The days suddenly shorten, and good eggs suddenly become scarcer. Not the bog-standard battery egg, of course, but the good, fresh egg laid by a hen that roams and pecks around outside, and which gives us an egg with a mustard-yellow yolk and a firm, glacial white. Their sudden shortage is a valuable reminder of just how precious eggs are, and how their ubiquity means we too often take them for granted. In addition to the hens turning shy, the publication of Country Egg, City Egg, by American chefs Gayle Pirie and John Clark, gives a lovely incentive to show proper respect to eggs. This little book, with just 60 recipes spread throughout 100 pages, is a charming, valuable, and useful textbook on the art of the egg.
A good egg deserves special treatment, and should be reserved for a good weekend breakfast in bed, or a sociable late-morning brunch. Here are two great recipes that showcase those good, healthy eggs.
Rick Bayless runs two Mexican restaurants in Chicago - Frontera Grill and Topolobampo, and when he's not behind the stove he tours the world demonstrating the nobility and finesse of Mexican cooking. In this guise he recently taught a class at the Ballymaloe school, and showed why he is regarded as the foremost authority on this great cuisine.
Bayless's recipe for Huevos Rusticos was chosen by Loyd Grossman as one of his 125 best recipes ever, in his book of that name, and you will also find it in the original source, which is Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen, published in the United States by Scribner, so you will probably need to use an Internet book service to get it. It is classic comfort food, but a dish in which the tomato-jalapeno salsa and the coriander keep everything interesting. Of course, you may not want to do all that roasting on a weekend morning, so the salsa can be prepared in advance: just leave the raw onion out and add it when warming the salsa.
White onions are much milder than standard onions, so do search them out. You can also use canned tomatoes, but then you will lose some of the smoky flavour which is integral to the dish. If you can't get corn tortillas, use the widely available flour tortillas and toast them before placing the eggs and salsa on top.
Huevos Rusticos
1 pound ripe tomatoes
2 to 3 fresh jalapeno chillies
3 garlic cloves, unpeeled Scant half teaspoon salt
Half small white onion, finely chopped, plus a little extra for garnish
Scant half cup loosely packed chopped coriander, plus a few sprigs for garnish
4 corn tortillas
1 tablespoon vegetable or olive oil
4 eggs
2 tablespoons finely crumbled dry feta or Parmesan
Making the salsa: roast the tomatoes on a baking sheet four inches below a very hot grill until blackened on one side, about six minutes, then flip and roast the other side.
Cool and peel, collecting all the juices with the tomatoes. While the tomatoes are roasting, roast the chillies and unpeeled garlic directly on an ungreased griddle or heavy skillet over medium heat, turning occasionally, until soft (they'll blacken in spots: five to 10 minutes for the chillies, about 15 minutes for the garlic). Cool, then pull the stems from the chillies and peel the garlic.
In a large mortar (or small food processor/grinder) make the chillies, garlic and salt into a coarse-textured puree. Add the juicy tomatoes (a few at a time if using a mortar) and work them into a coarse, rich-textured salsa. Rinse the onion in a strainer under cold water, shake off the excess water and add to the tomato mixture, along with the coriander. Taste and season with salt Lightly toast the tortillas directly over a gas flame or in an ungreased non-stick skillet over an electric burner, turning once until heated through, 30 to 45 seconds. Wrap up in a thick, clean towel to keep warm.
Finishing the dish: in a medium-size saucepan, bring the salsa to a simmer, cover and keep warm.
Heat the oil in a large (10- to 12-inch) well-seasoned or non-stick skillet (you'll need a lid) over medium to medium-low heat. Crack the eggs into the skillet, cover and cook for one minute. Uncover and continue cooking until the whites are set but the yolks are still runny, one to two minutes more.
Lay a tortilla on each of four warm plates. Top each tortilla with an egg and spoon the warm salsa over everything, keeping the yolks uncovered if you like that look. Sprinkle with a little onion and the cheese, decorate with coriander sprigs and the Huevos Rusticos are ready.
This recipe for Auntie Bell's Scrambled Eggs is from Country Egg, City Egg by Pirie and Clark (published by Artisan at £10.99 in the UK). Tomatoes and basil with scrambled eggs is an age old combination which I have been cooking for decades, but what I like here is the crunch of the breadcrumbs. The important point here is to scramble the eggs the second they go into the pan with the hot tomatoes, otherwise they will set too quickly and you won't get a smooth emulsion, which is what you should try to achieve with scrambled eggs.
Auntie Bell's Scrambled Eggs
For the breadcrumbs:
Several slices day-old French bread
1 tablespoon pure olive oil
Salt to taste
3 tablespoons pure olive oil
1 lb ripe tomatoes
Coarse salt to taste
8 fresh basil leaves
10 eggs
Freshly ground white pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 300F. Remove the crusts from the bread and cut the bread into chunks. Place in a food processor and process until roughly the size of peas. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until golden and crisp. Keep the breadcrumbs warm.
Put the olive oil in a 10- or 12-inch non-stick pan over medium heat. Add the tomatoes and season with salt. Cook for five minutes, or until slightly softened . Add torn basil leaves so the perfume starts to release.
Beat the eggs lightly and season with salt and white pepper. Combine with the tomatoes and, over medium-low heat, gently scramble the eggs. Garnish with crisp bread crumbs.