Huevos Divorciados

I decided to cook a dish for myself that I've been wanting to make for a while now. I love egg dishes- mainly anything with poached eggs (like Eggs Benedict), or fried eggs (sunnyside up or over easy). I've always liked Huevos Rancheros, but apparently what I thought was Huevos Rancheros isn't really Huevos Rancheros. At any restaurant that I've ever ordered it at, it is usually a fried egg with salsa on top and corn tortillas somewhere. I had a patient who was into Mexico cooking, and he told me how to make it properly. He said the only correct way to make Huevos Rancheros was to make a tomato concoction and poach the eggs in that. He said corn tortillas have nothing to do with it, and he usually served it with refried beans or chicharrones (fried pork rinds).

Last week the grocery store had some good looking poblano peppers, so I bought some. I can't ever find canned poblanos. One of my friends has found them, but I don't ever see them. We made Spanish Rice last night, so I roasted them to use a little in the rice. I roasted them and then nuked them for a few minutes. Then I put them in this glass casserole to "sweat" a little so I could peel off the shiny, "plasticy" skin.

It's always a pain to do that, and I never can get all that skin off. I know cooking fresh and by scratch is supposed to be best, but I wish I could find them in a can! This makes me think of how Puddleglum and I used to make mole from scratch. It is a long process and takes forever. When I was talking to my friend, Juana (who was born and raised in Mexico), about it, she asked me why we didn't just buy it in a jar and add peanut butter because that's what most of the people in Mexico do.

The smell of roasting peppers always reminds me of my first job. I was a Pinkerton security guard in the Summer of '87. My first gigs were at the Coliseum. I worked the Barnum and Bailey circus (clowns really are scary), a monster truck show, a Menudo concert, and the Motley Crue/Whitesnake concert (not as much fun as it sounds). I finally got a permanent gig at the Old El Paso Mexican Food plant. This was during the summer time in El Paso in a polyester uniform outside in the parking lot during the day without air conditioning. I stood in the security guard tower watching the employees' cars. Sometimes the smell of roasting chiles was so strong it made my eyes water.

For the green side, I diced one of the poblanos and put it into a saute pan over medium heat with some oil. After a couple of minutes I put two of the roasted poblanos that I had left into a food processor with about 1/4 of a jar of La Costena Green Mexican Salsa.

After I pulsed that a few times, I poured it into the saute pan with the diced poblanos. In another saute pan I put one jar of Muir Glen Diced Fire Roasted Tomatoes and about 1/4 of a jar of red salsa. When the contents of both pans were bubbling, I cracked an egg in each. You'll want to cook until the white is just barely cooked and the yolks are still runny. Do not overcook!

It's not too hard to plate it. You just have to be careful when you put each side in the bowl. I sprinkled some white cheese on top, and I put some cilantro in the center. We had leftover Pedros tamales and some leftover refried beans. I plated that with some of the rice that we made. The chicharrones were yummy crumbled on top. They made a crackling noise like Rice Crispies. The crunch went really well with the dish. One word of warning; the green side has a kick.

Puddleglum's Huevos Divorciados

3 Roasted Poblanos (dice one, puree two with the green salsa)
1/3 jar La Costena Green Mexican Salsa
1 can Muir Glen Diced Fire Roasted Tomatoes
1/3 jar red salsa
2 large eggs
2 TBSP grated white cheese
2-3 sprigs cilantro
1 handful of crumbled chicharrones

To stay traditional you can separate both sides with a strip of chilaquiles.

See instructions above and serve very hot with fresh, hot coffee.