Cook with us – March, Week 1 – Chilaquiles

There's a new cooking challenge here that I'm responding to. It's called CookWithUs and the first week is showcasing our favorite family meals. My family's favorite meal for the past few years has been chilaquiles! It used to be nachos, and I'd never heard of chilaquiles, but I was trying to 'up my game' and while researching came across an article on Mexico City street food that included chilaquiles (though I'm not sure how it would be served out of a cart) and was sort of enchanted. I ran out and got some queso fresco and crema and served it that night to great acclaim. Now, no one ever asks for nachos. :)

Chilaquiles are basically fried corn tortillas, topped with or simmered in sauce, and topped with stuff. Pretty easy, right?! We normally start with commercial tortilla chips instead of tortillas. When I've fried tortillas, they always end up way greasier than chips out of a bag. The only reason to start with tortillas instead is if we're making them fresh -- which are amazingly delicious, but usually more work than I'm willing to put in. And we've decided that we like the chips cooked in the sauce (not just topped). If I time it right, they're just a little soft, hot and wet -- not yet mushy, when I serve.

When you talk to someone who knows chilaquiles, the first question that comes up is 'red or green?' This is a reference to the sauce you use -- tomato and red chiles or tomatillo and green chiles. I've done both and we love green. I occasionally make the sauce from scratch, but I think it doesn't add enough to justify it unless in the summer I'm processing a whole ton of produce and canning it. But mostly, I just buy combinations of tomatillo sauces and use those.

And what do we top with? It depends on what we have in the house! (And I love dishes with this level of flexibility.) We almost always have cilantro and jalapenos in the fridge, so those go on. Canned black olives if we have them. Usually queso fresco, but as you can see below, sometimes I fall back on cheddar cheese (when I make an inventory mistake). diced onion, nopalitos, tiny tomatoes, avocado, whatever! Usually a protein. We don't eat meat, so occasionally it's beans (of any kind), but more often, an egg. It seems like a fried egg is traditional, but I think my personal 'killer app' is to poach the eggs in the tomatillo sauce. Check this out:

(They're slightly over-done this time -- gooey in the middle, but I couldn't show them running down the pile of food because they'd hardened up)

I also made a chipotle crema that I drizzled over each plate.

Anyway, that's how I transformed this:

into this: