Turkish Breakfast

Fried Eggs with Turkish Sucuk (dried sausage) – Sucuklu Yumurta

By Ozlem Warren on December 29, 2010 in Turkish Breakfast 7

This is, for me, one of the main pieces of the ultimate Turkish weekend brunch (along with the delicious olives, white cheese (similar to feta), sliced cucumbers and tomatoes, home made jam, honey, Simit, Turkish bread rings with sesame coating- and many more). And I sure will visualize myself enjoying this feast by a café along the Bosphrous in Istanbul, an ultimate treat, whenever we’re back home.

Shaped like a horseshoe, sucuk is a cured sausage made with lamb or beef and flavored with garlic, cumin and red pepper flakes. In rural areas, people make their own sucuk with variety of spices and hang them outside to cure. Most Middle Eastern markets carry sucuk, if you can’t find them; you may like to try with chorizo sausage or any other dried cured sausages or pastrami of your choice. How about adding a chopped tomato into the mixture.? Simply saute the sliced sucuk with chopped tomatoes for a few minutes before cracking the eggs, juicy tomatoes go well with the spicy sausace and eggs.

Eggs with Turkish sucuk (spicy sausage) and tomatoes, Domatesli, sucuklu yumurta – Ultimate Turkish breakfast!

Serves 2 generously

Preparation time: 10 minutes Cooking time: 5 minutes

115gr/4oz Turkish sucuk (or any dried sausage or pastrami of your choice, if preferred), sliced

1 tomato, coarsley chopped (optional)
2-4 medium free range eggs
30ml/2 tablespoon olive oil
5ml/1 teaspoon ground cumin
5ml/1 teaspoon red pepper (or paprika) flakes
Salt and ground black pepper to taste

Crusty bread to serve
Sliced tomatoes and cucumbers to serve by the side

Heat the oil in the frying pan. Stir in the sliced sucuk (or your choice of dried sausage or pastrami) and chopped tomatoes (if used) and sauté them for a minute or two until they start to brown. Scatter the sausages around the edges of the pan forming a circle. Crack the eggs in the middle and cook for a few minutes on medium heat. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle ground cumin and red pepper flakes over the eggs. Cook until the egg whites are set and the egg yolks still runny.

Serve hot with crusty bread and sliced tomatoes and cucumber by the side.

Afiyet Olsun,

Ozlem

Filo pastry with zucchini, dill and Feta; Kabakli Borek

By Ozlem Warren on November 20, 2010 in Appetizers and Mezes, Savory Pastries, Turkish Breakfast 7

Kabakli, peynirli borek; Zucchini, feta and dill filo pastry

Various kinds of pastries called “borek”, constitute an important part in Turkish cookery. Different sorts of dough can be prepared at home though it is very convenient to buy ready made fresh thin pastry sheets called “yufka” widely available in Turkey. You can substitute yufka with filo pastry sheets as I do for this recipe and it works remarkably well. The filo pastry sheets in the UK come fresh and need to be left in room temperature for 30 minutes before using. The filo pastry in the US comes frozen and you need to thaw them 2 hours prior using.

You can also use any filling of choice, meat, spinach, spicy pumpkin, potato, leeks… the list of the possibilities is endless! This tasty borek, can be a lovely side dish or first course for dinner parties, they are also delicious for the weekend brunch, Turkish style.

Serves 6-8
Preparation time – 30 minutes Cooking time – 25 minutes

12 sheets of filo pastry

For the filling:
2 medium courgettes (zucchini), grated
225gr/8oz feta cheese, crumbled
60gr/2oz grated mozzarella
2 eggs, beaten
4 green (spring) onions, finely chopped
2 tablespoons chopped dill
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

For the egg&milk; mixture:
1 egg, beaten
30ml/2 tablespoons olive oil
120ml/4fl oz/1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 180 C/ 350 F / Gas 4

For the filling, put the grated courgette (zucchini) in a colander and sprinkle with salt. Set aside for 30 minutes. Squeeze well to allow the excess water to run away. (You can prepare the courgettes this way up to a day in advance and keep in the fridge, covered). In a bowl, combine the grated courgette, feta cheese, grated mozzarella, beaten eggs, chopped green onion and dill. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper. You may wish to leave out the salt if the feta cheese is already salty.

Combine the beaten egg, olive oil and the milk in a bowl and mix well.

Generously grease a baking tray with olive oil. Take a filo sheet and covered the rest with a damp cloth. This will help avoid the pastry getting too dry or less manageable. Put a sheet of filo pastry on the tray and brush with 2 tablespoons of the egg &milk; mixture. Continue doing this for the next 5 sheets. Now put the 6th sheet on top and this time spread the courgette filling evenly. Add the next sheet over the top and apply the egg&milk; mixture over the top, making sure the whole surface is nicely covered and moistened. Continue this for each sheet, including the last sheet.

Bake the pastry in the preheated oven for about 25 minutes or until the top of the pastries is golden brown and puffed up.

Transfer onto a serving plate, and serve. This pastry can be successfully preheated and frozen.

Turkish filo pie with zucchini, feta and dill; Kabakli Borek

Afiyet Olsun,

Ozlem

Notes:1) If you freeze the cooked pastry, you can reheat at 180C/350F for about 15-20 minutes. Please moisten the top of the pastry with a couple of tablespoonful of milk so that it won’t dry out.
2) If you have any courgette filling left over (as the size of filo sheets vary in different countries), you can knock up a delicious omelet with adding another egg or two.

Crumbled White Cheese or Feta Salad with Spices; Cokelek Salatasi

By Ozlem Warren on November 3, 2010 in Salads, Turkish Breakfast 13

Cokelek Salatasi- crumbled feta with spices, tomato, cucumber and onions

Cokelek Salatasi- crumbled white cheese, lor peynir or feta with spices, tomato, cucumber and onions

This is such a satisfying, delicious and healthy salad. The cumin and red pepper flakes amazingly transform the humble Turkish white cheese (or if it’s not available, Greek feta cheese). In my hometown, Antakya (Antioch), this special crumbled dried white cheese mixed with cumin, red pepper flakes and oregano is called Kuru Cokelek (also known as Surk) and readily available. Well, I can’t get Kuru Cokelek at the moment, though pleased to say that the crumbled feta with these spices work just as good, highly recommended. If you are in Turkey, you can also make this salad with the creamy lor peynir; its mild taste goes well with this salad.

This easy salad is a wonderful treat for lunch or weekend brunch with some pita bread. My heartfelt thanks goes to my mother, who made this salad to us almost daily and injected us the love of food.

Turkish cuisine is packed with delicious, wholesome choices and based on seasonal produce; this delicious salad and over 90 authentic recipes are included in my cookery book, Ozlem’s Turkish Table – you can order at Amazon now or you can get a Signed copy here (distributed worldwide, including USA). Signed copies are also 20 % off at this link until end July 2019, delivered worldwide.

Serves 2

Preparation time: 10 – 15 minutes

½ small yellow or red onion, finely diced
2 medium tomatoes, finely diced
¼ of long cucumber or ½ small cucumber, finely diced
Handful of flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
110gr/40z Cokelek or lor peynir, as available in Turkey (or Greek feta cheese as an alternative),
5 ml/1 teaspoon ground cumin
5 ml/1 teaspoon red pepper (or paprika) flakes
5 ml/1 teaspoon dried oregano
30 ml/2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
5 ml/1 teaspoon lemon juice
Salt and ground pepper to taste

Pita bread wedges to serve

In a bowl, mix the Turkish white cheese, lor peynir (or Greek feta cheese), onion, cumin, oregano and red pepper flakes with your hands. This will soften the onion and infuse the spices to the feta and onion. Add the tomatoes, cucumber, parsley, olive oil and lemon juice, and mix well. Check the seasoning and add salt and black pepper to your taste.

Serve with pita bread wedges.

Afiyet Olsun,

Ozlem