Ingredients
Base
- 4sivri biber, long thin green peppers, or 2 green peppers
- 4ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped
- 3 tbspbutter, or olive oil, or a mixture
- 1onion, finely chopped, if you take that side
Eggs
- 4eggs
Seasoning
- 1 tsppul biber, Aleppo pepper
- salt and black pepper
- a pinch of dried oregano, optional
Sometimes
- sucuk, Turkish spiced sausage, sliced
- beyaz peynir, white cheese, crumbled in
To serve
- plenty of fresh bread
- black tea in a tulip glass
- olives and cheese alongside
Directions
- Make it either way, and know that whichever you choose someone will tell you it is wrong. The proper pepper is sivri biber, a long thin pale green Turkish pepper, mild with a distinct grassy flavour.
- Score a cross in each, drop them into boiling water for thirty seconds, then into cold water, and slip the skins off. Peeling matters here, since tomato skins curl into unpleasant strips of parchment through the soft eggs.
- Use ripe tomatoes, since the dish is largely tomato and a hard pale one gives nothing. Melt the butter and cook the peppers first, over a medium heat, for five minutes until they soften.
- Cook the peppers before the tomatoes go in, since acid stops vegetables softening and they will stay raw otherwise. If you are using onion, cook it with the peppers until translucent. Simmer them for eight to ten minutes until they have collapsed and most of the liquid has evaporated.
- Cook the tomatoes down properly rather than briefly, since a watery base gives a soupy menemen and the eggs will not set into it. The mixture should be thick and jammy, holding a channel when you drag a spoon through it. Season it now with salt, pepper and pul biber. Turn the heat down to low before the eggs go anywhere near the pan.
- Crack the eggs directly into the tomato mixture rather than beating them first. Beating them first gives a uniform orange scramble, which some households prefer and which is also done. Fold slowly over a low heat, which keeps the curds large and soft.
- Take the pan off the heat while the eggs are still visibly soft and slightly runny. Menemen must be soft, creamy and just barely set, and it continues cooking in the hot pan after it leaves the heat.
- Stir in crumbled white cheese now if you are using it, so it softens without melting away. Scatter a little more pul biber over the top. Serve with a great deal of fresh bread, which is the utensil as much as the accompaniment.
Technique
- Whether menemen contains onion is a genuine and unresolved argument in Turkey.
- The eggs are cracked in whole rather than beaten, in the usual method.
- It must come off the heat while still soft and slightly runny.
Substitutions
- Any mild long green pepper in place of sivri biber.
- Good tinned tomatoes out of season.
Variations
- With sucuk, the spiced Turkish sausage.
- With white cheese stirred through at the end.
- Made with onion, which is the other side of the argument.
Frequently asked questions
What is Menemen?
Menemen is a breakfast from Turkey: eggs scrambled with tomatoes and green peppers, scooped with bread.
How long does Menemen take to make?
Menemen takes 10 min of preparation and 15 min of cooking. The recipe makes 2 servings. It is rated easy to make.
What can I substitute in Menemen?
Yes, within limits. Any mild long green pepper in place of sivri biber. Good tinned tomatoes out of season.
What is the most important thing to get right in Menemen?
Cook the peppers before the tomatoes go in, since acid stops vegetables softening and they will stay raw otherwise. If you are using onion, cook it with the peppers until translucent. Simmer them for eight to ten minutes until they have collapsed and most of the liquid has evaporated.
