Breakfast Sandwich Porn: Mexican Inspiration

*Extremely Arnold voice* IT'S NOT A TORTA
Photo Credit: TH

It's not a torta. Okay, so let me back up a little bit. The above sandwich has chorizo and black beans (processed, but still there) on it. I don't want to call it a torta though. Too many times, I've seen people say they're taking an ethnic dish and they make too many changes to it so that it's only what they want to call it in spirit. I don't want to disrespect the national sandwich of Mexico like that. I will say the sandwich I made this past Sunday morning is inspired by a torta though. Sometimes, inspiration is all you need.

Allow me to break down the components. The egg is the egg, obviously. This time, I left it over easy instead of breaking the yolk. It's seasoned with salt and pepper as all things should be, but anything more might take away from the other two flavor carriers. The cotija cheese was purchased from Trader Joe's, although really, cotija is still pretty much left ungentrified. I haven't seen Sargento or Cracker Barrel come out with their own brands, so I think you're safe getting any brand and still having something authentic. Even Trader Joe's doesn't have its own store brand. The chorizo was purchased from the local supermarket, Premio brand. I trust if you go to the local Mexican/Latin American supermarket, you'll find something a little more to your suiting if you don't want the Italians making it. Personally, I liked the flavor just fine here, but as with anything, I'm open to trying new things. That's what food is about.

The black bean puree is the wild card here. I made it kinda like one might make hummus, with tehina/tehini as the smoothing ingredient. It is not the first time something made in the spirit of Mexican cuisine has borrowed from the Middle East. The al pastor style of cooking meat is directly lifted from how the folks in the eastern Mediterranean cooked their gyros or shawarma or doner kebab. These connections between cultures is what makes the culinary experience so beautiful in my view. Sure, you have professional chefs doing fusion all the time, but the exchange of ideas between immigrants and travelers between nations, to me, that's what keeps food culture alive. The first people who did French-Asian fusion didn't have Michelin gold stars; they were the colonial subjects in French Indochina learning secrets from their subjugators. But I'm veering off path.

Black beans and tehina are the first two ingredients. I put them in the food processor along with six cloves of fresh garlic, some kosher salt, and a few glugs of Marie Sharp's Belizean Heat habanero hot sauce. Obviously, the brand isn't important, as boutique hot sauces can vary between the different shops from which you purchase them. I got a little bottle of this particular sauce in Lancaster County, PA. IF you want to try this at home, any red-colored and spicy habanero hot sauce will do. Hell, it doesn't even have to be habanero. Anyway, a few pulses with the food processor, and this puree was ready to go. I put a little bit of that same sauce on top of the sandwich to finish it too. My feelings on hot sauce and eggs are such that they should be inseparable, like peanut butter and jelly or lamb and tuna fish mashed potatoes and gravy.

Put them all together, and well, it's not a torta, but it's something that bursts at the seams with flavor. Honestly, nothing wakes me up better, not coffee, loud noises, having to pee, anything more than a rush of flavor from a delicious breakfast. Chorizo and black beans can be a big part of that flavor explosion if you look to the right places, and Mexico is not a country whose culinary tradition could ever be described as bland.