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.

Menemen is a traditional Turkish breakfast dish with eggs, peppers and tomatoes. What sets this dish apart from any other scrambled egg is the taste of fresh tomatoes and pepper. Menemen is served with bread (I prefer toasted) to dip in to all the juices and can be enjoyed directly from the pan, family style.

Turkish people take breakfast very seriously. Having a breakfast spread in Turkey is in itself a multi-hour activity. Some common things to have on the table are olives, various cheeses, honey and jams, sliced cucumbers and tomatoes, bread and some kind of eggs like menemen. And of course let’s not forget the tea. Turkish breakfast is really a good reason to get your butt up in the morning and start the day.

Menemen is my dad’s favorite breakfast dish, and it is probably one of the only things he knows how to make really well. If I smelled the frying peppers in the morning, I knew my dad was making menemen. There are two key things in making great menemen: never skip the peppers and peel your tomatoes. I personally like having a little bit of heat so that’s why I chose anaheim peppers but feel free to try other sweeter green peppers if you’d like.

Yields: 2 servings Time: 20 minutes

Pair it with: Freshly toasted bread and black tea.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 anaheim pepper (or 5-6 shishito peppers), diced

3 tomatoes, peeled and diced

4 eggs (3 eggs if you prefer a less eggy end result)

Salt to taste

Red pepper flakes to taste

Slices of toasted bread (for serving)

Preparation

1. Peel the tomatoes. Then, dice all the tomatoes and the green pepper.

2. In a frying pan over medium-high heat, cook the peppers in 1 tablespoon of olive oil until softened, 3 to 4 minutes.

3. Reduce the heat, add tomatoes and salt to taste, close the lid and cook, stirring occasionally for 10 to 12 minutes until the tomatoes are soft and they released all of their juices. Do not overcook the tomatoes, we want the tomatoes to stay juicy.

4. Add in the eggs, fold them gently into the tomato mixture. Be careful not to stir too much. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until the egg whites are barely opaque. Remove the pan from heat, the eggs will continue to cook with the heat of the pan.

5. Sprinkle with red pepper flakes and serve with toasted bread, Enjoy directly from the pan, family style.

Poached Eggs in Yogurt

Ingredients

Preparation

Menemen (Turkish Scrambled Eggs)

Ingredients

Preparation