menemen almost cooked! |
Today is a day akin to Christmas: it’s the first day of Şeker Bayram (pron: shek-er by-rum) ie the 30 days of Ramazan are over and you can just feel the relief in the air. It’s been a long and difficult period of fasting due to the excessive heat this year but they did it!
a huge variety of sweets on sale at Ayvacık market in anticipation of the Bayram |
Bayram means holiday or festival and this is one of the two main religious holidays of the year. Şeker is literally ‘sweet’ or ‘candy’. Children put on their best clothes and go visiting. They collect candy or in their wildest dreams, money!
looking spick and span! |
We had our first little visitors from nextdoor at 9 this morning when we were still in our nightgear! But at least we were prepared with our candy.
So what were we doing to celebrate? We were eating a perfect menemen for breakfast!
menemen done to just the right degree of softness |
What is menemen? It’s the Turkish equivalent of omelette or scrambled eggs with a few tasty extras which make all the difference.
I had a Master Class in how to make it from SIL! Of course I already knew what the ingredients were and roughly how to make it, but now I’ve finally GOT IT! Certainly not difficult but a little time-consuming. You have to be patient to make a good menemen so no rushing. This is why it can’t be a daily breakfast item. Certainly worth making for a special brunch though or indeed as a light meal at any time of day.
menemen prepared and served in a traditional dish, Olympos Lodge |
Chop your ingredients carefully and quite small: the onion and the long green peppers and cook gently in a knob of butter till soft. Grate your big juicy tomatoes and pour on top of the other ingredients, then slowly cook till much of the liquid has disappeared. I was sure there wasn’t going to be enough room in the pan for the 5 or 6 eggs what with all the other stuff but there was. Crack them in one by one and mix into the mixture. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Red pepper flakes if you like. SIL said how about garlic but we decided not for breakfast. You can also add pastırma or sucuk, the local spicy sausage if you like it.
Ingredients for Menemen – Eggs Turkish-style
Serves 4
1-2 onions, chopped finely
like this … |
2-3 long green peppers/yeşil biber, hot/acı or sweet/tatlı
we used these |
2 large tomatoes, cut in half and grated
grating the tomatoes |
grated … |
4 eggs (1 per person)
Seasoning to taste
Pastırma/pastrami or sucuk/spicy sausage if desired
Method
· Melt a knob of butter in a frying pan and cook the chopped onion till soft. Add the chopped green peppers and continue cooking. Add the grated tomatoes and cook till the liquid has more or less evaporated. This takes a little time. Season to taste.
cooking the liquid down |
· Crack in the eggs one at a time and mix into the dish with a fork. It should have the appearance of scrambled eggs not omelette. Using a spatula, rough it up as it cooks. You can have it as firm or as soft as you like.
adding the eggs |
· Serve with fresh bread and glasses of tea all round!
nicely presented menemen at a little place in Çiralı …but I think ours was better! |
Afiyet olsun!
this looks so good! i will be making it soon. thanks for the recipe!
You're so right. It can't be rushed. I learned how to make menemen properly when I was working in a cafe in Goreme. It's my favourite breakfast, particularly with very fresh bread….mmmmm!
This is one of my favourite dishes that we make with 'sucuk'….we love it for dinner with some fresh Italian bread that we get here from an Italian Bakery. My husband said it is like the Turkish bread.
We celebrated Bayram today quietly….last night we had my nieces wedding reception and were tired today but I still got up early and made Revani Cake for my husband for something sweet and for dinner he wanted to go to a restaurant for Kabobs.
Thanks for sharing one of your recipes and pics again…hope you had a good Bayram.
Oh I forgot all about menemen and I even have to traditional dish to cook it in!
The end of Ramadan here in Malaysia is called Hari Raya, so we've been enjoyinh the holiday by visiting open houses held by our Muslim friends and eating all the lovely food!
Duncan In Kuantan
Thank you all for your lovely warm comments. I want you to know that I love receiving them and appreciate the fact that you bother to write them. All of you, thanks.
This menemen is MUCH better than perhaps it sounds, I really recommend it!
Oh how I love menemen. I remember my first sighting of it and thought, "What the…" Difficult to convince others to try it but they're always converts later. The more chillies the better for me! 🙂
I have to confess, I am a new convert to menemen! It was the idea of onions with eggs that somehow I couldn't get my head around. But this was absolutely delicious and well worth it!
I actually made a form of menemen for Bayram. What a coincidence! I was making egss with sauteed veggies. Everyone thought I was making menemen. So I added more tomatoes and voila! Interesting tip on grating the tomato. I have never grated one!
I think grating a tomato is one of the more interesting of techniques for Turkish cuisine! we never do it in our way of cooking, do we? But these summer tomatoes are really fabulous …
Another incredible recipe Claudia, how do you do it? I will try this when I have a bit more time spare.
Simple & awesome 🙂
Asha
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