Roger and I had brunch at a place in the village called Macondo and had the best Huevos Rancheros I have ever had! It was in a little ceramic pot with eggs cooked and drenched both a red and green sauce. There was a tortilla and some beans in there, too. Unfortunately, we went again and ordered the same thing and the next time there was hardly any sauce. It don’t know what happened but I decided if I ever want to eat that again, I would have to make it myself. Simultaneously, I discovered this Kalypso greek yogurt that comes in these cute terra cotta pots. The yogurt is amazing! Especially the vanilla because there is this vanilla bean speckled vanilla jelly at the bottom that gets stirred in to the super creamy and thick yogurt! Anyway, now that I have all these cute terra cotta ramekins I decided to use them to make individual huevos rancheros. Finding a good recipe for the ranchero sauce was key and I found one yesterday. This is the real deal recipe like you would find in restaurants of old school mexican food familiar in Southern California. The recipe came from a Bon Appetit in November of 1992 found on epicurious.com. Follow the recipe exactly as it is. Its perfect!
Makes about 1 1/2 cups
INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
1 jalapeño pepper, chopped
1 large garlic clove, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 cups canned chicken broth
1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
PREPARATION
Melt butter in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add next 6 ingredients and sauté until vegetables are soft, about 5 minutes. Add broth and tomato sauce and cook until sauce thickens and reduces to 1 1/2 cups, stirring frequently, about 20 minutes. Mix in cilantro. I didn’t mix mine in but garnished the top with it.
After making the ranchero sauce I sautéed corn tortillas in olive oil.
I put two tortilla pieces in each ramekin that was wiped with olive oil.
I put a spoonful of refried beans on top.
I covered with ranchero sauce.
Cracked an egg onto the sauce and added a little more sauce on top of the egg.
Baked them in a 375 degree oven for about 18 minutes. This was the hardest part to figure out how long. Use your judgement and check often.
Then I topped the cooked eggs with more ranchero and some green salsa from Trader Joes, some cotija cheese and cilantro.
Henry and Roger really liked it! I was pretty impressed with myself!