In this video, learn to create the rich flavors of Turkey with Chef John's take on Menemen, a vibrant dish of scrambled eggs cooked with tomatoes, peppers, and spices. Perfect for breakfast or brunch, this recipe combines simple ingredients to create a hearty, flavorful meal. Follow along as Chef John shares his tips for achieving the perfect texture and balance of flavors.
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00:00Hello, this is Chef John from foodwishes.com with Men and Men.
00:07That's right, I'm going to show you my favorite version of what people refer to as Turkish
00:11scrambled eggs.
00:12Although, if you do it like I like to do it, it's not going to be like any scrambled eggs
00:17you've ever had.
00:18But anyway, we'll get to all those options later, and there are a lot of them.
00:22But for now, let's just get started by looking at the main ingredients, which includes an
00:26array of fresh peppers, and today I'll be using some sweet red bell, as well as these
00:32gorgeous green Anaheim chilies, which are fairly mild, but sometimes do have a little
00:36bit of heat.
00:38And then last but not least, I have a few homegrown Aji Amarillo Peruvian chili peppers,
00:43which are kind of medium spicy.
00:45And then besides the peppers, we're going to need some crushed or chopped up tomato,
00:49which in Turkey is usually a fresh tomato that they peel and seed and dice.
00:53But the fresh tomatoes at the market right now are not good.
00:56So I'm going to use these crushed San Marzano tomatoes, which are beautifully sweet.
01:01And then the last mandatory ingredient, of course, will be some whole eggs, followed
01:05by two optional ingredients, which are diced onion, as well as a little bit of grated cheese.
01:11And apparently the onion's not used for the breakfast version, but only if this is used
01:15as a main course.
01:17And then not everybody does, but I'll be adding a little bit of grated Monterey Jack to mine.
01:21But any mild, melty cheese will work.
01:24And to get this started, we will melt some butter in some olive oil over medium-high
01:28heat.
01:29And there's quite a debate on whether you should do this in olive oil or butter, which
01:33is why I use both, since both sides make great arguments.
01:37And once our butter's melted, let's go ahead and toss in our peppers, which we've diced
01:41fairly small, along with our onion if we're using it.
01:44And we'll also go ahead and toss in a nice big pinch of salt.
01:48And what we'll do is cook this stirring for a few minutes, until those onions and peppers
01:52start to soften up, and maybe just start to brown around the edges.
01:56And yes, that is a freakishly small wooden spoon, which is never not fun to use, unless
02:01your fingers are too close to the action and you get burned.
02:05So I will be switching to a bigger one in a second.
02:08But anyway, like I said, we'll saute those until they soften up and start to take on
02:12a little bit of color, at which point we'll stop and toss in a little bit of dried oregano.
02:16Alright, just a touch.
02:19And then we'll follow that with some Aleppo chili, or the chili flake of your choice.
02:24And then I also like to do a pinch of freshly ground black pepper, at which point we can
02:28transfer in our tomato product, and we'll go ahead and stir everything together.
02:33And I should mention at this point, if you do have access to nice fresh vine-ripened
02:37tomatoes, by all means go ahead and grate those, and use that.
02:42Or like I said, you can peel it, seed it, and dice it.
02:45But in general, many months of the year, a nice diced or crushed San Marzano is going
02:49to be your best bet.
02:51And then what we'll do after everything's been nicely combined, and the mixture's come
02:54up to a simmer, is we'll reduce our heat to low, and we'll cover this.
02:59And we'll let it simmer just like that for about 10 minutes, or until our veggies are
03:03nice and soft, and all the flavors have had time to mingle.
03:07So that's exactly what I did, and about 10 minutes later the mixture looked like this.
03:12And then what we'll do after we give that a stir, is scatter over and then stir in
03:17about half our grated cheese, and as I mentioned I'm using Jack, because it has a little more
03:22flavor than mozzarella, which is what a lot of people use that can't get the authentic
03:26Turkish cheese, which apparently is similar to mozzarella.
03:30But anyway, use what you want.
03:32I mean you are after all Suleiman the Magnificent, of what would be sufficient.
03:37But no matter what you use, once the cheese disappears, we will transfer in our whole
03:41eggs.
03:42And then we'll take our spoon and we'll bust those eggs right in the yolks, and we'll go
03:47ahead and stir those in for as long as we want.
03:50Which can be just like a few seconds, so the eggs are barely mixed in, and the eggs stay
03:54in large identifiable pieces.
03:57Or like I'm going to do it, stir it in for a couple minutes, so we can achieve full integration,
04:02which is basically going to form a new luxurious, very delicious substance.
04:07So to summarize my goal here, is to make scrambled eggs that are nothing like scrambled eggs.
04:12But no matter how long, and how thoroughly you decide to mix your eggs in, once you're
04:16done we will cover this, and we'll let it cook on low for a couple minutes, or until
04:21the mixture is just barely set.
04:23And what I mean by that, if we uncover it, and we give the pan the old shake-a-shake-a,
04:29everything should sort of move together in one mass.
04:32And keep in mind, it's going to continue to firm up as we apply the finishing touches,
04:37and by the time we serve it, it's going to be perfect.
04:40So what we'll do is turn off the heat, and sprinkle over the rest of the cheese.
04:45And yes, since I know you're wondering, I have tried this with feta, and it's very good.
04:50And then after that's applied, I'm going to do another drizzle of olive oil.
04:54Since it looks good, it tastes good, and you really cannot use enough olive oil in your
04:58cooking.
04:59And I mean that literally, eat as much as you can.
05:02And that's it.
05:03We'll almost finish up with a nice sprinkling of Turkish or Syrian chili flakes.
05:08Or if times are tough, you can just do a little cayenne over the top.
05:11And that's it.
05:12We'll go ahead and serve that up, next to a nice hunk of bread.
05:15And because I had some cilantro that just sprouted in the garden, I went ahead and scattered
05:19some young tender leaves over the top.
05:22And that's it.
05:23My version of Turkish scrambled eggs was ready to enjoy.
05:27And by now, as promised, the eggs and the sauce have firmed up perfectly.
05:32But since we did stir them in so well, we really don't get chunks of scrambled eggs
05:36sitting in sauce.
05:38Like I said, the sauce, the cheese, and the eggs have sort of merged together to form
05:42almost like a thick dip or spread, which is just absolutely unbelievable on a nice piece
05:47of baguette.
05:48And of course, in real life, you'll spoon this into some warm bowls and serve the bread
05:52alongside.
05:54But for the purpose of this video, I'm just going to eat right out of this dish like a
05:57savage.
05:58And yes, I've definitely done the version where you just barely stir in the eggs, and
06:02you end up with much larger pieces swimming in the sauce, which is also delicious and
06:07totally fine to do.
06:08But if I do want the eggs mostly intact, then I'm probably going to go with something closer
06:12to a shakshuka, where we just crack the eggs on top and don't scramble them.
06:17But if I'm going to mix eggs into a pepper and tomato sauce, I'm really, really going
06:21to mix my eggs into the sauce, since I think the final result is much more luxurious.
06:28But again, this is just personal preference, and you should definitely try different versions
06:32of this until you decide on your own personal ideal texture.
06:36And along the same lines, you can definitely add more eggs to this, which would also give
06:41you something closer to a more typical scrambled egg dish.
06:44But as you might know, I generally like things saucy.
06:48And for me, and more importantly my wife Michelle, this ratio is what we consider perfection.
06:53Oh, and I know it's a bit off-brand, but we did a vegetarian version here.
06:58All right, quite often a Turkish sausage is used in menemen, which is sort of similar
07:02to a beef salami.
07:03And while I'm always up for some meat, this meatless version is still very, very satisfying
07:09and really didn't lack for anything.
07:11Just please, make sure you have enough bread.
07:14But whether you add meat or not, this is one of my favorite egg dishes of all time.
07:19And I really do hope you give it a try soon.
07:23So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much
07:27more info as usual.
07:30And as always, enjoy!