Huevos Motuleños

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Cast iron comal or heavy dry skillet for roasting tomatoes and chile
• •Heavy-bottomed skillet for frying tortillas and plantains
• •Fine-mesh sieve for straining the frijol colado
• •High-powered blender
• •Wide non-stick or well-seasoned skillet for the eggs

Instructions

1. 1

   Make the frijol colado

   In a heavy skillet, melt 1 tablespoon of the lard over medium heat. Add the finely chopped half of the onion and the chopped garlic. Cook until soft and translucent, about four minutes. Add the cooked black beans with their liquid and the sprig of epazote. Simmer for ten minutes so the flavors marry. Remove the epazote. Transfer everything to a blender and puree until completely smooth. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve back into the skillet, pressing on the solids. This is frijol colado, strained black bean puree, and it is the foundation of the dish. It should be thick enough to hold its shape on a tortilla, looser than refried beans. Keep warm.

   If your beans were not cooked with epazote, the sprig in this step is non-negotiable. Epazote is what makes black beans taste yucateco. Dried will work, fresh is better.
2. 2

   Build the chiltomate

   Heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium-high. Roast the tomatoes, turning every couple of minutes, until the skins are blistered and blackened in patches, about eight to ten minutes. At the same time, roast the whole half of the onion and the whole garlic clove on the comal until charred at the edges and softened inside. Transfer everything to a blender. Add the whole habanero, unbroken, and the salt. Pulse just until you have a chunky sauce. Do not puree it smooth. Chiltomate has texture.

   The habanero goes in whole because you want its perfume, not its full heat. A broken habanero will dominate the sauce. An unbroken one releases its aroma slowly. Asi se hace y punto.
3. 3

   Finish the chiltomate

   Heat 1 tablespoon of lard in a small skillet over medium heat. Pour in the blended tomato mixture. It will sputter. Cook for eight to ten minutes, stirring, until the sauce darkens slightly and the raw tomato taste cooks out. Taste for salt. The chiltomate should be bright, tomato-forward, with a quiet hum of habanero in the background. If you broke the habanero by accident, fish it out before serving. Keep warm.

4. 4

   Fry the plantain

   Heat 2 tablespoons of oil or lard in a skillet over medium heat. The plantain must be ripe, yellow with heavy black spots, almost too soft to slice cleanly. Green plantain has no business in this dish. Fry the slices for two to three minutes per side, until the edges turn dark caramel and the centers go custardy. Drain on a paper towel. The sweetness of the plantain is what balances the entire plate. Without it, huevos motuleños is just eggs on a tortilla.

5. 5

   Cook the peas and ham

   In the same skillet, add the remaining tablespoon of lard. Add the diced ham and cook for two minutes, until the edges start to brown and the fat renders. Add the peas and cook for two minutes more, just until the peas are warmed through and bright green. Season with a pinch of salt. Pull off the heat and keep warm. This little mound of peas and ham is the surprise of the dish, sweet, salty, and savory at once.

6. 6

   Fry the tortillas

   Pour enough oil or lard into a small skillet to come up half an inch. Heat over medium-high until shimmering. Slide in one tortilla at a time and fry for about 30 seconds per side, until it stiffens and turns light gold. You are not making a tostada that snaps in half. You want a tortilla that holds its shape under the weight of beans and eggs but still has some give. Drain on paper towels. Day-old tortillas fry up cleaner than fresh ones, which is why every cook in Motul saves yesterday's stack for breakfast.

7. 7

   Fry the eggs

   In a wide skillet, heat a generous tablespoon of lard over medium heat. Crack the eggs into the pan, two at a time so they have room. Yucatecan style is sunny side up with a set white and a runny yolk. Cook for about three minutes, until the whites are fully opaque and the edges turn lacy and golden, while the yolks stay liquid. Season with a small pinch of salt and pepper. The yolk has to run when the fork breaks it. That is the sauce that ties everything together.

8. 8

   Build the plate

   This dish is architecture and the order is the recipe. Place one fried tortilla in the center of a wide plate. Spread a generous layer of warm frijol colado across the tortilla, all the way to the edges. Lay two fried eggs on top of the beans. Spoon warm chiltomate over and around the eggs, leaving the yolks exposed. Scatter the peas and ham across the top. Tuck two or three slices of fried plantain along the side, where they touch the chiltomate but do not sit in it. Crumble queso fresco over the eggs. Serve immediately. Eat with a fork in one hand and a piece of soft tortilla in the other to chase what the fork misses. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.

Chef Tips

• •The habanero stays whole. I will say it again because cooks ignore this every time. Whole and unbroken. You want the perfume, not the burn. If you break it, you have made a different sauce, and your guests will not be able to finish breakfast.
• •Use day-old corn tortillas if you have them. Fresh tortillas absorb too much oil and turn limp. A tortilla that has sat out overnight, wrapped in a cloth, fries up cleaner and holds the weight of the beans without going soggy.
• •The traditional cheese in Yucatán is queso de bola, the aged Dutch edam wheel that arrived through Gulf trade in the 18th and 19th centuries. If you cannot find it, queso fresco is the honest substitute. Do not use cheddar. There is no cheddar in this dish and there never was.
• •Frijol colado is not refried beans. It is strained. The straining is the technique that defines yucateco bean preparation. Do not skip the sieve. The texture is part of what makes the dish what it is.
• •The plantain has to be very ripe. If your plantain is still firm and mostly yellow, leave it on the counter for two or three more days until the skin is mostly black. Underripe plantain is starchy and bland and ruins the sweet-savory balance of the plate.

Advance Preparation

• •The frijol colado can be made up to three days ahead and refrigerated. Reheat gently with a splash of water to loosen, since it thickens as it sits.
• •The chiltomate can be made one day ahead and refrigerated. The flavor actually improves overnight as the habanero perfume settles into the tomato.
• •Fry the plantains and cook the peas and ham just before serving. The plantain loses its custardy interior if it sits too long, and the peas dull from bright green to army green within an hour.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 450g)