When I was a whole lot younger, I had a boyfriend who was given to having affairs as a way of protecting his privacy. He had a lot of girlfriends as a result, and I had a lot of mental struggles until one night when I lay next to him sawing away in my mind at the cable that held me to him, and the last thread of the cable snapped. I woke him up and told him it was time for him to leave. Huge relief.
Anyway, I did get something out of that relationship. One of his girlfriends was a young woman named Maggie. After they split up, she lived in a cabin in the Jemez Mtns with her husband, Magic Rock and their two kids, which tells you all you need to know, I imagine. We went to their wedding in New Mexico, which was a fairly trying experience for me, as it usually is for a young woman attending the marriage of one of her boyfriend’s former lovers, but I did get one fabulous thing out of that horrible week, something I have never forgotten and that has been a major solace to me in times of trouble. Which these, for just about all of us, certainly are.
That something, you will not be surprised to hear, was a recipe. For tortillas and eggs.
Or rather, a Tortilla and an Egg.
Maggie had a cast iron pan and a jar of bacon fat. She liked her eggs ‘hard so you can throw them at a wall’, and this recipe is adaptable to any egg liquidity preference. The main thing is it’s about fat, and salt, and tortilla, and egg, which combination has been, for hundreds of years, a comfort to many troubled peoples. And I can assert it is a comfort to me, recently, when wildfires devastate my neighbors to the north and the south of our little valley. We have our bags packed and our car’s gas tank filled, but fortunately, so far, our forest has survived. It means a lot of eggs and tortillas for lunch, though.
What Maggie did was heat up some bacon fat in her cast iron skillet, throw on a tortilla, fry it on one side, flip it, break an egg over it, mix the egg up with a fork, turn the whole thing back over and let it cook until the egg was to her liking, ie hard as a rock. She then just rolled up the tortilla around the egg and had at it.
I was fascinated. Also I could see the potential. I’ve had a tiny cast iron pan, just big enough for one tortilla and one egg, since I was nineteen. So when I got home, I started playing with the recipe. I did the same bacon fat routine, but my addition was a smear of Dijon mustard on the egg before rolling up to eat. That was always a big hit with my roommate. She made sure then we always had a jar of Dijon in the fridge.
Years passed by. Many roommates. A husband. A divorce. Another husband, this time a vegetarian. So there was the olive oil development. That came in handy when I had a nostalgic longing for tortilla and egg, but no bacon fat. I wasn’t eating much bacon for years, keeping him company. It was probably healthier. But healthy, of course, is not what you’re looking for in times of trouble.
My spectacular discovery was duck fat. After roasting a duck, secretly, just for myself, I would save the copious fat in a bowl. Using duck fat in this particular recipe raised the whole experience to the celestial: as in, an angel has come down to tap you on the shoulder while you’re shuddering with spiritual fear about anything from imminent cash flow disaster to wildfire approach to PTSD after wildfire has passed.
I gave up mustard awhile ago. My tastes shifted, though I still recommend a smear of mustard to the cognoscenti. I use a vinegary hot pepper sauce now, liberally sprinkled on the cooked egg.
As for my egg preference, I like them any way. Sometimes I cook them Maggie style, just for nostalgia’s sake. Sometimes I cook them lightly so the yolk bursts when I wrap the tortilla. Messy but delicious. Sometimes I cook them in between. The tortilla and egg thing is fine any way. Its simplicity is its elegance, if you ask me.
Tortilla and Egg, The basic recipe:
Take a tortilla, some fat, and an egg. Add fat to a skillet, preferably ceramic or cast iron for ease of tortilla and egg removal later. Once fat is sizzling, add tortilla. Cook a minute or two, flip, break the egg on top, muddle it with a fork. Salt it. Flip it back over. Cook till the egg is done to your liking. Turn out onto a plate. Smear a little mustard on, if you feel inclined, or pepper lavishly, or add hot sauce, or any variation preferred. Roll up, eat, and feel comforted by the Tortilla and Egg angel.
Today for lunch on a Red Flag Fire Warning Day, I’ll do a variation.
Tortilla with Bacon and Egg
Tortilla, Bacon, Egg, Salt, Hot Sauce
In a small cast iron skillet that holds one tortilla, I fry a bit of bacon. (I buy the bacon ends from Beeler: way less expensive than the strips, and you get a wonderful variety of shapes and thicknesses in the package, which I love, disliking monoculture as I do, in forestry as well as in foods.)
I take my tortilla. I used to love plain corn ones, then I went with white corn, and now I have an affection for those thick artisanal ones that have a little flour worked in. Whatever works for you. There is no such thing as a bad tortilla. (In fact, stale tortillas are fine here, if you like chewy the way I do.)
When the bacon is fried, I coax the tortilla underneath it, so the bacon is on top. I let the tortilla fry in the bacon fat until golden, about two minutes. I break an egg on top of the bacon, muddle the whole thing with a fork, salt and pepper, flip it over so the egg is on the bottom, cloaking the bacon.
I cook it to my liking, turn it out of the pan onto a plate that usually already holds either orange segments, or a grapefruit half, or a slice of tomato—vitamin C eaten along with an egg giving me extra iron, or so a doctor once told me. Today I’m thinking slices of avocado with lemon juice on top. That should go great with it.
Then, if I can make it to the table without scarfing everything up, I sit down, put hot sauce over the whole tortilla/bacon/egg thing, roll it up, and eat.
Sometimes I lick the plate. That helps stress too, I find.
May you always have some comfort food on hand when stress finds you. May you stay always safe and well. And well fed. Especially that.