Easy Baked Chilaquiles
What do I crave when I wake up on a Sunday morning? it’s always the same answer, perhaps because my Mum would make chilaquiles for us normally during the weekend, this was when she had more time to make breakfast with Dad.
I grew up in a family where preparing a meal together was always very important, specially on the weekends when eating together and having a nice breakfast or lunch was almost a religion.
Until this day Dad always makes sure he has his chorizo in the fridge to make his famous salsa and Mum makes sure there is tortillas for her chilaquiles.
All I can think of when I’m sitting with them at their table is that I could not feel luckier enough for having been brought up in a family where sharing a meal matters and how loved this simple act has always made me feel.
And I cannot say enough how I think food is such an easy way to show love to someone wether is your family or a community thing, or perhaps a friends get together.
And when times are tough like they haven been in the past few months it has often being the little things that have kept me going, like this warm plate of chilaquiles with my little family in the morning.
I hope that you and your family are enjoying these little rituals too. And here is a little recipe for you to try next weekend, made with leftovers mainly so I’ll be adding ideas for ingredients substitutions so almost everybody would have these ingredients already at home.
Serves : 2
Ingredients:
25 corn tortillas, (stale tortillas are better for this).
1 cup of rapeseed oil, (for frying).
1 jar of tomatillo salsa, (300 ml).
1 jalapeño.
Handful of coriander (optional).
1 small red onion, (thinly sliced with a mandolin).
100 grams of any good melting cheese, cheddar, gruyere, gouda, etc.
200 grams of cooked gammon or chicken, (shredded).
100 ml of creme fraiche, labneh, sour cream or greek yoghurt.
Olive oil.
Maldon Salt and freshly ground coarse pepper to taste.
Garnish:
Red chilli, (finely diced).
1/2 red onion (finely diced).
Method:
Preaheat oven at 180 C.
Begin by making your totopos (tortilla chips), for that stack your corn tortillas and cut them with a sharp knife into triangles.
Heat up the rapeseed oil into a frying pan and once is hot enough fry your tortilla triangles until golden and crispy. Remove them from the hot oil with the help of a slotted spoon and place them over kitchen paper to absorb any excess oil. Add a bit of salt while they are still warm.
Then I normally use a jar of tomatillo salsa to save time but also because tomatillos are no easy to find here, but do make your salsa from scratch if that is what your prefer. So I place the store bought salsa into the blender and add the jalapeño chilli and a bit of fresh coriander and blend it smooth, set aside.
In a medium baking dish add a layer of crispy totopos, cover with half of the sliced onion, shredded gammon, half of the tomatillo salsa, half of the creme fraiche, and repeat the same steps forming another layer of tortilla chips, salsa, protein and rest of creme fraiche.
*Tip my favourite thing to do is to add creme fraiche to bake them in the oven, and then add labneh on top once I serve them, the lovely tanginess of labneh goes so well with these already delicious chilaquiles.
Add the grated cheese on top and a drizzle of olive oil, then bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
Serve your chilaquiles warm and garnish them with finely chopped red chili and red onion on the top, enjoy!
