A Mother’s Day Breakfast Recipe from “Amá”

On this Mother’s Day I’m re-posting a breakfast recipe from my book, Truly Texas Mexican: A Native Culinary Heritage In Recipes. At long last the book has been released and has started shipping. Thank you, friends and colleagues who contacted me yesterday, saying that the book arrived at your home.  This is a breakfast that my mother served regularly.

Mother’s Day Book Dedication:  All of my culinary insights and passion, I get from my mother. On this, her day I celebrate that my cookbook is already in homes in many countries. I dedicated it to Amá, Dominga Mora Medrano.  We called her amá instead of the Spanish, mamá.  The cookbook is really hers, just as the “Huevos en Chile Serrano” in this recipe are hers.

I celebrate because “los pobres,” the working class cooks, are having their say, demonstrating their creative strength, in a wider public forum. “The poor” are poor only because the societal structures we have constructed are unjust. That will change. Amá taught me to harness my power. In a context of economic injustice, to cook with dignity, nobility, and joy.

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These breakfast eggs are immersed in fresh Serrano chiles and tomatoes. 

My brother, Jimmy, taught me how to make these.  He is a master artist in the kitchen.  He learned the recipe from amá,  who would make these on weekends.  The dish relies on a technique that combines par-frying with poaching.  This gives eggs a quick solid form, a tender texture, and reduces the fat.

Recipe, serves 4
Ingredients:

½ cup white onion, thinly sliced
3 Serrano chiles, thinly sliced
1 ½ cups tomatoes, finely diced
½ tspn salt
1 Tbsp Canola oil
2 cups water
4 eggs
additional oil as need for frying the eggs

 Method

1. In a large deep skillet, sauté the onions in the Canola oil until translucent
2. Add the diced tomatoes and continue cooking on low heat
3. Place the chile and salt in a molcajete (or blender or mortar & pestle) and grind to a paste.
4. Add the chile/salt paste and the water  to the onions and tomatoes and bring to a
   simmer.  The flavors develop quickly into a delicious sauce akin to Salsa Ranchera.  Keep the sauce at a
   simmer and do not boil.
5. In a nonstick frying pan add just enough oil to cover the bottom.
6. Add each egg, one by one, and fry just to the point where the bottom of the egg white is firm.  Then slide the egg into the chile and tomato sauce.  The acid in the tomatos will react with the protein to keep the egg white from toughening and cooking too fast.  The eggs will remain tender and moist.
7. When all the eggs are immersed in the sauce, gently spoon some of the sauce over the egg yolks to cook them.  Keep the sauce at a very slight simmer and cook until the eggs are done to your liking.

Enjoy, celebrate!