This is a dish which I first saw in a video by Chef John a few months ago, and then I saw pop up on the internet and Instagram in the mean time. With left over tomato sauce on hand from making pizzas, and extra cacik (Turkish tzatziki) in the fridge, I decided that my own version of this would make a perfect lunch on a cold windy March day. Fast and easy, it came together in 10 minutes from start to finish. It was tasty and had a pleasing variety of colours and textures, and I found it easy to modify the heat level for Little Bit's palate and our own. Normally cacik also has cucumber but mine didn't this time. You can use a variety of different herbs in it too, but this time I opted for thyme which is one of my favourites.
Ingredients:
For the cacik:
2 c yogurt
2 c blanc battu (a fresh cheese, the consistency of very thick yogurt. If you don't have any available, simply use only yogurt)
1 head garlic, crushed
1 - 2 tsp thyme
1 - 2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 - 3/4 c tomato sauce per person
1 -2 eggs per person
enough oil to shallow crispy fry the eggs
1tbsp jalapeño peppers (I used pickled ones as fresh weren't available)
1 tbsp (ish) coriander leaves
1 tsp olive oil
Stale bread, toasted
1 tsp sumac
Salt and pepper to taste
1) To prepare the cacik, mix together the yogurt and blanc battu until smooth and creamy. Add other ingredients and mix well. Taste test.
2) For the jalapeño and coriander sauce, place them and a little olive oil in a bowl and blitz.
3) In a deep frying pan, heat about 2 cm of oil. When it is shimmering, crack two eggs in, not too close to each other. Using two wooden spoons, as the eggs fry, fold them back over themselves. Cook for 4 minutes then remove and drain.
4) To serve, place some tomato sauce on a place and spread. Into the middle of this, spoon some cacik, then place a poached egg with the yolk still runny on top. Drizzle the green sauce around and over the rest, and sprinkle some sumac salt and pepper over the whole. Serve with toasted sliced of bread.
This was really tasty! The biggest issue was convincing Little Bit that, despite his love of eggs, he could not have my egg as well as his own. I can't believe that it took me this long to try this, but I'm glad that the stars (or at least the ingredients and left overs in my fridge) all finally aligned for me to make this!
Book Pairing: Not an audiobook, so this is cheating a little, but my association in my mind with cooking this dish is overwhelmingly of reading The Wolf's Secret by Miriam Dahman and Nicolas Digard, illustrated by Julia Sarda, to Little Bit. It was cold and windy and he was just in from a chilly walk, so we curled up under the covers to read this while the tomato sauce warmed up.
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