Almost Turkish Recipes

Turkish Omelette (Kaygana)



























The first time I tried kaygana was 15 years ago when I was traveling in the Black Sea region with my family. There was a small authentic restaurant that served only Black Sea region food on the way to Sumela Monastery, in Trabzon province, and they served us kaygana along with other numerous delicious local food. Since I've always had a love-hate relationship with eggs, I was reluctant to taste it at first. But then it became my favorite egg dish. After our trip I couldn't find kaygana anywhere else, and that's why I believed it was a Black Sea dish; however, from Marianna Yerasimos' 500 Hundred Years of Ottoman Cuisine I learned that kaygana is an old Ottoman dish.

It seems that there are numerous ways of making kaygana. Yerasimos says that you can make "bread kaygana," "anchovy kaygana," or "eggplant kaygana" (mmmm). So it's a really flexible recipe with which you can go creative. You can make a sweet kaygana (by adding sugar, honey, or jam) as well as a savory one; it's all up to you. You can add peppers, green onions, feta cheese, sun dried tomatoes, mushroom, bacon, pepperoni, honey, etc. in the eggy mixture or you can make a plain kaygana and roll all those things with it just like you'd do with a crepe. I tried adding feta and parsley and it turned out great!

One last point: The recipe in Yerasimos' book is not the same as the one I tried in Trabzon, in that little restaurant. The reason is that they use corn flour in Black Sea region, whereas the recipe I used required white flour. But next time I'll try corn flour.

serves 1
2 eggs
2 tbsp flour
2 tbsp water or milk
salt

1 tbsp butter or olive oil

2 tbsp finely chopped flat leaf parsley
1/3 cup crumbled feta (you can use more or less than this)
black pepper
red pepper flakes

-Put flour in a bowl and break eggs into the bowl. Mix well. Add water or milk, whichever you want, and mix again. [So far is the basic recipe. You may go ahead and cook it on frying pan with butter or oil, and then roll it with feta and parsley.]
-Add parsley, feta, black pepper, and pepper flakes to this mix and mix them all. (Since feta was already very salty, I didn't add salt).
-Heat oil in a frying pan. Add either one scoop at a time for small rounds or the whole mix for a big one. When one side is cooked, flip it over.

This recipe with my favorite herb flat leaf parsley, which is great for a lazy weekend breakfast, is for Weekend Herb Blogging which was founded by Kalyn and is hosted by Ed of Tomato this weekend.

14 comments:

  1. I think this looks fantastic. Of course, anything with feta cheese gets my vote!

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  2. Burcu, I'm with you for this, feta and wheat flour! I;m curious about anchovy since I like these little fish...

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  3. That's a great little story. I've always wanted to visit the Sumel Monastery - next time I'm on my way to Europe perhaps. Thanks for taking part in Weekend Herb Blogging.

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  4. Anonymous10:06 PM

    I use Chinese parsley in my egg omelettes too. But no cheese since mine is a Chinese recipe :)

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  5. Anonymous1:56 AM

    What a fantastic recipe, I can't wait to try it.

    I love that you included a bit of history with the recipe.

    I found your site via the weekend herb blogging and I plan to keep reading.

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  6. Burcu - These look really wonderful. I love things like this on Sundays for some reason, usually to soak up a broth or sauce. I love your introduction too, and I'm keen to check out the cookery book (thanks for tell us about it).

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  7. Hi Burcu,
    I tried your turkish omelette and it came out so good. I blogged about it on my blog. Thank you for the recipe. You have a beautiful blog and I love visiting :)

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  8. Anonymous6:12 PM

    this was an excellent recipe! so handy and quick .. one of our friends made this for us before but made it with plain pancakes & used mince to go with it. it was delicious . thanks burcu!

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  9. I will have to try this Burcu, thanks. Your blog is continuing to look great.

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  10. i just made this and it was one of the best things i have eaten - so quick and easy to make too - thanks so much for this recipe!

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  11. This was so yummy. I had some fresh strawberry/rhubarb compote that I had just made. It was a yummy accompaniment to your basic Italian parsley and feta omelette.

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  12. Lovely!!! I must have made 100s of omelette variations and cannot believe I have never thought of just adding a tiny bit of flour. Great texture! I had it with some cucumber, tomato, olives and a little more feta. What a feast - will certainly have it again. Thank you!

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  13. I grew up eating kaygana. Especially the one my grandma made was amazing. It was one of my favorites. Thanks for bringing back nice memories with your post :)

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  14. Anonymous5:54 AM

    My grandfather from Sicily made eggs the same way with add ins specific to his taste.

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