Turkish Menemen
Soft green peppers cooked down in olive oil with grated tomato, then eggs stirred through until barely set.
Why it works
The peppers go in first and get five full minutes alone in the oil with the onion, which is what turns them sweet instead of sharp and green. The eggs are broken in with a fork and moved slowly, so they set in soft ribbons through the sauce rather than scrambling into dry lumps. The bread goes on to toast while the tomatoes reduce, so it arrives hot enough to soften in the oil.
Method
- Heat the olive oil in a wide frying pan over a medium heat. Add the peppers and onion and cook 5 minutes, stirring now and then, until they are limp and blistered at the edges.
- Add the tomatoes, pul biber and salt. Turn the heat up and cook 4 minutes, until the liquid has gone and the oil comes back to the surface in shiny pools. Put the bread on to toast while it reduces, and keep the slices in a folded tea towel.
- Crack the eggs straight into the pan. Break the yolks with a fork and stir once or twice, leaving the whites streaky rather than beaten in.
- Turn the heat low and move the eggs slowly with the fork for 2 minutes, pulling from the outside in. Stop while they still look glossy and a little underdone — the hot pan finishes them.
- Scatter with the cheese, parsley and more pul biber, and take the pan straight to the table with the hot toast.
For the toddler
Menemen suits them almost as it is. Spoon a little of the softened pepper and onion out at the end of step 1, before the pul biber and salt go in, and cook it down with a spoonful of the grated tomato and an egg in a small pan. Keep the feta off their plate, since it is salt through and through. Cut the toast into finger-length strips rather than squares.
How the toddler notes workChef’s notes
Sliced sucuk browned in the oil before the peppers, or thick yoghurt in place of the crumbled cheese.
Grate whole tomatoes on the coarse side of a box grater — it skips peeling and gets them into the pan in seconds. Grate the onion on the same holes.
Olives, cucumber and tomato in oil, and a bowl of thick yoghurt to spoon over the hot bread.
Eat it now. Menemen neither keeps nor reheats well.