Hot water softens the flesh and lets the flavor come through clean. Boiling water cooks the skin and turns the salsa bitter. Drain the chiles and put them in the blender with the charred tomatoes, peeled garlic, onion quarter, and salt. Blend until smooth. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a small bowl. Discard the skins.

4. 4

   Fry both salsas separately

   In a small skillet, melt half a tablespoon of lard over medium heat. Pour in the salsa verde. It will sputter. Cook for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring, until it darkens a shade and the rawness cooks off. Pour it back into its bowl. Wipe the skillet, melt another half tablespoon of lard, and do the same with the salsa roja, 5 to 6 minutes until it deepens to a brick red and the fat just starts to separate at the edges. Keep both salsas warm.

   Frying the salsa is the step beginners skip and then wonder why their divorciados taste thin. La manteca es el sabor. Without that final fry, the salsas sit on top of the eggs instead of belonging to the plate.
5. 5

   Refry the black beans

   In a small skillet, melt 1 tablespoon of lard over medium heat. Add the finely chopped onion and cook until translucent, about 2 minutes. Add the cooked black beans with a few tablespoons of their broth. Mash them with the back of a wooden spoon as they heat, leaving the texture a little rough. They should be thick enough to hold a line down the middle of a plate, not soupy. If they tighten too much, add a splash more broth. Taste for salt.

6. 6

   Fry the eggs

   In a wide skillet, melt the remaining tablespoon of lard over medium heat. Crack the eggs into the pan, keeping them apart. Fry estrellados, sunny-side-up, with the whites set and crisp at the edges and the yolks bright and runny. About 3 minutes. Salt them lightly in the pan. In Mexico City fondas the eggs are fried in lard, not oil, and you can taste the difference.

7. 7

   Build the plate

   Lay two warm corn tortillas on each plate, slightly overlapping, as a base. Place two fried eggs side by side on top of the tortillas. Spoon a thick line of the refried black beans straight down the middle, between the two eggs. That is the wall. The divorce. Ladle salsa verde generously over one egg and salsa roja generously over the other. Do not let them touch across the bean wall. Scatter crumbled queso fresco on the beans and a little chopped white onion across the whole plate. Serve immediately with extra warm tortillas. Así se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Use real lard for the eggs and the salsa fry. Refined coconut oil and seed oils will give you a cleaner-tasting plate, which is exactly the wrong thing. La manteca es el sabor. Buy manteca from a Mexican butcher or render your own.
• •The beans must be black beans, not pinto. This is a central Mexican dish and frijoles negros refritos is the central Mexican refry. Pinto refried beans belong on a different plate from a different region. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
• •Both salsas should be made fresh the morning you cook. They keep in the fridge for two or three days, but the bright lift of the salsa verde fades fast. If you cannot make both, buy good fresh ones from a Mexican mercado. Do not use jarred salsa. No me vengas con atajos.
• •Hand-pressed corn tortillas matter here. Store-bought corn tortillas will work if you warm them properly on a dry comal until they puff slightly. Flour tortillas do not belong on this plate. Do not even consider it.

Advance Preparation

• •Both salsas can be made one day ahead and refrigerated separately. Reheat each in its own small skillet with a bit of lard before plating. Do not combine them in one container.
• •The frijoles negros can be cooked from dried beans two days ahead. Refry them fresh on serving day with onion and lard.
• •The eggs and the final plating must happen at the moment of serving. There is no make-ahead version of a fried egg plate.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 545g)