Menemen

Menemen

 

Menemen is one of those few dishes that is made and enjoyed all over Turkey. It is known as a ‘poor man’s dish’, and if you go somewhere nice for breakfast with friends Turks will laugh at you for ordering menemen. “You’ve come out to this nice restaurant for breakfast and you’re ordering MENEMEN?” It’s such a foreigner thing to do. But I don’t mind. At home, at a bus terminal, at a nice restaurant, for lunch - I’ll happily eat menemen anytime.

 

5                           dark-green bullhorn peppers (sıvı biber)*

3 medium            tomatoes, preferably juicy ones

a knob of             butter

½ tsp                   salt

3                           eggs

 

1. Chop your peppers, seeds and all.

 

2. Melt the butter in a frypan over medium heat, then add the peppers. Give

    the peppers an occasional stir.

 

3. As the peppers are frying, dice the tomatoes. Add to the pan and stir

    occasionally until the tomatoes begin to break down and become saucey–

    about 5 minutes. Add a swig of water if the mixture gets too dry.

 

4. Stir in the salt and sugar, stir well.

 

5. Add the eggs. Stir well until combined and lower the heat.

     Eggs should only ever be  cooked on low heat.

 

6. Leave, without stirring further, until the eggs have set.

 

Serve with fresh bread

 

 

SERVES 2

 

* These peppers can be slightly spicy and give the menemen a bit of kick. If that’s not your thing, used 3 deseeded yellow bullhorn peppers (çarlston biber) instead.

 

 

 

 

VARIATIONS:

The most common variation is to stir through 100g of crumbled soft fetta cheese (yumuşak beyaz peynir) when adding the eggs.Our village uses 100g of grated kaşar cheese (like a mild cheddar), also quite nice.

 

Some regions serve fried 50g of sliced and fried sucuk (turkish sausage)through the menemen, although I feel this overpowers the dish and all you taste is the sucuk.

 

But my very favourite is simply the classic menemen, with only the sweetness of the biber and tomatos to flavour your meal