Huevos a la Tabasqueña con Plátano Macho

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Dry cast iron comal or heavy skillet
• •Volcanic stone molcajete or blender used briefly on pulse
• •10-inch clay cazuela or heavy skillet
• •Wooden spoon for mashing frijol negro

Instructions

1. 1

   Roast the chirmol

   Heat a dry comal over medium. Put the jitomates, one thick wedge of onion, and 2 unpeeled garlic cloves on the comal. Turn them until the tomato skins blister and the onion has dark spots at the edges, about 8 to 10 minutes. Add the chile amashito only for the last 20 seconds. It is small and fierce, and it burns fast.

   Chirmol is cooked salsa, not raw chopped tomato. The comal gives the sauce its backbone. Skip that and you have a weak breakfast.
2. 2

   Grind and fry

   Peel the roasted garlic. In a molcajete, grind 1/2 teaspoon salt with the roasted garlic and chile amashito first, then work in the roasted onion and jitomates until the salsa is rough but spoonable. Heat 1 tablespoon manteca de cerdo in a small skillet over medium. Add the chirmol and cook 5 to 7 minutes, stirring, until it thickens and the raw tomato smell is gone. Stir in the cilantro criollo off the heat.

3. 3

   Fry the plantains

   Heat 4 tablespoons manteca de cerdo in a wide skillet over medium. Fry the plátano macho slices in one layer, 2 to 3 minutes per side, until they are deep gold with brown caramelized edges. Move them to a plate and salt them lightly. The plantain should be ripe enough to smell sweet before it touches the pan. Green plantain belongs to another preparation.

4. 4

   Refry the beans

   Finely chop the remaining onion and mince the remaining garlic clove. Heat 2 tablespoons manteca de cerdo in a 10-inch skillet or clay cazuela over medium. Cook the onion until soft, then add the garlic for 30 seconds. Add the frijol negro de olla with its broth and the hoja de momo. Mash with a wooden spoon until thick and glossy, 6 to 8 minutes. The beans should mound, not run. La manteca es el sabor.

5. 5

   Fold in eggs

   Beat the eggs with the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt. Lower the heat under the beans to medium-low and pull out the hoja de momo if the leaf is large and tough. Pour the eggs over the beans and fold slowly with a spatula. You want yellow curds streaked through black beans, not dry crumbs. Pull the pan from the heat while the eggs still look soft. The residual heat will finish them.

   Do not scramble the eggs hard and then mix them into the beans. The eggs cook with the beans so the plate tastes like one breakfast, not three leftovers fighting.
6. 6

   Serve Tabasco style

   Spoon the eggs and beans onto a low clay plate, preferably lined with a small piece of banana leaf if you have it. Spoon the cooked chile amashito chirmol over the top and arrange the fried plátano macho alongside. Serve with warm hand-pressed corn tortillas and extra chile amashito at the table. This is the Maya south. No cheddar, no sour cream, no lettuce pretending it belongs here. Así se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Chile amashito is the Tabasco chile for this plate. Chile simojovel is serious in Chiapas, but it is not the table chile of this breakfast. If you cannot find amashito, chile piquín is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •Use ripe plátano macho, yellow with black patches. If it is green, it will fry starchy and firm. Good for tostones, wrong for this.
• •Hoja de momo gives the beans that anise-like Gulf lowland perfume. If you cannot find it, use a small sprig of epazote, but know what changed. A substitution is a compromise.
• •Canned black beans will work on a weeknight if you rinse nothing away and add a little water or broth back to the pan. The bean liquid is flavor. Do not pour your breakfast down the sink.
• •Manteca de cerdo belongs here. Vegetable oil will cook the beans, yes, but it will not give them the same body. No me vengas con atajos.

Advance Preparation

• •Frijol negro de olla can be cooked up to 3 days ahead and refrigerated in its broth. This is the best way to make the dish quickly on a weeknight.
• •The chirmol can be roasted, ground, and fried 1 day ahead. Reheat it gently and add the cilantro criollo after warming.
• •Fry the plátano macho just before serving. Reheated fried plantain turns heavy and loses the caramelized edge.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 520g)