Natalie Wood’s Huevos Rancheros

The best thing about having a blog, is that you get to meet chums through the internet that you would never ever meet otherwise.  Such a chum is Greg Swenson who has just published this brilliant cookbook:

Greg lives in Greece, and he and I have been pen pals for a year and a day (oooh, spooky, I just checked when Greg first got in touch and it was 2nd October last year).  We’ve been swapping movie star recipes and comparing notes about writing cookbooks ever since.  I am so in awe of what he’s done with Recipes for Rebels – it is VAST and brilliant!  It is a seriously weighty tome – it weighs almost as much as Mary and Vincent Price’s Treasury of Great Recipes – and it contains 200 recipes, many by the movie stars we all know and love so much.  I absolutely ADORE this book and there are so many recipes I want to cook.  I decided to start with the very first one, Natalie Wood’s Huevos Rancheros:

I have just eaten these, and they were utterly delicious!  Fried eggs with a really simple but delicious tomato chili and garlic sauce on a fried tortilla.  Oh yum!  I cooked my eggs Shakshuka style in the tomato sauce as Natalie suggested.  Mmmmmm, this was gorgeous!  Full recipe is in the Recipes for Rebels cookbook.

In another weird co-incidence, I just took the fun quiz on Greg’s website to see which of James Dean’s co-stars I would have been cast as, and what do you know?

Judy in Rebel Without a Cause played by….  Natalie Wood.  Oooooh, spooky!  It has also reminded me of the fact that once when I went to a Hollywood style wedding at the Odeon in Leicester Square, I went as Natalie Wood…  There are some photos of me somewhere, posing on the Wurlitzer…

If you like James Dean, love movie stars and cookbooks, or even just one of these things, you can buy Recipes for Rebels via Greg’s fab website – it is heartily recommended.  Greg is on a book tour in America at the moment so you can see where he’ll be next via his Facebook page. He’ll be in St Louis tomorrow…

So hard choosing a photo of Natalie – she’s such a beauty, but this one makes me laugh…

Natalie Wood’s Huevos Rancheros

4 tortillas
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 clove garlic, mashed
1/2 teaspoon marjoram
1 small serrano or other chile pepper, chopped or 2 teaspoons red chili powder
1 cup fresh tomatoes, peeled and chopped or 1 cup canned tomato sauce
salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
4 eggs
1 tablespoon butter

Fry tortillas quickly in hot oil; drain on paper towel. 

Keep oil hot; add garlic, marjoram, chopped chili, tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste. Simmer tomato mixture for a few minutes until flavors are well blended and the sauce has thickened slightly. 

Fry eggs in a small amount of butter in a separate pan, or poach in the hot tomato sauce. 

To serve, place one egg on each tortilla, cover with sauce. Serve at once.