Last night we had what I call a “desperation dinner”. That happens when you have a busy day and you haven’t planned ahead. Most people are probably better planners than I am. When I had a regular work schedule I made a list of dinners for the week and shopped on the weekend. Now with occasional teaching, college consulting, some volunteer projects crying for attention, and this book I’m supposed to be editing, my schedule is not set in stone. I’m not complaining, it’s a lot of fun, but the planning and regular trips to the grocery have sort of fallen by the way.
It was actually past dinnertime when I wrapped up my college consulting. I kind of thought we might have our favorite last minute supper, grilled cheese sandwiches, but that became a bit of a challenge when I discovered we were out of bread. A quick check of the fridge found tortillas, a stray avocado, and some cheese. I was sure there was a jar of salsa somewhere that could be doctored up and we could have quesadillas. What? No salsa either!
Then it hit me, Huevos Rancheros. I could do that. What a great last minute supper. If the egg is your friend for a five-minute omelet, it can be a slightly more high maintenance friend in twenty-minute Huevos Rancheros. It would have been easier with a jar of salsa, but this turned out to be delicious and I may even make it again and add it to Richard’s cookbook.
Ingredients for sauce
1 Tbsp canola oil
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic chopped
1 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp cumin
1 Tbsp oregano
your choice of 1 dried ancho, fresh jalapeno, chipotle pepper or hot sauce * see note
1 can diced tomatoes
1 ½ c chicken broth (I used a bouillon cube)
Directions
In a medium saucepan cook onions until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, sugar, cumin and oregano, stir for a minute. Add tomatoes, chicken broth and your choice of pepper. Let this simmer on medium heat to thicken while you get everything else ready.
You’ll need tortillas and eggs, one or two of each per person. Some kind of grated cheese is nice. I had an avocado and cilantro that I chopped for garnish and quickly heated some black beans, because, well I love them!
Fry your tortillas in a tsp. of canola oil till they puff and get brown spots. Fry eggs in the same skillet.
To assemble put sauce on the tortillas, add fried eggs and any of the garnishes you are using. Enjoy! We did.
*I keep dried ancho peppers that I seed, tear into pieces, and rehydrate in a cup of water in the microwave, by boiling 2 minutes. I dump the whole mess in the blender for a minute, and add it to the sauce. You don’t have to go to this much trouble, but I like the sweet hot taste and can’t find anything else to replicate it. Hot sauce is perfectly fine to use and comes in flavors like chipotle
