Whilst on our mini-vacation this past weekend, we took the advice of the hotel “concierge” and visited a restaurant dubiously named Skidder’s for our morning repast. I decided to try huevos rancheros, having gone all of my 38+ years thusfar without partaking, even though I have quite the torrid relationship with Mexican food. (It helped speed along my first pregnancy, after all.) The dish was, in a word, spectacular. Scrambled eggs served over crisp tortillas, covered in ranchero sauce, with avocado slices on the side. (The “home fries” on the side are not worth mentioning.)
I have craved ranchero sauce ever since we left the beach. Since tonight’s dinner was deemed to be tacos, and I utterly despise the packaged seasoning we usually use, I decided to whap together a batch of ranchero sauce instead.
Ranchero Sauce
Ingredients
- 4 tomatoes
- 1 white onion
- 1 jalapeno
- the holy trinity (kosher salt, peper, garlic powder)
Blanch the tomatoes in boiling water, then shock them in icy water, yes, all in the name of peeling off the skins. Dice them as you prefer, fine or rough.
Finely dice the jalapeno and the white onion. Sautee these in olive oil with a healthy couple of pinches of kosher salt, as much black pepper as you can stand, and a tbsp or two of garlic powder. When the onions become transparent, add the diced tomatoes.
Now, to render an actual ranchero sauce, I’d say cook this for about an hour. However, if you’re starving, the family is already at table, and you can’t stop licking the spoon with which you’re stirring, go on and serve some of that up when the tomatoes get soft (about 15 minutes at a fast simmer). You can always cook it on down to sauce consistency later.
I had mine atop holy trinity/olive oil-sauteed chicken in taco shells with sour cream and shredded lettuce, and it was divine. I imagine you could serve it atop just about anything you liked…meatloaf, green beans, etc.
Just one more data point in the case for Simple is Best.
UPDATE: Can’t. Stop. Eating. The. Sauce.
