Sunday, June 19, 2011

Çılbır

This is a Turkish dish I've been wanting to try for ages.

It's as simple as can be; a puddle of room temperature garlic yoghurt, with a poached egg (or two) on top, and over that you drizzle melted butter mixed with smoked paprika and a little chilli:


It's gorgeous. It doesn't taste like any of its ingredients, somehow all the flavours mix together and turn into something quite different.

It feels as decadent as eggs Benedict, but with far far fewer calories. Even that pool of butter is less than you would think - it goes much further when melted!

4 comments:

  1. I can't even imagine its taste!! Could you post a history of this recipe or its ingredients?? Thanks, Stephanie

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  2. All I know about it is what I've read on the web. Here are some links:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cilbir
    http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook:Cilbir
    http://almostturkish.blogspot.com/2007/03/turkish-poached-eggs-with-yogurt-lbr.html
    http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/quick-weeknight-meals-2009/catherines-cilbir-turkish-poached-eggs-over-yogurt-quick-weeknight-meals-recipe-contest-2009-095920

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  3. Oh and I should add, forget the vinegar in the poaching water that I see in one of those recipes. It doesn't do a thing except make the eggs taste funny. The secret to nice round plump poached eggs is to use really fresh eggs.

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  4. Damn, forgot to link the links. You can copy and paste, no?

    ReplyDelete