Menemen

Menemen (Turkish Scrambled Eggs with Tomato and Pepper)

Menemen is the slow-scrambled egg dish at the heart of every Turkish breakfast: tomatoes, green peppers and eggs cooked together until just set, eaten hot from the pan with hunks of crusty bread for dipping.

Prep

8 min

Cook

18 min

Total

26 min

Serves

4

Difficulty

Easy

Recipe ingredients

• •60 ml (¼ cup) olive oil, or a mild sunflower oil; butter is also traditional
• •2 g (2 medium) green bell peppers (sivri or çarliston), long, mild Turkish green peppers if you can find them
• •1 g (1 medium) small onion, optional; some cooks in Izmir leave it out
• •4 g (4 medium) ripe tomatoes, about 500 g / 1.1 lb; grated, peeled
• •5 g (1 tsp) Turkish red pepper flakes (pul biber), or Aleppo pepper
• •2 g (½ tsp) dried chilli flakes, adjust to taste
• •8 g (1 tsp) fine salt, or to taste
• •0.5 g (¼ tsp) black pepper, freshly ground
• •6 g (6 large) eggs, cold from the fridge; use pasteurised if you prefer no partially runny yolk
• •30 g (2 tbsp) feta cheese (optional), crumbled; some regions add beyaz peynir, others leave it plain

Steps

1. 1 Prepare the vegetables: peel the tomato by scoring a small X on the base, blanching in boiling water for 30 seconds, then slipping off the skin. Grate the flesh on the coarse side of a box grater and discard the skins. Slice the green peppers into thin strips about 4 cm / 1½ in long. If using onion, finely chop it.
2. 2 Heat the olive oil in a wide, heavy-based skillet (about 26 cm / 10 in) over medium heat. Add the onion if using and cook for 3 to 4 minutes until soft and translucent. Add the green peppers and a pinch of salt and cook for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the peppers soften and just begin to char at the edges.
3. 3 Stir in the grated tomato, pul biber, chilli flakes, black pepper and the remaining salt. Simmer over medium-low heat for 6 to 8 minutes, until the tomato reduces to a thick, jam-like sauce that no longer pools watery around the peppers.
4. 4 Crack the eggs directly over the pan, spacing them out. Using a wooden spoon, gently break each yolk and fold the eggs into the tomato-pepper base. Cook over low heat, stirring slowly and occasionally, for 2 to 3 minutes. Stop when the eggs are softly set with visible creamy streaks; they should look like a loose, wet scramble, not a dry omelette.
5. 5 If using feta, scatter the crumbled cheese over the top now, cover the pan with a lid, and leave off the heat for 1 minute so the cheese softens and the eggs finish cooking from residual heat.
6. 6 Serve straight from the pan (or in shallow bowls) with plenty of crusty bread, such as a simit, pide or a rustic sourdough, for scooping up the runny bits. Menemen is best eaten immediately while the eggs are still soft and glossy.