Huevos rancheros

Read through the recipe and gather the equipment. Use the ingredient lines to prepare and measure everything, and line a plate with paper towels. Everything is measured and the holding plates are ready.

Heat the oven to 200°F with the serving plates and ovenproof plates on the middle rack to warm. The oven has reached temperature.

Heat the dry 12-inch cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat until a drop of water dances. Add the tomatoes, onion wedges, chiles and unpeeled garlic and turn them often with tongs until blistered black in patches and slumping, about 10 to 12 minutes. Lift out the garlic and chiles sooner, once their skins are spotted brown and they feel soft when squeezed.

Peel the garlic and trim the onion root ends. Blend the tomatoes, onion, garlic, 1 charred chile and 3/4 tsp flaky kosher salt until mostly smooth, with the center cap out of the lid and a folded towel over the opening. Taste a drop, and blend in the second chile if you want more heat. The salsa is mostly smooth, with a little texture.

Heat the canola oil for the salsa in the 3-quart saucepan over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Standing back with the lid in hand, pour in all the salsa at once; it spatters hard for a few seconds. Simmer over medium, stirring now and then, until it coats a spoon and loses its raw-onion taste, about 8 to 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, warm the canola oil for the beans in the small saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the cumin for a few seconds until it smells toasty, then add the beans with their liquid. Simmer, mashing about half of them, until thick and creamy but still spoonable, about 8 minutes. Cover and keep them over the lowest heat.

Taste the salsa and the beans. Aim for a salsa that is bright, savory and tomato-first, with noticeable heat that does not take over, and beans that taste seasoned, not bland. If the salsa tastes flat, add flaky kosher salt to taste; if it tastes dull or heavy, add fresh lime juice to taste, if using. If the beans taste bland, add flaky kosher salt to taste. The salsa and beans taste seasoned.

Wipe out the cast-iron skillet, add the canola oil for the tortillas and heat it over medium-high heat until a dipped tortilla edge sizzles right away. Fry the tortillas one at a time until soft, bendable and puffed in spots, about 10 seconds per side. Lift each one out with tongs, let the oil drip back, drain it on the paper towels, then stack the tortillas under foil on an ovenproof plate in the oven.

Melt 1 tbsp unsalted butter in the 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat until foaming. Crack in 4 whole large eggs, season with flaky kosher salt to taste and cook until set underneath. Pour 1 tbsp water into an empty spot in the pan, cover, and cook until the whites and yolks are firm when pressed lightly with the spatula, about 3 to 4 minutes. Slide the eggs onto the second ovenproof plate in the oven.

Melt 1 tbsp unsalted butter in the skillet over medium heat and cook 4 whole large eggs the same way, seasoning them with flaky kosher salt to taste and steaming them with 1 tbsp water under the lid until the whites and yolks are firm, about 3 to 4 minutes.

Divide among the warm plates to make 4 servings: overlap 2 tortillas on each plate, then top with a quarter of the beans and 2 eggs. Spoon a quarter of the salsa around and partly over the eggs. Finish with the avocado slices, queso fresco, fresh cilantro leaves to taste and a lime wedge. Each plate has tortillas, beans, 2 eggs and salsa.