Good morning! Wow did I ever sleep! I feel like I slept six months! What time is it anyway? What? It’s JANUARY? I DID sleep six months! Boy am I hungry!

Seriously, if I had readers I would owe them a huge apology for ignoring this blog for so long. My life in 2008 was somewhat… upended, and writing blog posts became, well, deprioritized, as we say at work. Now that things in my personal realm have settled somewhat, and now that it’s a new year to boot, I hope to do better. Here’s to quality food writing in 2009!

Truly, I really did wake up yesterday morning very hungry, my stomach growling so loud it was scaring my cat. And what’s more I’d been fighting a lingering cold, and so I craved something spicy that would cut through the stuffy-nose flavor-haze enough that I could taste it. I had on hand all the ingredients for a quick tomatillo salsa from Rick Bayliss’ Mexican Everyday, so I thought I’d whip that up and poach a couple of eggs in it. I had tortillas and queso fresco – all the makings of my own huevos rancheros. But I knew eggs, cheese, tortillas & salsa alone weren’t going to quiet my rumbling tummy: I’d need a hearty side dish. I didn’t want to wait for rice & beans, and I knew home fries could be made fairly quickly (and would also gave me the chance to use the cool blue potatoes I’d found at the farmer’s market). I’d need only to spice them up to match my salsa-poached eggs.

To that end I carefully chopped a small dried chipotle into fine pieces, and threw it into my mortar along with a chopped clove of garlic and half teaspoon or so of salt. I worked these together until they formed a paste, which then went into a non-stick skillet where I’d heated a tablespoon of olive oil. Once the paste was toasted and fragrant, I added two potatoes that I’d cut into half-inch cubes. I tossed them for a couple of minutes to coat them with the chili paste, then added a little water – very little, only about two tablespoons — a splash of tequila, some salt, and a scant teaspoon of dried epazote, which I’d picked over carefully for stems. Once the liquid came to a boil, I covered the pan tightly, turned the heat down, and left the potatoes to steam, giving the pan a shake now and then to keep them from sticking to the bottom.

Then the eggs: the salsa, (“Fresh Tomatillo Salsa” on page 152 of Bayliss’ very handy cookbook), is a quick and simple matter. All it requires is giving a spin in the food processor to some quartered tomatillos, a jalapeno, garlic, cilantro, salt & a little water. Mexican Everyday has a bunch of salsa recipes that are just as simple and quick as this one. Certainly you can poach eggs in your favorite jarred salsa, but when salsa is this easy, why not make fresh? The higher end supermarket salsa brands can cost six bucks for a small jar. Six bucks! For tomato, onion, chilis, salt and spices — hardly rare, precious ingredients. In the spirit of Mark Bittman’s recent New York Times article about tossing out useless ingredients in the new year, I’m vowing to use commercial salsa as little as possible, and to make my own whenever I can. Homemade is always better anyway.

But I digress. Once the salsa was blended, I spooned about half of it into a small skillet to get ready to start poaching. I found it a little thick for my needs, and also wanted to give it a little more flavor. So I added some water, and a pinch more salt, which was good, then sprinkled in some lime juice, which was a mistake: the salsa was already pretty tangy from the tomatillos, and the lime pushed the tartness factor even further. Oops. Then I added a tablespoon or so of tequila, and its smokiness offset the tangy salsa nicely. Now let’s poach! I turned up the heat just until the mixture bubbled, then carefully slid in two eggs, one at a time, from a ramekin (I find this gives me more control than dropping them in from their shells, and also eliminates the possibility of shell fragments in the egg). I turned the mixture down to a simmer and let the eggs cook slowly.

When a fork test told me the potatoes were cooked through, I removed the lid, raised the heat, and allowed any remaining liquid to boil away, then continued to cook the potatoes, tossing occasionally, to brown the outsides. This can take a while; in fact the longer you cook the potatoes after the liquid is gone, the crispier and better they’ll be. Up to a point, of course: fifteen minutes after the liquid is gone should do it, more if you want them crispier. Also, in my experience, this only works with a non-stick skillet — otherwise, you risk leaving the crispy bits stuck to the pan. As the potatoes were finishing up, I covered the eggs for their last few minutes of cooking, which sped them up considerably and cooked the yolks just how I wanted them – firm around the outside, soft and runny in the middle (careful with this step — the yolks will firm up pretty quickly at this point).

In the meantime I’d crumbled the queso fresco and heated some tortillas in a dry cast iron skillet. I put the tortillas onto the plate first, with the potatoes alongside and the eggs on top. The eggs then got a dressing of the remaining poaching liquid and a generous sprinkling of the crumbled cheese. Slices of ripe avocado would’ve been the perfect accompaniment, if only I’d had some.

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