Little sister is going to be ever-so-pleased that I’m finally posting this recipe.
Not because she particularly liked it, though I like to think she did… more because this is one of only very few recipes that we actually made together during her time here.
Not that we didn’t eat and cook together, because we did. But far more frequently, I would make dinner alone in the evenings, and she would break out some of her recipes — mostly baking-related — on the weekends. She would hover while I cooked and I would do the same as she baked, often with apéro in hand, but while we both used the kitchen, but we rarely used it together.
This exception was made after I had to procure a tortilla press for work (I really love that these are my work problems…) and accidentally bought two. In the end, it worked out — the chef’s assistant used the second press and we were able to get through the recipes much more quickly — but my office doesn’t need two tortilla presses (much less one, on most days), so I borrowed one and decided to make one of the recipes I had just witnessed at home.
I procured some masa harina from the Latin American grocery store downstairs from me, the very same Latin American grocery store I had to visit several times during the week at work when the tortilla press became necessary. The man who runs it is Peruvian and very nice; he ordered Mexican beer and plantains just for me. At some point, I’m not sure how, he discovered that I wasn’t French. Now he waves to me whenever he sees me; he likes that we’re both American. I asked him at one point whether he liked France. He stared at me as though he’d never thought of it before and, quite honestly, told me he didn’t know.
The masa harina formed the base of the tortillas I used to make a variation on Kevin’s recipe for asparagus huevos rancheros. The recipe was the same as the one I learned at work, though it’s not much of a recipe, more of a method. As I rolled the tortillas into balls, Little Sister pressed them in the press and tossed them into the frying pan. I flipped them with my fingertips, the way the chef at work showed me, and so we continued.
I can imagine how such a process, repetitive yet exact, would welcome conversation. I can see how Mexican ladies could sit around with their friends, their cousins, their sisters, chatting about everything and yet nothing at all as they rolled the little balls of masa and smushed them flat with a press like this one.
Asparagus Huevos Rancheros (adapted from Closet Cooking)
This recipe makes 7 tortillas; 2 are used for the huevos rancheros and the other 5 can be made into chips.
1 cup masa harina
1/4-1/2 cup water
6 spears green asparagus, trimmed
1 tsp. olive oil
3 tomatoes
1 small white onion
1/4 jalapeño
1 lime
2 avocadoes
cilantro (if you’re not the Country Boy)
2 eggs
1 Tbsp. olive oil
salt and pepper
queso fresco
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Combine the masa and the water by hand until you have a smooth dough about the texture of play dough. Cover with a damp kitchen towel and set aside.
Toss the asparagus with the teaspoon of olive oil and some salt. Lay on an even layer on a baking tray. Roast for about 20 minutes, or until tender and browned.
Finely dice the tomato. Mince the onion and the jalapeño. Toss to combine and season with salt.
Dice the avocado and place in another bowl. Mash slightly with a fork. Add a few spoonfuls of the tomato mixture and stir to combine. Squeeze in the lime juice to taste. Season with salt and pepper. Add the cilantro, if using.
Separate the masa dough into 7 equal-sized balls. Use a tortilla press to press the balls into tortillas. Heat a dry pan over high heat and cook the tortillas for 1 minute on each side. Place one on each plate. To make traditional tortilla chips with the others, simply continue cooking the tortillas in the dry pan until they become crispy and slightly golden; traditional tortilla chips aren’t fried! (Learned that at work too.)
Add the tablespoon of olive oil to the pan. Crack the eggs into it and lower the heat immediately to low. Cover and cook 1-2 minutes, until the whites are set and the yolks are still runny.
Top each tortilla with three asparagus spears, a spoonful of guacamole and one of salsa, and the fried egg. Sprinkle with queso fresco and serve.
