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Creole Style Huevos Rancheros

post #1 of 10
11/2/09 at 1:50pm
Thread Starter 
Hello. I have an idea for a new brunch item and would love to hear some opinions and or suggestions. I work at a contemporary creole cuisine fine dining establishment in new orleans and was thinking of doing a spin off the classic Mexican breakfast dish called huevos rancheros consisting of lightly fried corn tortillas, refried beans, fried eggs and tomato chili sauce also commonly served with a side of rice. My version will be called Creole Huevos Rancheros and served with lightly fried-in house made corn tortillas, Louisiana style red beans, dirty rice made with "holy trinity" duck livers, in house andouille, and in house tasso, 2 poached duck eggs and a smoked creole tomato and japlepenos hollandaise with refined plating. One moment I think this is a great idea another moment I can't decide. I would love to receive any kind of feedback on this dish idea.
Thanks
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post #2 of 10
11/2/09 at 2:03pm
In my experience, most people will not eat duck eggs, but the rest sounds fine. Since a breakfast dish delete duck liver and try panchetta, or chopped bacon.:peace:
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post #3 of 10
11/2/09 at 3:42pm
NOLA has an outstanding tradition of highly tweaked brunch egg dishes. Wait a minute, let me reprhase. NOLA has THE outstanding tradition of highly tweaked brunch egg dishes.

I think your idea is outstanding, and would try it in a (clogged) heartbeat. Ed's point may or may not be a good one; I don't know enough about NOLA diners and duck eggs to make a prediction. If you don't either, there's one sure way to tell.

So try it, tweak it, perfect it, the put it on the menu as a special and see how it goes.

The name could be improved, though. Besides, I'm not sure you can call it "rancheros" without some sort of ranchero sauce -- and you're lightyears beyond that. Huevos Benitos, perhaps.

BDL
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post #4 of 10
11/2/09 at 7:44pm
pretty awesome idea!

get a pic of this one day please.
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post #5 of 10
11/2/09 at 8:27pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the feedback guys! You got a good point about the duck eggs. We could probably save some money using hen eggs. As for the duck livers I think that I will just leave it out of the menu description and see how that goes. What exactly is ranchero sauce? Tomato chili sauce maybe? I thought that rancheros referred to "ranch style eggs". I'll post a pic when I test it out in a couple of days. Once again thanks!
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post #6 of 10
11/3/09 at 2:15am
I used to make a Creole omelet that everyone loved. I used traditional Creole sauce for it which would be closer to the tomato salsa used for huervos rancheros. Huervos rancheros varies according to who's making them, but it's essentially eggs more or less poached in a fresh salsa. The salsa ingredients are determined by personal taste, usually chopped tomatoes, green onion, some chopped chilis and cilantro. You can include garlic and sweet peppers if you want. Some people cook the eggs and pour the sauce over, others heat the salsa in a frying pan and drop the eggs into it to cook. I also think a crepe could substitute for the tortilla. I think it would be a great dish whichever way you make it, although I could see the hollandaise version with tasso as a twist on eggs benedict more so than huervos rancheros.
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post #7 of 10
11/3/09 at 5:03am

I had it in Mexico. 2 or 3 times. To me it was a Spicy version of a spanish sauce or creole sauce and in one place was cooked yet in another place, it was an xtra spicy uncooked salsa. In any event it was presented nicely. Eggs seemed to be shirred rather then fried as it was in a cassarole dish.
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post #8 of 10
11/3/09 at 6:33am
Great idea, but as others have mentioned, the name could use some work.
Not a fan of mixing languages, geographical locations, etc.
Mexican Creole?
Too odd for me.
Now, if you were to call them Bayou Swamp Eggs (poor example) and in the description say that they are a creole version of Huevos Rancheros, I could see that.
But yeah, to be honest, if I saw Creole and Huevos Rancheros in the title I would laugh.
Not trying to offend.
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post #9 of 10
11/3/09 at 6:59am
Ranchero means "farm," or "farmer," or maybe stretching it a little to pick up some idiom, "cowboy," or "ranch" style.

As a cooked sauce served hot, it's a lightly spiced, usually smooth, red tomato sauce; the sort of thing you'd expect on enchiladas for example. I'm not sure if you could properly call it a "mole" or should just leave it at "salsa." But either way, it's those things served covered or served over this type of sauce which are called "ranchero(s):" pollo ranchero, enchiladas rancheros, huevos rancheros, etc. You can buy it in a lot of supermarkets as "red enchilada sauce."

As a table condiment, i.e., there is indeed a "salsa ranchera," which may also be purchased from many non-latino markets, it's just one more form of chunky tomato salsa.

If you went into a Mexican market and asked for salsa ranchera in English, they'd probably send you to the meat market for some homemade red salsa. If you then said, "No, no. For cooked food," they'd send you to the enchilada sauces.

A creole sauce is a different thing altogther.

If you choose to name your dish to reflect an association which conflicts with the saucing in a confusing way -- the only problem is the risk of confusing the customer. There's no law or anything. Just tradition.

BDL
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post #10 of 10
11/3/09 at 7:07am
Just to be clear, it was the word Huevos that conflicted with Creole for me.
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