Turkish Menemen

Hi Foodies !

Was going through various Turkish breakfast recipes and my eyes happened to fall on the Turkish Menemen. It looked awesome in the youtube video that I saw. I'm sharing it here with my twist to it.

The ingredients listed below should suffice a group of 4-5 medium sized eaters. However, feel free to increase or decrease the quantities as per your palate.

Ingredients:

2 x Onions ( Finely diced )

6 x Tomatoes ( we'll grate these later ).

2 x Bell Peppers ( pick out the colorful ones - Red and Yellow - 1 each. Finely dice these ).

4 x Green chillies ( finely chopped )

10 x Garlic cloves ( finely chopped )

8-9 x Scallions ( finely chopped ).

15 x Olives ( finely chopped. Use either the Green or Black Olives )

5 x Eggs

2 x Tablespoons of oil

1/4 x teaspoon of turmeric powder

1/2 x teaspoon of red chilly powder

1/2 x teaspoon of salt

1 x teaspoon of powdered black pepper

Preparation Before You Start Cooking:

Ensure the Onions, Bell peppers, Green chillies, Garlic cloves are finely diced / chopped.

Ensure we use the greener portions of the scallions right upto the bulb. Ignore the root. We'll use about 3/4th of this while cooking and use the remaining 1/4th to garnish the dish later on.

Chopped olives should typically be available in most grocery stores. If not, chop them into concentric circles finely.

Grate all the tomatoes into a pulp and ensure that we collect the pulp into a vessel big enough to hold it.

Crack the eggs and keep them in a bowl.

We are now ready to get into the active cooking portions.

The process:

1. Now lets start with picking up a non-stick pan big enough to hold this preparation for about 5 people. The pan I used was about 10 inches in diameter.
2. Set the pan over a low flame and let it get heated.
3. Once heated, lets pour 2 tablespoons of oil into it and allow it to get heated, just a little.
4. Now lets add the finely chopped onions to the pan and stir a little with a spatula.
5. Immediately, lets add the chopped bell peppers, the chopped garlic cloves and chopped green chillies into the pan.
6. Lets sautee the entire mixture till it gets caramelized a little bit.
7. Lets add the 3/4th of the quantity of the finely chopped scallions to the mix and stir a little more.
8. We are now ready to add the grated tomatoes to this entire mixture. Lets add that and stir the entire contents of the pan for a minute or so.
9. At this point, we are ready to add the spices into the mix. Lets add the spices mentioned in the Ingredients list to the pan and stir it a little more.
10. We should now have a lovely aroma emanating from the pan.
11. Now lets start creating a bed of the mixture in the pan, by dabbing it with our spatula.
12. At this point, we can either consider the variations. (I've listed what I tried below) or go ahead and wrap up the dish.
13. Lets slowly release the cracked eggs onto this bed of tomatoes and other crushed veggies which we've created into the pan. Lets allow this to settle a bit. You may want to add a little bit of salt and pepper at this point per your taste.
14. We should now close the lid of the pan and let this cook for about a minute or 2.
15. We can now garnish this mixture with the remaining 1/4th quantity of our finely chopped scallions. You can now turn off the stove and close the lid of the pan.
16. Our Turkish Menemen is now ready to be served. 
17. You can cut it into Pizza slices and set it out onto a plate and add 2-4 slices of toasted bread.
18. Bon Appetit !!!

Variations:

Here are some of the variations that I've tried or am suggesting and you can try as well.

Grated cheese can be added after step 14 or 15.

OR / AND

Some, one or all of these can be tried before transitioning to step 13.

1. Add 4-5 sliced cocktail sausages to the mix. We should have grilled or cooked these sausages prior to adding them to the mixture.

OR

1. Add 4-5 slices of cooked pork / chicken / turkey ham to the mixture. I prefer to cut the ham into small diced slices for this recipe.

OR

1. Add 4-5 strips of your choice of bacon nicely cooked over a grilling pan, again finely chopped into smaller cubes to the mixture.

OR

1. Add 4-5 finely sliced button mushrooms which have been sauteed in oil with spices of your choice.

Some pictures of the preparation: