Turkish Breakfast II

Today, it’s time to write the second article about Turkish breakfast. If you want to find out more about Turkish Breakfast culture more, this entry will be exactly for you; because we will go deep into the breakfast culture of Turks. First of all, I would like to start with the specialties of our breakfast. 

TIP: As I said before, it takes a little bit time to prepare whole dishes for the Turkish breakfast. For that reason, not all the days we can have this breakfast. Generally on Sundays, when we have time, we have real Turkish Breakfast at our flat, or it will be the other choice to go out and have this typical breakfast in some relaxing places such as restaurants close to Bosporus, sea or forest. 

The first day of my trip to Turkey, I went out with my friends in order to have a Turkish Breakfast. For me, there was really big longing of Turkey, my friends and Turkish cuisine at that moment. Then we had decided to go to one place which is situated so close to Bosporus. And we had really a great time there. It was Awesome !!!

After these additional informations, now I can introduce “menemen” to you. 

MENEMEN

This typical Turkish food is not always eaten during breakfast. Preferentially, it can be eaten also in other meals however traditionally; Turkish people got used to eat “menemen” during the breakfast. Let’s start with the ingredients? What we are using for preparing “menemen”. We can say that it is not a kind of dish very complicated. The ingredients are so basic; tomatoes, peppers, onion (according to your appetite), egg and some butter.

On this picture, you can see the whole Turkish Breakfast. Fresh Breads, "menemen" and cheeses, olives and jams. 

The preparation

First of all, we need to put some butter on pan. Olive oil or sunflower oil also can be used. After a while, Onions are sauteed with the heated butter or oil, then the green peppers. Once the onions become soft and lighter in color, the tomatoes and olives are added. Tomatoes should become very soft and also change color. Finally the eggs and spices are added, mixed with the other ingredients and cooked. The eggs should be fully cooked but not dry.

In restaurants, menemen is usually cooked and served in single-serving metal pans.

Turkish meat products such as sucuk (a spicy sausage) or pastırma (thinly sliced dried cured beef) can be added, although this strays from the traditional recipe.

After this definition, now I need to give some information about “sucuk”. This type of spicy sausage can be as well as used for the “menemen” and apart from this we really like to eat this type of sausage without any other ingredients. We are just putting “sucuk” on the pan and after we cook them sufficiently, they are ready. Although it can be cooked for other meals, this is, for us, one of the typical dishes for our breakfasts. However what is exactly sucuk?

 According to Wikipedia, “Sucuk” is a dry, spicy sausage in Turkish cuisine eaten from the Balkans to the Middle East and Central Asia. Sujuk consists of ground meat of beef with various spices including cumin, sumac, garlic, salt, and red pepper, fed into a sausage casing and allowed to dry for several weeks. It can be more or less spicy; it is fairly salty and has a high fat content.

Sujuk may be eaten cooked (when raw, it is very hard and stiff). It is often cut into slices and cooked without additional oil, its own fat being sufficient to fry it. At breakfast, it is used in a way similar to bacon or spam. It is fried in a pan, often with eggs accompanied by a hot cup of sweet black tea.

You can see above: Menemen with sucuk. It seems so delicious ! This is one of the typical dishes for our breakfast. 

And after wegot the idea about "sucuk”. Now it’s time to mention another tasty specialty. It’s name is “pastırma”. According to Wikipedia, Pastirma or bastirma is a highly seasoned, air-dried cured beef in the multiple counties throughout the Caucasus, Middle East, and Balkans. The name bastirma is from Turkish: bastırma et (pressed meat). “Bastırma” is the gerund of the verb bastırmak (bastırmak in modern Turkish), which means "to depress, restrain". Its origins come from as the city of Caesarea Mazaca (modern Kayseri) in Anatolia. Beef is the most common used meat today for the “pastirma”. Pastırma is prepared by salting the meat, then washing it with water and letting it dry for 10–15 days. The blood and salt is then squeezed out of the meat which is then covered with a cumin paste called “çemen” prepared with crushed cumin, fenugreek, garlic, and hot paprika, followed by thorough air-drying.

Pastırma sold at the Egyptian Bazaar in Istanbul. (the picture retrieved from wikipedia).

This spicy air-dried cured beef has a very particular taste. Because of the long maturation period of the meats, the price is a little bit high. However, when you come to visit Turkey, you have to taste “sucuk” and “pastırma”. As I’ve said before, the way of eating this kinds are changeable. You can eat them with egg or sucuk can be eaten without any ingredients whereas “pastirma” can be eatan raw. 

 At the left side you can see "sucuk". This picture was taken by me in the last summer. I like so much ,when I have some time, having breakfast with my family.

To sum up, “menemen”, “sucuk”, and “pastırma” are the main components of Turkish cuisine. And we really love eating these types when we have our breakfast. If you are a tourist and you would like to visit Turkey, don’t forget to taste them.

I will continue with the cheese types and jams on the next entry and I’ll keep on explaining the amazing Turkish breakfast culture. See you soon,

To be continued.