Saveur: The New Comfort Food by James Oseland Read Free Book Online Page A

crumbled feta cheese
    1 tbsp. chopped flat-leaf parsley Warm pita bread, for serving
    Serves 4–6

    1. Heat oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add chiles and onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and golden brown, about 6 minutes. Add garlic, paprika, and cumin and cook, stirring frequently, until garlic is soft, about 2 minutes more. Put tomatoes and their liquid into a medium bowl and crush well with your hands. Add crushed tomatoes and their liquid to skillet along with ½ cup water, reduce heat to medium, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened slightly, about 20 minutes. Season sauce with salt.
    2. Crack eggs over sauce so that eggs are evenly distributed across sauce’s surface. Cover skillet and cook until yolks are just set, about 5 minutes. Using a spoon, baste the whites of the eggs with tomato mixture, being careful not to disturb the yolk. Sprinkle shakshuka with feta and parsley and serve hot with pita bread, for dipping.

Huevos Rancheros
    This recipe for huevos rancheros, the gorgeous mess of fried eggs smothered in a spicy tomato sauce, came from La Abeja, a café in Los Angeles where the Fonseca family has been serving up Mexican home-style cooking for decades. Traditionally a cowboy’s breakfast served over warm corn tortillas with rice and refried beans, the dish has become a fixture in diners on both sides of the border.
14 plum tomatoes, cored
    12 tbsp. canola oil
    3 cloves garlic, minced
    ½ jalapeño, stemmed and minced
    ½ medium yellow onion, chopped
    1 tbsp. fresh lime juice Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
    8 corn tortillas
    8 eggs Pickled jalapeño slices, for garnish
    Serves 4
    1. Heat a 12-inch cast-iron skillet over high heat. Add the tomatoes and cook, turning, until the skins blacken, 8–10 minutes. Peel the tomatoes, purée in a blender, strain through a sieve, and set aside.
    2. Heat 4 tbsp. oil in a 4-qt. pan over medium heat. Add the garlic, jalapeños, and onions and cook until soft, 6–8 minutes. Add the tomato purée and bring to a boil. Stir in the lime juice and season with salt and pepper. Remove from the heat and set aside.
    3. Working in 4 batches, heat 1 tbsp. oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 2 tortillas to the skillet and cook, flipping once, until warmed, about 20 seconds. Repeat with the remaining tortillas.
    4. Divide the tortillas between 4 plates. Working in 2 batches, heat the remaining oil in the same skillet over medium heat and fry the eggs to desired doneness. Top each tortilla with a fried egg and tomato sauce. Garnish with pickled jalapeño slices and serve.

Best Breakfast
    I first stumbled on La Abeja, a little Mexican café on Figueroa Street in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Highland Park, in 1986, when I was 23 (that’s me, pictured, on the left, right around that time). My best friend, Joyce, lived in nearby Mount Washington, and we started making an almost religious ritual out of meeting there Saturday mornings to go over in penitential detail all the silly, alcohol-fueled things we’d done the night before. Boy, did those breakfasts hit the spot: huevos rancheros served with fluffy Mexican rice and some of the best refried beans in the world; big, hot bowls of menudo studded with tender tripe and hominy; and endless cups of soul-satisfying, diner-variety coffee. La Abeja (or The Bee) serves Mexican home-style cooking of the highest order; not surprising considering that the place started its life as a corner store in 1969 with a kitchen in the back where the owners, Jose and Gloria Fonseca, would prepare meals for their family. Eventually, customers started asking whether they could get take-out versions of some of those foods, many of them made from recipes the family had brought from their native Mexico City. Before long the Fonsecas cleared out the aisles and shelves and set up tables and chairs (they kept the candy counter up front). When I visited La Abeja