Spice up your brunch - Huevos Rancheros

Apologies for the poor photography and slap-dash presentation, but believe me when I say this, that this tasted amazing! 

A friend and her son came over recently for a playdate and I wanted to make her something for brunch. The idea being we could sit and eat whilst the kids played.

She had made me a delicious brunch of smashed avocado and scrambled eggs the week before and I wanted to repay the favour.

I didn't want to repeat her menu, delicious as it was, and started thinking about other options that were quick and easy to prepare. I was after something that, by and large, could be prepped beforehand and required minimal assembly on the day.

I was also bored of carting out the same old American pancakes and masala omlette and griddled toast.  

I still wanted flavour, texture and zing and something filling but not overly indulgent. Enter Huevos Rancheros or Ranchers eggs. A Mexican breakfast consisting of a grilled tortilla, topped with ranchero sauce, a fried egg and garnished with beans, avocado and cheese.

I think the first time I tried these were at Giraffe, many years ago. My sisters and I used to go for brunch most weekends, when we all still had the time. Giraffe generally has quite an eclectic menu but their breakfast menu was fairly typical, so this stood out.

I decided to try making it at home.

There were some variations of the recipe. This one called for refried beans to be spread over the grilled tortilla followed by the other ingrediants, whilst another required them to be lightly mashed and spread over. Others called for a ranchero sauce to be spread over the tortilla.

I felt like the refried beans would be too heavy and opted to use the beans as a topping in addition to the sauce. 

This Gordon Ramsey video was quite helpful for the general method and is fairly easy to follow. I opted out of the fussier aspects like the rolled, bean-filled tortilla on the side of the main dish, but by and large followed his recipe. Annoyingly, it didn't come with quantities for the ingrediants and I couldn't find a write up of the recipe. So, I kind of had to guess.

He makes the point that once you do the sauce, that's the dish pretty much done. The rest is just assembly. That's what I liked about it. I could make the sauce in advance and do the rest on the day.

My guest enjoyed the brunch immensley. It reminded me of the good old days of brunchin' with my sister so left me feeling quite nostalgic.

I think the next time I make this I may make a pico de gallo as a topping, like in the Cookie+Kate recipe. It looks so fresh and crunchy.

I'd like to try more Mexican food but I'm not aware of any quality restaurants in the UK that offer much more than the overloaded nachos, fajitas and burritos. I have been to Wahaca a few times, but not for a long time. Anyone been recently? How was your experience? Are there any other Mexican restaurants that you would recommend? I'd  love to know!