When I was in high school, my buddies and I would occasionally get together to experience something new and exotic at a “Mexican” joint that popped up. Encheritos! In South Jersey! The 1980s were weird. Then, I moved to California for college. Ohhh, if this is Mexican food then that was … what, exactly? That’s when I came to appreciate the cuisine of the Texas-Mexico borderlands.
Ingredients
- 1 sheet frozen puff pastry
- Flour for dusting
- 1 15-oz can black beans, drained
- 1 4-oz can Hatch or other green chiles (hot or mild), diced
- 2 cups Monterey or Colby Jack cheese, shredded, divided
- 3 scallions, thinly sliced
- 6 large eggs
- 1 cup half-and-half or cream
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp ground black pepper
- 2 small or 1 large corn or wheat tortillas, cut into 1-inch pieces
- Sour cream for serving
How to Make It
- Remove puff pastry sheet from the freezer and allow to thaw, within its parchment on the counter, for about 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 425°F. Dust your counter or board with flour, unfold the puff pastry and place the sheet atop the flour, and dust with some more flour. Roll the sheet into a 10-inch square, smoothing out all the fold seams.
- Transfer the pastry to a baking dish, letting it settle into the bottom and along the sides. (This may take some manual encouragement.) Trim the edges back to the rim of the baking dish, but make sure the pastry covers the vessel like a pie crust.
- Place the beans in the pastry in one layer. Next, scatter the chiles atop the beans, then 1 cup of the cheese in a single layer and top with the scallions. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, cream, salt, and pepper. Carefully, pour the mixture into the pastry shell, trying not to disturb the contents. The scallions may wish to float, and that’s okay. Be who you want to be, you know what I mean?
- Cover the surface of the egg mixture with pieces of tortilla, forming a blanket. Sprinkle the remaining 1 cup of cheese on top. Bake in the oven for 30–35 minutes, or until the center is no longer jiggly and the cheese is golden brown.
- Remove the egg puff from the oven and allow it to cool on the counter for at least 20 minutes. Cut into 4–6 slices. It can be served warm, but it’s better at room temperature with a dollop of sour cream.
