Menemen

Ingredients

• Ripe tomatoes — peeled and chopped4
• Long green peppers2
• Eggs4
• Butter20 g
• Olive oil1 tbsp
• Pul biber flakes1 tsp
• Dried oregano1 tsp
• White cheeseto taste
• Saltto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Slice the peppers into rings and fry them in the two fats for three or four minutes, until the edges start to darken.

   4 min

2. 2

   Add the tomatoes, salt them and cook over medium heat for ten minutes. Wait for the oil to separate and glisten at the edges — that is the sign the water has gone.

   10 min

3. 3

   Lower the heat, break the eggs straight into the sauce and scatter the pepper flakes. Stir slowly and only two or three times, leaving streaks of yolk.

   4 min

4. 4

   Take it off when the white has set and the yolk is still loose: the pan finishes the job. Scatter over the oregano and the cheese.

   2 min

About the dish

Menemen is not eggs with tomato. The difference is proportion: there is twice as much vegetable as egg, and it has to cook down to a thick sauce before the eggs appear in the pan at all.

Use the long pale green pepper rather than a bell pepper. Its wall is thinner and its flavour stronger; a sweet red pepper gives you a different dish entirely.

The argument about onion is as eternal in Turkey as the one about onion in a Spanish tortilla. İzmir puts it in, Ankara considers that vandalism, and both sides are certain.

Worth knowing

• — The tomatoes have to be ripe to the point of softness. In winter a tin of tomatoes beats pale fresh ones.
• — Menemen is served in the pan and eaten with bread rather than a fork. The bread is the cutlery.
• — Stir the eggs through completely and you have made a different Turkish dish — just not menemen.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

310 kcal

Protein

16 g

Fat

22 g

Carbs

12 g

More from Turkey

• Mercimek çorbası — A red lentil soup blended smooth and finished with lemon and paprika butter.