Huevos con Escamoles a la Mantequilla

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 10-inch skillet, cast iron or carbon steel
• •Wooden spoon for gentle folding
• •Fine-mesh strainer for rinsing the escamoles
• •Comal for warming the tortillas

Instructions

1. 1

   Clean the escamoles

   Tip the escamoles into a fine-mesh strainer and rinse them under a gentle stream of cold water. Pick out any bits of maguey root, dirt, or stray ant. Spread them on a clean kitchen towel and pat them dry. They should look like tiny pearls of ivory rice. Handle them gently. They are delicate and they bruise. This is the most expensive ingredient in your kitchen today, treat it that way.

   If you bought them frozen, thaw them slowly in the refrigerator overnight and drain them well before cooking. Never thaw escamoles in warm water. They turn to mush.
2. 2

   Sweat the aromatics

   Melt 3 tablespoons of the butter in a heavy skillet over medium-low heat. When it foams, add the onion, garlic, and chile serrano. Cook for about three minutes, stirring, until the onion turns translucent and the kitchen smells sweet. Do not brown the butter. You want it golden and nutty, not dark. The escamoles taste of butter and corn and the high desert. Burned butter will bury all of that.

3. 3

   Sauté the escamoles

   Add the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter to the pan. When it melts, add the drained escamoles. Cook for two to three minutes, stirring carefully with a wooden spoon. They will plump slightly and turn from translucent ivory to opaque cream. Halfway through, scatter the epazote leaves over them and add 1/2 teaspoon of the salt. That is the dish in its essential form: escamoles, butter, epazote. Some señoras in Hidalgo eat them just like this, scooped onto a warm tortilla. You could stop here and serve a taco of escamoles a la mantequilla. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

   Do not stir aggressively. Escamoles split open when you push them around. A gentle fold with a wooden spoon is enough.
4. 4

   Beat the eggs

   Crack the eggs into a bowl. Add the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and several grinds of black pepper. Beat with a fork until the yolks and whites are just combined. No more. Overbeaten eggs scramble into a tight, dry curd. You want the texture loose.

5. 5

   Fold the eggs into the escamoles

   With the escamoles still in the pan over medium-low heat, pour the eggs in around the edges. Wait ten seconds without touching them. Then, with the wooden spoon, pull the cooked edges gently toward the center, letting the raw egg flow into the empty space. Keep doing this in slow strokes. The eggs should look custard-soft and a little glossy, not dry. Pull the pan off the heat when the eggs are still slightly underdone. They will keep cooking from residual heat. This is two minutes of work, no more. Overcooked eggs are a sin against an ingredient this rare.

6. 6

   Serve at the table

   Slide the eggs onto a warm clay or talavera plate. Set the stack of warm tortillas wrapped in a cloth servilleta beside them. Put the salsa borracha, the avocado, and the refried beans in small dishes around the table. Each person makes their own tacos. Eat immediately. Escamoles do not wait. Así se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Escamoles are seasonal. They appear in mercados in Hidalgo, Tlaxcala, and the Mercado de San Juan in Ciudad de México from late February through May. Out of season, your best option is high-quality frozen escamoles from a Mexican specialty importer. Canned escamoles exist and are a compromise, not an upgrade. The texture suffers and the flavor flattens.
• •Butter, not lard, for this one. The maguey country tradition pairs escamoles with mantequilla because the clean, dairy sweetness lets the larvae's own flavor come forward. La manteca es el sabor for many dishes, but not this one. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
• •If you cannot find fresh epazote, leave it out. Dried epazote tastes like dust and it will ruin the dish. Do not substitute cilantro. It is the wrong herb for this region and it will fight the escamoles instead of supporting them.
• •Salsa borracha is the traditional accompaniment, a pasilla-based salsa thinned with pulque. If you cannot find pulque, a dry beer works as a compromise. Salsa verde cruda made with raw tomatillo and serrano is the everyday option in Hidalgo home kitchens.

Advance Preparation

• •Escamoles must be cooked the day you buy them if fresh. They do not hold. If frozen, thaw overnight in the refrigerator and cook within 24 hours of thawing.
• •The aromatics (onion, garlic, chile, epazote) can be chopped one hour ahead and held covered at room temperature. Beyond that the epazote starts to wilt and lose its perfume.
• •This is not a make-ahead dish. From pan to plate is the whole timeline. Plan the meal around the eggs, not the other way around.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 360g)