Huevos Rotos con Jamón

Madrid's huevos rotos are fried potatoes covered with crisp-edged eggs, their soft yolks broken at the table so they run through the whole plate. Jamón brings salt and the sweetness of cured pork. What makes this huevos rotos rather than simply fried eggs with chips is that last act: the eggs arrive whole, then break over the potatoes while both are ready to eat. This is Madrileño food, made for sharing in the capital's tabernas and just as useful for a quick supper at home.

The egg decides the dish. Fry it in properly hot olive oil until the white sets and grows a golden puntilla, that crisp lace around the edge, but keep the yolk loose. Then break it over potatoes fried twice, first gently to cook the centre and then hot to colour the outside. The yolk becomes the sauce. Cook it firm and you have good eggs with potatoes, but not the plate Madrid means by huevos rotos.

If jamón ibérico is beyond reach, use a sound jamón serrano. That's the ordinary substitute in a Spanish kitchen, and the flavour will be a little leaner but still right. Where neither is sold, thinly sliced dry-cured country ham will do, though it may be saltier, so taste before adding more salt. No hace falta haber pisado España, you don't need to have set foot in Spain. The Margin beside this recipe says only, "break, don't stir." Siempre sale, si lo sigues.