Stephanie Alexander’s huevos rancheros (ranch-style eggs)

Hi, I'm Stephanie and this morning I'm going to cook a very popular Mexican breakfast dish. We have here the main ingredients. Tortilla, in this case made with flour, but often made with maize. Avocado, lime, a special chilli called jalapeno, tomatoes to make a salsa, and refried beans that get warmed before they’re put on the tortilla. Okay, I'm going to make the salsa now. A little bit of olive oil in a nice hot pan, and in go the tomatoes. And I want them to sizzle. I'm going to add the spring onions and just a little bit of the chilli. Cook that all together for about two or three minutes. I’m just adding a little tiny bit of lime juice and a pinch of salt and we call our salsa done. Alright, well, I’m now cooking my tortilla. They're in a little bit of oil and a little bit of butter and they go into a hot pan and see how they're starting to bubble. It's less than a minute on each side. I’ll flip them over. You can heat them in the microwave but they don't get this nice bubbly look. Okay, so now I'm going to make some avocado. It's not really guacamole, this is very simple. We’re just halving the avocado and with my spoon scooping the flesh into a bowl. Half an avocado will be plenty for my two portions. Add a little bit of salt because we know we'll need salt and when I've given it a crush, I'll add a bit of lime juice, doesn't need much. That's all we need. An alternative topping on the tortilla, which is very popular, are refried beans, they just get warmed briefly and spread on the top where you might use avocado on another day.

I'm just going to put a lid on my pan so that they stay sunny side up and cook evenly. Probably just for two or three minutes. Okay, so now we're going to assemble our breakfast. It’s a very hearty breakfast. Two tortilla and the next thing is the avocado, followed by the eggs, some salsa, I’ll only use a little because it's quite hot and people can always add a little bit more. Some fetta cheese and a sprinkling of coriander. A little bit of lime on the plate. Now if you've made the recipe for refried beans, you can either use it instead of avocado, or it's just as legitimate to spoon it on the plate as an extra side dish, like this.