Michael's brother Keith used to live in Denver, and we usedto visit him and eat a lot: mostly at the Queen of Sheba Ethiopian restaurant,where the food was outrageous and the cook treated Keith like a beloved andvery small child--but also at the homes of his wonderful friends, where wemanaged to get ourselves regularly invited. (We were even guests at a weddingonce, given that it happened to happen while we were visiting one time. Michaeland Sylvia, we love you guys!) This dish is from one of those occasions--someor other brunch--and, if I recall correctly, we left with both this recipe andone for a boozy cheesecake (thank you, Mary Connoly).
There are simply not enough words for "simple" and"perfect" to describe this do-ahead one-dish meal--the very bestthing to bake and serve the crowd that is crowding hungrily around your kitchenlooking for breakfast on, say, a holiday morning. Because you assemble it thenight before, all you have to do the next day is pop it in the oven. When itemerges, the whole thing will be appealingly brown and bubbly and oozy, andtortillas will have gotten thick and soft in a way that makes the whole thingkind of like quiche only, somehow, better. I have, as I know you know, cookedvery many different meals for very many different people, and this is thesingle recipe that has been most often requested of me--and not in that vague,unfollowed-up-on oh my God, how did you make that? delirium of the moment--butin the way where there's a follow-up email the next day reminding you that youpromised to send that recipe for the amazing egg thing.
It is also, and I know I say this all the time, endlesslyadaptable: you can simply omit the chiles, or swap in something else: we havemade it with sautéed mushrooms and onions (although, in a food-aversion Venndiagram, the circle of chile-haters may overlap almost entirely with the circleof mushroom-haters), with spinach (sauté it, and then wring it out so itdoesn't make the casserole watery), or sausage, which should be cooked firstand drained; anything you could put in a quiche, you could put in this. But,it's not the most wholesome kid on the block, and it's not the pound of cheesethat gets me--if your arteries are not jammed with fatty rush-hour traffic,then cheese is a perfectly wholesome thing to eat--it's the white-flourtortillas. But it just doesn't come out that good with whole-wheat ones. So Ithink of it as a holiday treat. My friend Maddie just made something similarfor a party, only she made it with bread and called it a strata, which I likefor its geologic sobriety--like it was unearthed in some or other layer of anarchaeological dig, in all its cheesy glory. Hallelujah.
Chile Tortilla Eggbake
Serves 8
Active time: 10 minutes; total time, 10 minutes + overnight+ 45 minutes
I'm sure this would be even better if you roasted your ownchiles, etc. But hey--it's an easy, delicious casserole, so feel free not tomake more work for yourself. A crisp salad makes a perfect accompaniment, or afruit salad. Or my go-to side dish these days, which is putting out a bowl ofclementines. Seriously, that's what we have with dinner. (My lazinessencroaches.) About the numbers: as long as your breastfeeding mamas arebalanced out by kids who don't like this, you will be fine. Otherwise, it willserve fewer (or more, if nobody in your house is breastfeeding, but you stillhave a hater or two). Or, as Ben put it, "It will serve an infinite numberof people who don't like it." But I challenge you to round up very manypeople who don't like it.
6 flour tortillas, soft-taco size (fewer if the tortillasare larger; I wish I could say that whole-wheat work, but they really kind of don't)
3-4 small cans of chopped green chiles (I use 3) drained andrinsed in a sieve
1 pound grated cheese (I use half jack and half cheddar, butall of either would be fine. And we have made it with less cheese than this, Iadmit, but it wasn't quite as good. Still, if you need to cheat on that fullpound, you can.)
5 eggs, beaten
2 cups milk (2% or whole, but not skim)
1 teaspoon kosher salt (or half as much table salt)
Grease a 9- by 13-inch baking dish.
Cover the bottom of the dish with tortillas (at first Iwrote, "Cover your bottom with tortillas," which made me laugh allover again just retyping it here), overlapping as little as possible. You willuse 2 tortillas per layer: I tear them in half, and by the time I get all theflat sides pressed up against the edges of the baking dish (mine isrectangular), it's pretty much all set. Now sprinkle the tortillas with 1/2 ofthe chiles and 1/3 of the cheese, then add another layer of tortillas and topit with the rest of the chiles and another 1/3 of the cheese. Add the finallayer of tortillas, sprinkle it with the remaining cheese, and then whisktogether the eggs, milk, and salt in a bowl, and pour this over the whole casserole.
Cover and refrigerate overnight.
In the morning, heat the oven to 350 and get the casseroleout of the fridge. Now, the recipe card I have says "Let come to roomtemperature," which, oops, I never remember to do. I'm sure this wouldmake for evener baking, but, if you should forget this crucial step, restassured you're not alone. Bake for 30 minutes, if you remembered to let it warmup a little first--and more like 45, if you put it in cold. When done it willbe gloriously browned around the edges, and it will jiggle not at all or justthe tiniest bit in the center when you, um, jiggle it.
Let it sit 5 or so minutes before cutting it. If you cutinto it, and it's very obviously not cooked through (e.g. raw egg), then pop itback into the oven for 10 more minutes, no biggie. (I only mention this becauseit happened to us once.) But what is normal is for there to be a little bit ofclearish liquid that separates out as you slice it: this is from the chiles andis fine.
