Huevos Motuleños

Ingredients

• 8 corn tortillas
• 200ml vegetable oil, for frying
• 400g cooked black beans, with a little liquid
• 1/2 white onion, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp lard, for the beans
• 1 dried epazote sprig, or 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp fine sea salt
• 500g ripe tomatoes, chopped
• 1/2 white onion, extra, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 habanero chile, left whole
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil, for the sauce
• 1/2 tsp dried Mexican oregano
• 150g cooked ham, cut into small cubes
• 150g peas, fresh or frozen
• 2 ripe plantains, peeled and sliced on the diagonal
• 8 eggs
• 120g queso fresco or Edam, crumbled or grated
• 1 handful coriander leaves

Before you cook

• Chop both onion halves, the garlic and the tomatoes.
• Cube the ham and slice the plantains diagonally about 1cm thick.
• Crumble the cheese.
• Set out four warm plates, because this dish is assembled hot and eaten immediately.

Steps

1. Heat the tablespoon of lard in a saucepan over medium heat and fry half the chopped onion for four minutes, until soft.
2. Add the black beans with their liquid, the epazote and salt, and mash them roughly with the back of a spoon.
3. Cook the beans for eight minutes, until thick enough to spread, then keep them warm.
4. Heat two tablespoons of oil in a frying pan over medium heat and fry the extra onion and garlic for three minutes.
5. Add the tomatoes, oregano and the whole habanero, and simmer for twelve minutes, until you have a loose, brick-red sauce.
6. Lift out the habanero and season the sauce with salt, then keep it warm.
7. Boil the peas in salted water for three minutes, then drain them.
8. Pour the frying oil into a small pan and heat it to 180C.
9. Fry the plantain slices for two minutes a side, until deep gold and caramelised at the edges, then drain them on kitchen paper.
10. Fry the ham cubes in the same pan for two minutes, until browned, and drain them too.
11. Fry the tortillas one at a time for about thirty seconds a side, until they are firm and lightly crisp but not brittle, then drain them.
12. Lay one fried tortilla on each warm plate and spread it thickly with black beans.
13. Fry the eggs in a clean pan in a little oil, two per plate, until the whites are set and the yolks still runny.
14. Slide two eggs onto each bean-covered tortilla.
15. Rest a second bean-spread tortilla against the side of the eggs, or lay it on top, depending on how you like to eat it.
16. Spoon the tomato sauce generously over the whites of the eggs, leaving the yolks showing.
17. Scatter over the ham, peas and crumbled cheese.
18. Arrange the fried plantain around the edge of the plate, add the coriander and serve at once.