Huevos Rancheros

From Bobby Flay Cooks American (page 30) this is Ranch-Style Eggs with Chorizo and Tomato-Red Chili Sauce. This would be a great start to any day. I began by searing chopped red onions and garlic in olive oil and red wine in a pan on the grill. Then I added tomatoes, ancho chili powder and honey and let the sauce simmer for about 15 minutes. Once the sauce had reduced down I put the pan on an upper grate and went to work on the eggs. I used a big cast iron skillet. The eggs and sausage went in together with some cream and Monterey Jack cheese. The eggs cook up quickly in the hot skillet so it does require constant stirring with a wooden spoon. When the eggs were ready I stacked everything together on a wheat tortilla. Eggs & Sausage first, then the sauce poured over the top with more cheese. After the photo I rolled up the tortilla into a breakfast burrito. That Tomato-Chili sauce was perfect!

But I did run into a problem however. The market did not have Chorizo, which really surprised me. So I had to improvise. I had to use some sausage from a previous dish – yesterday’s flatbread dish. I know this sounds crazy, but taking toppings off of last night’s pizza and putting them in this morning’s eggs is not a new idea. In fact it has an official name: Eggs a la Williams. Like most guys my age, we have known our oldest friends for about 25+ years. I met Mike Williams on my very first day of college and that has been more than 35 years ago. Living and cooking in the dorm was an eye opening experience. Mike had his own take. He really would scavenge ingredients from off of a pizza that had been delivered the night before and toss them in scrambled eggs the next day. He called it Eggs a la Williams. Now before you think this is gross, think again. What normally goes into an omelet? Green peppers, diced ham, onions, cheese, mushrooms – these are also pizza toppings! The idea is not so far fetched after all. It is also economical, non-wasteful and very innovative. Living in the dorm is the same thing as saying you are poor, so we had to be very resourceful. I had a meal ticket for the cafeteria, but that was not open in the middle of the night or on weekends. There should be a dormroom cooking blog. But probably today’s college kids would not be as innovative as we were. Another friend, "The Clooose," would turn a twin-burner hot plate upside down. He would hang one burner over the edge of his desk and place books on the other end so the unit would not fall off the desk.  Then he would turn on the burner that was suspended upside down and let it get hot. He then would hold whatever was for dinner up under the burner and let it heat up like it was a broiler. This method worked great until the day in which he turned on the wrong burner – the one sitting directly on the desk! Never disrespect dorm cooking because it was creative thinking in action. Long live Eggs a la Williams!

Paul