journey to the center of the egg

If you've ever walked by our school, you might have seen a few chefs wearing those ridiculously tall hats with vertical lines (or folds) on them. Well traditionally, each of those lines signified how many different ways the chef could cook an egg. When I first heard that, I was like, really? Are there really that many ways? Well, I learned in my Intro to Garde Manger class this week that there are.

1. Soft-boiled 2. Medium-boiled 3. Hard-boiled 4. Sunny Side Up 5. Over Easy 6. Over Medium 7. Over Hard 8. Poached 9. Scrambled 10. Omelet style 11. Baked

And of course there are different styles of omelets and different things you can mix it with to bake... which is what we learned this week. I love eggs and all, but I think we could have dedicated just one day to eggs.

My favorite egg dish this week would probably be the Huevos Rancheros. It's so simple, but I'm hooked! I've always heard about it, but never tried it. I had no idea how delicious it was! It 's mostly because of the enchilada sauce, but I think I just love Mexican food in general.

Huevos Rancheros
2 taco-sized corn tortillas

2 eggs, over medium
1/2 cup of frijoles refritos (refried beans)
1/3 cup of enchilada sauce
1/3 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
2 Tbsp of butter/vegetable oil
Salt & pepper to taste
Chives for garnish

Of course all these inredients can be adjusted to suit your taste and desired portion.

First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Then, melt 1 Tbsp of the butter a medium saute pan and heat the tortillas just until slightly brown on both sides. Transfer to a plate and spread a thin layer of refried beans until it covers most of the surface of the tortillas. Set aside.

Using the same pan, add the rest of the butter and either cook the eggs one at a time or together on medium heat until all the white is cooked. Then flip over to finish cooking on the other side for 1 minute, or until yolk is just cooked on the outside. Slide the eggs onto the tortillas and beans. At this point, you can either transfer everything back onto the saute pan, top it off with the sauce and cheese, and pop it into the oven until the cheese is melted, or leave it on the plate and top it off with the sauce and cheese and pop that into the oven. That's what I did in class. I like the look of melted cheese on the plate. This way, the plate is also hot, which is the way they serve it in restaurants.

After the cheese is melted, take it out of the oven, and garnish with some chopped chives and enjoy! The egg yolk should be firm on the outside, but runny in the center.

Mm! As Ingrid Hoffman would say, "Simply delicioso!" Does she still have her own show?