Turkish breakfast, explosion of colours
Dear friends, many of you have been asking me for clarification on our enchanting Turkish breakfast which is part of traditions in Turkey, called “Kahvaltı”. In fact, there is no Italian who has not been impressed by the table full of colourful and appetizing delicacies.
The Turkish breakfast is a fundamental meal of our kitchen because it is really very rich. It is a salty meal and is often the most important of the day.
Tea, the mainstay of Turkish breakfast
As you know by now, tea accompanies all our breakfasts. Tea is actually present throughout the day.
The difficult choice between delicacies
The Turkish breakfast can be divided into two parts. During the first part, vegetables are tasted, such as tomatoes and cucumbers seasoned with “domates ve salatalık” oil and salt and olives.
There is also a great variety of cheeses “beyaz peynir”, “kaşar peynir”, “tulum peynir” and butter, with plenty of bread. On the table you will find “bal” honey, kaymak (cream cheese that goes with bal), grilled sucuk (salami made from veal/ beef) and different types of jam.
The Turkish breakfasts, of course, there is also no shortage of baked preparations such as simit or poğaça (which I will soon illustrate with my recipe).
The highlight of the Turkish breakfast
Even if you might already feel full, after having tasted the delicacies listed above, in Turkey you continue to eat, because breakfast, as I have already told you, is a very important meal.
In fact, at this time of breakfast, which I have called the highlight of Turkish breakfast, we offer egg dishes. Whether they are hard-boiled, fried in a pan, in a salad with potatoes, in an omelette with sucuk, eggs have an irreplaceable place in our breakfasts.
There is another dish that is served for breakfast, of which I had already written the recipe, the menemen, which offers beaten eggs, in a preparation based on peppers and onion.
At the end of this sultan’s meal, you can offer coffee or some sweets. Personally I like tea with a squeeze of lemon juice without any sweets … maybe this will help to digest this massive intake for breakfast!
Anecdote
My mother always pushed my husband, who is Italian, to taste the bread with tulum peynir and honey in the bread during breakfast, drinking tea at the same time. I asked my mother not to strain the foreign palate to our tastes and she always pronounced “denesin, sever!” Which means “try, you will love this!”.
And she was right, the very salty taste of this very particular cheese, combined with the fine and sweet taste of honey, creates an explosion of flavour in the mouth.
