Menemen — Turkish Eggs with Tomatoes
Turkish eggs cooked slowly into softened tomatoes and green peppers — a pan breakfast eaten straight from the skillet with bread.
Method
- Heat the butter in a wide frying pan over medium heat and cook the peppers for 5 to 6 minutes until softened and fragrant.
- Add the tomatoes and the pul biber, season with salt, and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Let the tomatoes reduce until most of the liquid has evaporated and the mixture is thick and jammy. This is the stage that decides whether menemen is rich or watery.
- Reduce the heat to low. Crack the eggs directly into the pan over the tomato base.
- Let them sit undisturbed for 30 seconds, then stir slowly and gently with a wooden spoon, folding the egg through the tomato in large soft curds.
- Keep the heat low and the spoon moving slowly. The eggs should take 2 to 3 minutes and must stay soft and creamy; high heat gives dry, rubbery pieces.
- Take the pan off the heat while the eggs still look slightly underdone, as they continue to set from the residual heat.
- Season with black pepper and oregano, and serve immediately in the pan, with bread for scooping and white cheese on the side.
How to make Menemen — Turkish Eggs with Tomatoes
Menemen is Turkish breakfast cooking at its simplest: eggs, tomatoes and green peppers in one pan, brought to the table in the pan itself. The debate over whether onion belongs in it is long-running and unresolved; the classic version leaves it out.
Reduce the tomatoes first
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The most common fault is a watery pan. Give the tomatoes a full eight to ten minutes to cook down into a thick base before the eggs go anywhere near them, and the finished dish will hold together on the plate.
Low heat, soft curds
Menemen is not a scramble. The heat stays low, the stirring is slow, and the eggs are folded through the tomato rather than beaten into it. Pull the pan off the heat while they still look a little wet.
Peppers matter
Sivri biber, the long thin Turkish green pepper, has a mild sweetness that defines the dish. A green bell pepper is the usual substitute; a small amount of chilli can stand in for heat but not for the flavour.
Serving
Serve straight from the pan with plenty of bread, white cheese, olives and tea. Some cooks crumble feta over the top in the last minute, or add sucuk, the spiced Turkish sausage, with the peppers.
Traditional Turkish cookery; menemen is a breakfast and light-supper staple across Turkey. Editorially researched from widely documented preparations, and not kitchen-tested by Axadle.
Contains egg, and dairy if made with butter or finished with cheese. Naturally gluten-free; bread served alongside contains gluten.
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