Breakfast with MexiGeek: molletes (Mexican beans on toast)

Mexican leftovers are the best, because they make the best breakfasts.

Most people think of beans on toast as crappy British food, but believe it or not there's a Mexican equivalent which is absolutely delicious.

Molletes are toasted open-face "sandwiches" of refried beans topped with melted Mexican cheese, salsa, and anything else you like.

The popular salsa choice would be classic chunky tomato and chile salsa, but I didn't have any so I used some Cholula.

I did, however, have some homemade refried black beans.

Molletes are usually made with bolillo, which is like a baguette, but I had some sourdough, which is more like Mexican birote, to use up.

I heated the beans up, toasted the bread, then topped the bread with the beans and some cheese.

Queso Chihuahua is a good melting cheese for this dish, and you can get it from Gringa Dairy. Otherwise some medium white cheddar will do.

Put the molletes under the grill to melt the cheese if you wish, then add the other condiments.

I used some leftover white picked onions (a white onion version of Yucatecan cebollas en escabeche).

You can use any kind of refried beans for this, and it's apparently very popular with Mexican businessmen.

Breakfast with MexiGeek: Chimichurri scrambled eggs on blue corn tortillas with habanero sauce and queso fresco

...which is a mouthful to say as well as to eat.

First off: chimicurri is NOT Mexican. It is (I believe) Argentine. It seems to be kind of a "thing" just now. They sell it in supermarkets, and of course in Lupe Pinto's. It was even mentioned in the most recent series of MasterChef.

So this breakfast came together because I was near the end of a bottle of chimichurri, so I fried the sauce in hot oil, because frying sauce is one of the basic techniques of Mexican cooking.

When the sauce was sizzling, I cracked a couple of eggs and scrambled them until they were just done.

On a plate I had two warm blue corn tortillas from The Cool Chile Company and some slices of cured Spanish-style chorizo.

I put the chimichurri scrambled eggs on top of the chorizo, crumbled up some queso fresco from Gringa Dairy and some KANKUN habanero sauce.

Y provecho!

It ain't breakfast if it don't got chiles

It has never occurred to me to cook eggs without some form of chile. I'm not even sure that it's possible.

What I loved about this breakfast was that:

A) I made it up as I went along, and 

B) I made it with a little help from my friends: Cool Chile Company, Gringa Dairy, and KANKUN. Three of the reasons it is possible to cook Mexican food in the UK. 

Also, it was delicious, but that pretty much goes without saying.

Breakfast with MexiGeek: Migas en salsa verde

When I saw that Nigella had basically done a version of migas, I knew it was high time I did one.

(This was before we found out about the cocaine but after her now ex-husband choked her in a public restaurant in broad daylight. She's living the dream.)

Anyway, migas literally means "crumbs", but in the kitchen it means a dish of scrambled eggs and tortilla chips.

That's right: tortilla chips for breakfast.

This dish is pretty simple, and there are many variations, depending on what you have lying around.

Some people fry the tortilla chips first, but I only recommend this if your tortilla chips are homemade. Store-bought ones disintegrate too easily.

I didn't have an onion so I used minced garlic, but as a rule chopped onion is the way to go.

And I had some leftover salsa verde.

I started by heating some oil in a pan and sweating the garlic (use onion if you've got it. This is also where you'd fry your homemade tortilla chips. Remove them once they start to brown.)

Then I tipped in my salsa and fried it until it reduced and most of the water had cooked off. This is kind of like making salsa de huevos.

Then I added the eggs and a couple handfuls of crumbled tortilla chips and scrambled it all up.

¡Y provecho!

I served it with a few more tortilla chips, some sour cream, and chopped coriander or cilantro.

Just so you know, I do have one of these.

Breakfast with MexiGeek: huevos especiales (from Mrs MexiGeek

For Fathers' Day Mrs MexiGeek, who is an excellent cook in her own right, made me a special Mexican breakfast.

It was inspired by huevos rancheros and embellished with extra goodies like chorizo and refried beans.

First she sweated some chopped onion and garlic in some oil, and then added ground coriander, cumin, ground chiles, Mexican oregano, and a bit of paprika for extra smoky depth.

Then she fried some diced chorizo. When it was cooked through, she added some passata and simmered until she had a nice salsa ranchera.

Then she cracked two eggs into the simmering sauce and popped the pan under the grill to cook the eggs on both sides.

To serve, she put some warm refried beans in the middle of the plate, then ladled the salsa ranchera around it.

She put the egg into the beans, topped with some chopped coriander y provecho!

There were also warm flour tortillas on the side.

This dish hit all the right flavour notes: sweetness from the tomato, chile heat, depth from the spices, richness from the egg, and a fresh top note from the coriander.

This is one of the best egg dishes I've ever had, which if you look back at previous Breakfast with MexiGeek posts is saying a lot.

Which proves Mrs MexiGeek has mad skills in the kitchen and I'm a very lucky man.

Breakfast with MexiGeek: Quesadilla enchilada

I had some leftover "en-chillied" tortillas: tortillas which had ancho-chile paste worked into the dough.

I decided to make a quick quesadilla.

First I spread some chipotle paste over one tortilla.

Then I added the cheese. Ideally it would be queso fresco, something crumbly like feta, or maybe ricotta, but all I had left was white cheddar.

I topped it with some surprisingly good pickled red jalapenos.

Then I put another tortilla over it (instead of folding the tortilla over, which is the usual method).

I fried the quesadilla in butter, just to make it more healthy.

Typically you would fry your quesadilla in pork lard, but any oil would do. A flavourless one like sunflower or rapeseed works perfectly.

The chipotle and jalapenos really "made" this dish in terms of the filling. Both brought a beautiful mix of chile heat and sweetness to contrast the saltiness of the cheese.

But I also love these "en-chillied" tortillas. Ancho is the classic flavour of enchiladas, and it's running all through the tortilla dough.

Quite a faff to make, but so delicious!

(Traditional enchiladas are much easier.)

Breakfast with MexiGeek: spicy egg over easy on toast with leftover pibil sauce

I could have mexed this up more but I'm savings the leftover tortillas dobladas and refried beans for lunch.

The toast it's just toast, and they really do eat toast for desayunos in Mexico.

To add a Mexican touch to the otherwise American egg over easy, I fried it in pork lard I rendered myself.

Before you get grossed out, I needed the lard to make the refried beans authentic, and I'd rather use lard I made myself than but a block of that Tesco value lard, which is probably 29% horse anyway.

Before I flipped the egg I seasoned it with some powdered chile and Mexican oregano. Then I carefully placed it on top of the slice of (buttered) toast.

Then in the same pan I dropped about 1/4 tsp cumin seeds into the hot fat.

After a few seconds I added my leftover sauce from the pollo pibil I made last night (post to follow). This included some onion and tomato.

When it was good and hot I poured it over the egg y provecho!

The best thing about cooking Mexican food for dinner is you get leftovers for breakfast.

Breakfast with MexiGeek: scrambled egg taco

This is a fried tortilla, almost like you'd make for authentic enchiladas, only I didn't dip it in sauce.

First I cracked two eggs into a mixing bowl, seasoned them with salt and pepper, dried epazote, and ground chiles.

Then I beat them until not quite combined. Never over-beat your eggs.

Next I fried the corn tortilla in butter: about 30 seconds on the first side, then a little less than 10 seconds on the other side.

Then I removed the tortilla to a plate. It should not be crisp.

Over a medium heat, I melted some more butter. When it was hot, I added some cumin seeds and let them fry for a few seconds (a technique from Indian cooking).

Then I added the eggs and gently scrambled them until just done.

"Scrambled eggs" in Spanish are huevos revueltos, which means "thoroughly turned eggs", so I always use a circular motion when scrambling.

At the very end I added a teaspoon of my homemade chipotle sauce.

I put the eggs in the tortilla, folded it over, and topped with more sauce.

¡Provecho!