Do It Yourself, Turkish Food – Part Three

Words by Dalene Heck / Photography by Pete Heck

On our last trip to Turkey we practically ate our way through the country. We had no idea that the country had such a vast menu of food. Most dishes that we tried, we loved. We even attempted to make our own recipes and succeeded. You can see what we tried to make in Part 1 and Part 2.

Now that we’re back in Turkey and are house-sitting again we’ve cracked open the recipe book again to see what else we can learn to make.

We give you…Part 3.

çılbır – poached eggs with yogurt

Ingredients
4 eggs
1 tablespoon salt
1.5 tablespoons vinegar or 3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 cup yogurt
1 clove garlic
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon ground red or chill pepper

Directions

Chop garlic very fine and add to yogurt. Stir and refrigerate for approximately 2 hours (it’s not necessary for that long, but the flavour will be better). Next, heat up a pan filled with water and add salt and vinegar or lemon juice. Bring to a boil and then reduce to medium heat. Slowly add the eggs and cook for 4-5 minutes. While the eggs are cooking, melt the butter in a sauce pan. Once melted, add the chills and stir until blended. Remove the eggs from the water with a slotted spoon and place in a serving dish. Cover the eggs with the yogurt mixture and then drizzle the butter and pepper mixture overtop. Serve immediately.

THOUGHTS:

This dish is very similar to Mantı, probably our favorite Turkish meal. It was super easy to make, and we enjoyed it for breakfast. For garlic lovers, you can add more than one clove of garlic to the yogurt to give it a little more kick.

tepsi böreği – baked börek

Ingredients

3 sheets of Yufka (philo dough) Recipe Here
3/4 cup milk
6 tablespoons butter
3 eggs

White cheese filling
200 gr. White Cheese (Feta will work)
1 egg
Optional Parsley and Dill.

Directions

Mash the white cheese with a fork. Add the egg, parsley and dill. Mix well.

Melt the butter in a sauce pan. Brush a 24x30cm cookie sheet. Add the eggs and the milk to the rest of the melted butter and beat well. Lay one sheet of yufka over the pan allowing the edges to go 8-10cm over on each side of the sheet. Cut the excess parts away and save for later. Spread 3-4 tablespoons of egg mixture over the yufka. Lay two more sheets of yufka cut the same size as the pan over the each layer, making sure to spread the egg mixture on each. After the three layers of yufka spread the white cheese mixture evenly over. Lay the remaining yufka on top, making sure to spread the egg mixture after each. When all the yufka has been used, fold the edges from the first yufka layer over. Spread the remaining egg mixture overtop sealing it. Bake at 175 degrees celsius for approximately 25-30 minutes until golden brown. It will naturally rise.

THOUGHTS:

One word, DELICIOUS. We cheated and got the yufka from our local market, but we let the pros take care of that as the dough is so extremely thin and there is an art to making it. Once we had the philo the rest of the recipe was extremely easy to create.

Stay tuned for Part 4….