“You cannot put the watermelon in the picture.” My husband says to me.
“What? Why? You don’t eat watermelon in Mexico?” I ask, even though I know it’s not true.
“Yea we do, but not for breakfast.”
“Oh please. We’re in the US, and my readers know I’m a white chick with a Mexican husband.” (or you do now!) “They’ll forgive me for serving Mexican brunch with watermelon.”
This is a typical Sunday morning in our house. We laze around, pulling things out of the fridge, checking cupboards, what do we have for Sunday brunch?
Last weekend, my husband made huevos con chorizo (eggs and chorizo), but he left out a key ingredient, and it just wasn’t the same. Chorizo is a spicy Mexican crumbly sausage that comes in a casing. Mix it with eggs and the flavor is perfectly balanced, but kinda dry. You must serve this dish with beans, and we did not have any beans.
So, Friday night, knowing I wanted to make this dish again, the right way, I asked my darling prince of a husband, “please don’t forget to make a pot of black beans.”
I could have done it, but he is quite proud of his beans, so I put it on him. Beans, especially black beans, get better a day or even two days after they have been cooked.
Well, he forgot.
So I reminded him again on Saturday: “Don’t forget to make the pot of beans tonight. I’m making huevos con chorizo in the morning.”
“Uh huh, okay. I won’t forget.”
He forgot.
“Oh! You’re making huevos con chorizo this morning!” He gets all excited when we wake up.
“Well, yes, but you didn’t make the beans, and we have no cans of beans.” I respond.
“Damn it!” He starts kicking himself for his forgetfulness. (Another common theme in our household.)
“It’s okay; it’s early.” I assure him. “We just need to run to the store. I can go, and you can stay with the baby, or you can go, and I’ll stay with the baby.”
“I’ll go.” He’s enthusiastic about going instead of staying with the attention demanding Matilda.
He and Celaya head off to the store to get beans, and Matilda and I begin the meal. Bonus: this is a meal I can cook almost entirely with Matilda on my hip. I only have to put her down in spurts for chopping.
It is one of the quickest, easiest Sunday brunches I make, but when it’s done, you feel like you’re in a Mexican restaurant paying three or four times what it costs to make it yourself and stay in your pajamas.
Serves 4
Ingredients:
1/2 pound of pork chorizo (this is how it comes in the grocery store, but I buy the gigantic case from Costco and freeze it. Because, hello? 1% back.)
8 eggs (My grocery shopping dreams came true when I found 18 organic, pasture raised eggs at Costco for under $10. We go through one of these a week, and I get to feel good about being kind to the animals before I eat them or their eggs.)
1/4 onion
1 clove garlic
Olive Oil
Beans (These are much better, of course, if you have a pot made ahead of time, but if you must, you can use 2 15.5. oz cans. I only used one this morning because our fourth person is missing, away for the weekend, and I hate to waste beans.)
1/2 lb. queso fresco (This is crumbly Mexican cheese that is growing in popularity in California, so you can find it everywhere here. I, of course, buy the giant 2 lb. pack from Costco because we eat it a lot. Otherwise, you can find it in any Mexican store.)
Corn tortillas. (I also buy the giant two pack of corn tortillas from Costco because we eat a lot of tortillas. We usually heat up a dozen tortillas for the four of us at breakfast/brunch.)
Salt and pepper to taste
Watermelon (Because: white chick. Also: a mother who insists we have fruit or veggies with every meal.)
Preparation:
Put a non stick skillet on the stove on medium heat, and swirl some olive oil once around the pan.
Put another skillet (I prefer stainless steel) on the stove on medium heat, and, again, swirl olive oil once around the pan.
Place your comal on the stove on medium high heat. (If you plan on cooking Mexican food regularly, you need a comal. It is the easiest and most authentic way to heat your tortillas. Fellow white people: it is time to move past heating your tortillas in the microwave.
It is also worth it to invest in a tortilla warmer. They’re super cheap, fun, and they keep your tortillas warm for a long time.
Chop your onion and garlic.
Cut open the plastic casing the chorizo is in, and add your chorizo to the nonstick skillet. (It is dramatically easier to cook eggs in a nonstick skillet than in any other kind of pan.)
The chorizo will sizzle in the pan and release all of its spices and juice and get really greasy; stir and cook until the grease is almost all cooked off.
Crack 8 eggs into a bowl, beat, add a little salt, beat a bit more, and add to the chorizo in the pan. Stir.
For the best eggs, you want them in big egg/chorizo chunks to pick up with your tortilla. Let the eggs settle a little, cooking on the bottom of the pan, then stir, scraping up the egg from the bottom, then let settle, and so on. If you stir your eggs too much, you end up with smaller crumbly chunks that are harder to pick up with your fork and harder to keep inside your tortilla. Cook the eggs until they are just set, not wet anymore, then immediately remove from heat so they don’t dry out.
Meanwhile, your other sautee pan is heating up, add your onion and garlic and sautee until the onion gets a little brown. I like the flavor of a bit of carmelization in the beans.
Add beans to onion and garlic and stir. Add a little salt to bring the flavors together.
You want to cook your beans until they bubble, then smash them with a smasher, the same one you would use to smash avocado or mashed potatoes.
Heat your tortillas on the comal. I can flip four tortillas twice in three rounds on my comal, which only takes a few minutes.
Slice your queso fresco into big chunks to serve on the table.
Cut your watermelon up however you like to serve it.
Et Voila! Huevos con chorizo. Simple and savory.
To note: I eat this breakfast by grabbing a tortilla from the warmer, folding it in half, ripping it, folding it in half again and ripping it, so that I quarter the tortilla, then I put a little egg/chorizo, a little beans, and a little queso fresco on my tortilla quarter. Then I shove that whole bite into my mouth. It is what I do.
My husband and my brother make a taco with all the ingredients and eats the taco bites at a time. My daughter eats everything separately; I roll the tortilla tightly for her to hold like a long flute and eat.
Enjoy! And please remember to leave comments and/or feedback if you made this meal, or if you make it differently, if you love it, or if you hate it. I want to hear from you!
P.S.
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