Tart London: how to make Turkish eggs

Jemima Jones and Lucy Carr-Ellison recreate the taste of Turkish summers with this spicy egg dish

5 April 2018

You may have noticed that although we try and eat seasonally and locally, our dishes tend to have global influences.

The world is an exciting place when it comes to food and we find we are often pulled in many directions. We adore Italian home-made pasta as much as we relish spicy noodle soup from Vietnam or Japanese sashimi in a mind-blowing dressing. How could we choose between Keralan crab curry and oysters from our own doorstep in Lindisfarne? When we book holidays it’s usually based on where we’d like to eat next.

During the winter we took our inspiration from Scandinavia. After a trip to Sweden in December, we came back to London raring to make our own rye bread, pickle our own herring and put juniper in everything.

Recently, while we’ve been discussing where we want to go this summer, we’ve found ourselves reminiscing about last summer’s incredible trip to Turkey. We spent a week sailing down the coast, stopping off to visit wonderful markets filled with fragrant spices, dried fruit and fantastic street food along the way. This summer we want a similar choice of fresh fish grilled on the beach and flatbreads laden with salsa and roasted aubergine, hummus and sweet tomatoes and spicy oils. Waking up each morning, we were torn between a breakfast of ripe fresh fruits with yoghurt, nuts and honey, or eggs with flatbreads and spices.

Turkish eggs are often served with yoghurt and chilli butter (our favourite in London comes from The Providores in Marylebone), which sounds quite random but is a match made in heaven. The result is incredibly indulgent and moreish. You can double or triple the quantities of this recipe if you’re having friends round for brunch.

In the same boater: Lucy and Jemima keep cool in Marrakech

Turkish eggs (Serves 2)

Ingredients

For the tomato sauce

2 red chillies, destemmed

4 garlic cloves

4 plum tomatoes, halved

Small bunch of thyme, woody stems removed

1 tsp sugar

3 tbsp olive oil

For the yoghurt

200ml Greek yoghurt

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 tsp za’atar

Zest of 1 lemon

2 flatbreads

2 tbsp olive oil

4 eggs

Knob of butter

1 tbsp pine nuts

1/2 tsp dried chilli

Handful of rocket

2 spring onions, chopped

Small bunch of dill, roughly torn

Small bunch of coriander, roughly torn

Method

To make the tomato sauce, heat the oven to 200C. Place the chillies, garlic cloves, tomatoes and thyme in a roasting tin, sprinkle with sugar and season. Toss in the oil then roast for 20 minutes until golden. Squeeze the garlic out of its skin into a pestle and mortar and add the tomatoes, chillies and any juice in the roasting tin. Pound into a sauce and leave to one side.

Mix the yoghurt ingredients together and leave to one side.

Warm the flatbreads in the oven while you cook the eggs. Heat the oil in a frying pan and crack in your eggs. Cook for 3 minutes then remove to a plate. Add the butter, pine nuts and chilli to the pan and fry for 2 minutes. To serve, place flatbreads on plates then spoon over the tomato sauce followed by the rocket and yoghurt. Place eggs on top then drizzle over the spicy pine nut butter and finish with a sprinkle of spring onions and herbs.

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