Poached Eggs in Yogurt

November 04, 2019 by Gizem in Breakfast

I look forward to weekends because of weekend breakfast. Not the wait in line for an hour at the hottest brunch place in town with unlimited bloody marys and ten different eggs benedicts kind of weekend breakfast. Rather, have a big breakfast spread at home with multiple cups of coffee while still wearing my pajamas kind of breakfast. Even though I can’t replicate the amazing Turkish breakfast spreads from home, on the weekends, we like to indulge in eggy breakfasts with cheese, bread and olives frequenting the table. Poached eggs with yogurt, also called çılbır, is perfect for the weekends when you have some more time to put a dish together. Then enjoy it leisurely while dipping your bread in the saucy goodness of butter, runny yolks and yogurt.

Between Cesar’s dislike of pancakes and my aversion to sweet breakfast in general (with one exception of eggy breads with fruit compote – recipe coming soon!), we are a couple that belongs to #teamsavorybreakfast for sure. From my dream breakfast of runny eggs in any form with sucuk, simit, olives and feta to Cesar’s love of fried eggs, rice and longaniza, we cook eggs almost every weekend.

It is funny that now I am all about runny egg yolks but I have been through a loooong phase where I hated runny yolks intensely. I can’t remember when this phase began but it was triggered by eating a very undercooked egg which had a slimy texture and made me barf. For years after this, I completely avoided runny eggs and only had hard boiled eggs not knowing what I was missing out. My mom used to make different doneness eggs for every single preference in the household and mine was always ready the last. I don’t know when I transitioned back to eating runny yolks (probably when I moved to New York) but I am so glad I did. Otherwise, I would never be able to appreciate a good poached egg.

Poached eggs in yogurt, or çılbır is a dish that I have seen only in Turkish cuisine. The first written record of the word “çılbır” date all the way back to 1533. The source is Regola del Parlare Turco (Rules of Speaking Turkish) by Filippo Argenti who was a secretary to the Florentine Ambassador in Istanbul. The text is a comprehensive study of Turkish lexical corpus and serves basically as a Turkish-Italian dictionary. Çılbır was probably being eaten by Ottoman sultans even before it was recorded in text by Argenti. It is pretty fascinating to be able to trace the history of a centuries old dish and still get to enjoy it for breakfast today. So join me on a trip to 15th century and a seat at the sultan’s table by making poached eggs in yogurt for your next weekend breakfast.

Tips:

* I don’t like to have poached eggs with fridge cold yogurt. To bring yogurt to room temperature quickly, I add in 1-2 tablespoons of hot water and stir until the yogurt is creamy.

Yields: 2 servings Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

4 eggs

1 tablespoon white vinegar

2 tablespoons butter

2 teaspoons marash or aleppo pepper (or red pepper flakes)

1 cup plain yogurt

2 cloves of garlic, minced

Salt

Black pepper

Preparation

1. Fill a medium saucepan or pot with water. Over high heat, bring the water to a boil. Once the water is boiling, reduce the heat and let the water continue to simmer.

2. Put half a cup of yogurt in each serving bowl. Add a tablespoon of hot water to the yogurt and stir until the yogurt is creamy. Add in minced garlic and stir again.

3. Add the vinegar to simmering water and give it a stir.

4. Crack one egg into a small bowl. Using a spoon, give the simmering water a good stir. Tip the egg gently into the swirling water. I poach eggs one by one or two at a time. If you will be poaching more than two at a time, don’t use the swirling method, just tip the egg into the water.

5. Cook for 2 or 2.5 minutes. Remove the poached egg with a slotted spoon and drain the water.

6. Place two eggs on top of the garlicky yogurt for each serving.

7. In a small saucepan, heat butter and marash pepper until the butter melts and takes on a red color, for 2-3 minutes.

8. Drizzle the hot chili oil all over the eggs and yogurt. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with slices of bread for dipping.

Baked Rainbow Trout and Onion Salad with Sumac

November 04, 2019 by Gizem in Dinner, Fish

Summer has finally arrived in Seattle and the hot weather is making me choose lighter meals. That mostly means salads, fruits and lots of seafood. During the summer months, cooking seafood is the only way I can mentally teleport myself to the blue waters of the Mediterranean coast. This baked rainbow trout recipe is super easy and quick which makes it perfect for a weeknight dinner. The onion salad is a perfect complement to the taste of the fish and all the sumac makes it extremely refreshing. Being one of my favorite spices (guess which one is the other favorite), sumac adds a tangy taste that balances the spicy sweetness of red onions.

In Turkish there is a saying (we have a ton of sayings!) we use when we want to say we love seafood. The saying is “I will eat whatever that comes out of the sea, even if it is my dad.” I know it sounds weird but it is also genius. It is the only way I know how to express my love of seafood.

I love cooking and eating whole fish so much so that I once made a three part video teaching my closest friend how to cook a whole fish. I know that some people don’t like to see a whole fish on their plate “staring” back at them or they don’t want to deal with the bones. I believe that cooking whole fish just gives more flavorful results. If it is the bones you worry about, this recipe makes the meat so moist that it falls off the bone. Cooking whole fish is also less wasteful. When you buy whole fish at the market and ask them to fillet it, you are still paying for the weight of the whole fish but not getting the good bits. You can always turn the head, tail and the bones into a yummy fish stock.

As much as possible, I try to buy fresh fish that is in season. I generally pick smaller fish like trout because they are easier to portion, easier to cook and they have a stronger fishy flavor that I love. Trout also has very high content of omega-3 fatty acids so all good things. When I buy fish, I always ask them to leave the fish whole but clean it and scale it. Scaling is the messiest thing ever and you should get it done at the market if they offer to do so.

What is your favorite seafood and how do you cook it, let me know in the comments below!

A hot tip: After eating fish and onion salad, the best way to top it off is with a small bite of halva. It cleans your palate and you will end your meal on a sweet note.

Yields: 3 servings Time: 30 mins

Ingredients

For the baked rainbow trout:

3 whole rainbow trouts

1 lemon, sliced

6-8 sprigs of parsley

1 teaspoon coarse sea salt

Olive oil to drizzle

For the onion salad:

1 red onion

1 tablespoon white vinegar or freshly squeezed lemon juice

3 teaspoons of sumac

Fresh parsley, chopped (optional)

Preparation

For the baked rainbow trout:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Line a baking tray with aluminum foil and drizzle with some olive oil.

3. Place the fish on the baking tray. Rub the fish with sea salt inside and out.

4. Place 2-3 parsley sprigs and a couple slices of lemon inside each fish. Drizzle the tops of fish with olive oil.

5. Place the tray in the middle rack of the oven and bake for 15 minutes. If you want the fish to have crispier skin, you can move the baking tray up a level, turn on the broiler at 400 F and broil for 5 additional minutes.

For the onion salad:

1. Cut the onion in half and slice the red onion in half moons.

2. Add the sliced onion in a large bowl filled with water. Let sit for 5-10 mins and drain. This helps remove the bitter, spicy taste of the onion. Feel free to skip this step if you like the strong taste of onions.

3. Add in the vinegar and the sumac. Stir until the layers of onion are separated and sumac is all over the salad.

4. Serve on the side with the rainbow trout

Spreadable Cheese Curds

November 04, 2019 by Gizem in Snacks, Meze

Who doesn’t like cheese? I mean, I am sure there are people who don’t like cheese but I am definitely not one of them. I can eat cheese all day every day. This spreadable cheese curd recipe is adapted from Refika Birgul’s addictive Youtube channel where I spend hours watching her cook amazing recipes. She is so fun to watch and makes me want to join her Youtube crew for all the food and laughter. Her channel and recipes are in Turkish so I adapted and translated this homemade spreadable cheese recipe for all of you to enjoy. In Turkish we call this cheese spreadable lor cheese but I believe the closest English translation is spreadable cheese curds.

Turkish cheese is either a well kept secret or a lost opportunity in marketing amazing local products. When you think of cheese, Turkey probably doesn’t come to mind as a cheese mecca. Everyone thinks France, Italy, Spain, even United States! But Turkey has so many amazing kinds of cheese like Ezine, Kars gravyer, comlek, kashkaval, feta, tulum, Van… I can keep going. Sadly, most of these cheeses are not widely known or distributed around the world. However, they are nationally celebrated by all Turkish people and they frequent breakfast spreads all over the country.

When I first moved to New York my craving for Turkish cheese was at an all time high. After some sad experiences with tiny and expensive slices of packaged feta cheese found at various supermarkets I was about to give up. I was disheartened by the sliced, shredded and crumbled cheese options (and to this day I still don’t buy them). New York must have heard my hopeless cheese prayers because within a year I discover Kalustyan’s and East Village Cheese (which I heard is now closed). I think I almost cried when I found Ezine cheese at Kalustyan’s. I remember bringing it home and making Cesar taste it while explaining the significance of this moment in my life. He knew my obsession with Ezine such that he called all the major cheese stores in New York and asked if they sell Ezine cheese and had to explain what it is to confused shop owners. I knew then that he was a keeper!

But on days where New York, Ft. Lauderdale and Seattle (aka all the places I lived in the US) failed me in finding Turkish cheese, this recipe could have saved me, if only I tried it sooner. My mom has been telling me to make this cheese at home for years but I always assumed it would be very time consuming and difficult. I was wrong! We are so conditioned to purchase most products at the supermarket that we forget how easy it is to make them at home from scratch. In this spirit, I plan on posting more recipes of making kitchen staples and pantry items from scratch. Hope you enjoy this cheese! Let me know in the comments below what your favorite cheese is.

Tips:

* Before boiling the milk, rinse the inside of the pot you are going to use. Don’t dry the pot. The water helps avoid forming a burnt layer of milk at the bottom of the pot. Trust me, burnt milk is hard to clean, so you don’t want to skip this.

* If you want, you can also use white vinegar or apple cider vinegar instead of lemon juice. For the curds to form, you need acid so any of these would work.

* You can ignore the steps after Step 3 if you don’t want to make your cheese spreadable and leave it as crumbled curds. These crumbles make amazing salad toppings, pastry fillings and omelettes. Just let them sit in the strainer for another 30 minutes to 1 hour and your crumbled cheese curds are ready. Keep them refrigerated.

* The original recipe uses basil instead of mint and also adds unsalted pistachios. You can adjust the recipe by adding your favorite herbs, spices and nuts to this cheese.

Yields: 8-10 servings Time: 45 minutes (active) + 8 hours (inactive)

Recipe from: Refika’s Kitchen (Refika’nin Mutfagi)

Ingredients

8 1/2 cups milk (whole milk or 2%)

1/4 cup lemon juice, freshly squeezed

1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, cubed

1/4 cup fresh mint, chopped

2 teaspoons red pepper flakes (Aleppo or Marash pepper)

1 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground

Preparation

1. Bring milk to a boil in a large pot*. Milk overflows very easily so keep a close eye on it. You can rest a spoon on the pot to keep it from boiling over.

2. Once boiling reduce the heat to low and add in the lemon juice*. Start stirring the milk continuously. You are going to start seeing curds forming in the milk.

3. Stir until curds have formed and the liquid in the pot becomes translucent and greenish. At this point, you can transfer the curds to a strainer positioned on a bowl.

4. To make the cheese spreadable we don’t want to strain and cool the curds too much. Let them sit for 5 minutes and transfer all the curds to a food processor.

5. Add in salt, olive oil and butter to the food processor. Blend for 2-3 minutes until the curds become silky and creamy.

6. Transfer the creamy cheese into a bowl. Let it cool for 5-10 minutes. I like to let it cool before I add the mint so that the heat doesn’t turn them black.

7. Add in the mint, red pepper flakes and freshly ground black pepper. Stir until everything is well incorporated.

8. Pour the cheese on a wax paper and roll it to give it a thick cylindrical shape. Twist both sides of the wax paper like candy wrapping.

9. Store in the fridge overnight. The cheese is ready to slice and spread in the morning. I like to serve it on a toasted slice of bread and top it with fresh tomatoes or cucumber and a drizzle of olive oil.