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.