Today I’m sharing one of my go-to brunch recipes, which is also perfect for getting a bit more veggie protein into my diet. Turkish eggs are simple (aside from the egg-poaching part) but the flavour is so unique and delicious. Essentially it’s a bed of full-fat Greek yoghurt (with lemon and garlic) topped with poached eggs, a generous drizzle of chilli-infused olive oil and a sprinkle of dill. That’s it, and it’s amazing!
INGREDIENTS
Full-fat Greek yoghurt
Lemon juice
Garlic
Chilli flakes
Olive oil
Dill
Eggs
White vinegar
Serving suggestions: I recommend bread to soak up all the yoghurt chilli yolky goodness (here I serve it with a Za’atar flatbread – I’ll be sharing the recipe soon)
TIPS & NOTES
I recently found out how restaurants make poached eggs and it’s been kind of a a game-changer for me. It consistently delivers a perfect poach if you follow this method exactly (which I did not with one of my eggs which is why it disintegrated a little – the yolk was still intact though so I continued filming!)
You may have heard of the hack to use vinegar in your poaching water to help the whites stay intact and this method utilises it. First things first; you want relatively fresh eggs (the whites loosen as they get older), I would say no more than a week old from the supermarket (because who knows how long they’ve been sat on the shelf for!) You then need to prepare a bowl of water with equal parts cold water and white vinegar – I use 1 cup of each for 2-3 eggs. Then you want to gently drop the eggs (one at a time) into this liquid. Personally, so I don’t accidentally get shells in there and to allow me to do it very gently and close to the water; I crack the eggs into little ramekins first, but you don’t have to. Then you simply let them rest for 10 minutes whilst you do everything else! (They can rest there a little longer so don’t panic – the important thing is to have your eggs done last when everything else is good to go.)
We then want to poach the eggs in a pan of boiling water – we don’t want this to be too full; for my medium – large pan (which I believe holds around 3L, I filled it around 1/3 of the way up, so around 1L). You don’t want a rolling boil, you want a very low heat and a gentle boil. Perhaps there are bubbles at the bottom of the pan, but if they’re breaking the surface; your heat is too high. Then you want to take a ladle and tilt the bowl so the egg (the whites will have solidified a little whilst resting in the vinegar solution) can cleanly be scooped up with some of the solution. (If you’re interested; this is what I messed up; being absent-minded, I tried to just pick the egg right up without tilting and broke the white!) Gently, as closely to the water as possible; lower the egg into the boiling water and cook for 2-3 minutes (typically, I go for 2 and a half minutes) before removing from the water and draining excess liquid using a slotted spoon.
And, honestly, if all else fails: just fry the eggs in the chilli oil and this will still taste great!
Turkish Eggs
A delicious egg brunch recipe with Turkish flavourd
Ingredients
- 100g of full-fat Greek yoghurt
- 1 clove of garlic (crushed, grated or chopped very finely)
- Juice of 1/2 a lemon
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp of chilli flakes
- 1 tbsp of olive oil
- 2 sprigs (c. 2g) of dill (chopped)
- 1 cup of white vinegar
- Salt and pepper to taste
Directions
- Boil the kettle
- Combine 1 cup of cold water with the 1 cup of vinegar in a medium bowl
- Crack the eggs into two separate ramikens and very gently and close to the surface, drop them one by one into the viengar solution – you can also very carefully crack them directly in – and set a timer for 10 minutes
- Take two saucepans – one larger and one smaller and fill them with water 1/3 of the way and set to a low heat
- In a bowl that will approximately fit the mouth of the smaller pan, stir together the lemon juice, garlic and yoghurt with salt and pepper to taste
- In a 3rd small frying pan, add the olive oil and sprinkle the chilli flakes into it over the lowest heat possible – let this go for 5-7 minutes until the oil is infused, swirling it around halfway through (don’t let the chilli flakes burn!)
- Meanwhile, check on the large saucepan – it should be boiling very slightly; if bubbles break the surface, reduce the heat – the goal is a couple of bubbles at the bottom of the pan that do not boil up
- Over the smaller saucepan, position the bowl of yoghurt to create a bain marie – cook indirectly whilst stirring for 5-7 minutes to warm and thicken the yoghurt then spread the yoghurt across your serving plate
- When the large pan of water is ready and your timer has gone off, take your ladle and tilt the bowl with the eggs so you can scoop up a whole egg and some of the solution – gently and close to the water; lower in the egg and repeat this process with the second egg
- Set a timer for 2 and a half minutes before using the slotted spoon to remove and drain the eggs – if the whites aren’t quite firm enough, put them back in for 30 seconds – once done, place them directly onto your bed of yoghurt
- Drizzle over the chilli-infused olive oil and sprinkle over the dill and serve with bread
Let me know if you try my Turkish eggs recipe!
See how I make Turkish Eggs here:
But First, Food 
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