Simple Brunch Idea: Turkish Poached Eggs

Fun (sorta) fact: I'm a complete night owl + not a morning person, with a very different circadian rhythm than most people, in which lunch mostly don't make it into my daily schedule. (As if I have a schedule though.) 

Well, neither does breakfast, as I don't get up early enough for it every day! But a girl still needs to eat, right? Now, considering breakfast food is my favourite out of all the meals you eat in a day, it makes sense that brunch — you know, the meal where you eat breakfast food near/during lunch hours? — has naturally become my thing.

I'm always on the lookout for tasty heavier breakfast meals for my brunches, but more importantly they have to be easy. This Turkish egg dish, named Cilbir in Turkish cuisine, ticks all the right brunch boxes for me, and has become my go-to dish to make nowadays: two poached eggs sitting on a bed of yoghurt mixed with minced garlic, drizzled with fiery chilli oil, and topped with fresh chopped dill.

The Turkish eggs IG video that I watched (yep, learned this dish through Instagram!) only shared the ingredients that go into this dish and not how much each ingredient needs to be used, so I was winging it the first time I tried making it. It tasted a little bland, which I later learned was because my chilli oil just didn't have enough zing.

Please note that my recipe here is not entirely an authentic Cilbir recipe, but a simplified version of it. Feel free to Google "Turkish eggs" to find a more authentic recipe that might suit your taste better!

My adjusted recipe is for one person. You need:

• two eggs
• 3/4 to 1 cup Greek yoghurt (Note: The unsweetened authentic kind, please; most supermarkets in Malaysia carry sweetened "Greek-style" yoghurt, so I always opt for Farm Fresh authentic Greek yoghurt, which is thick and tangy)
• 1/2 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp olive oil or EVOO
• 1 tsp chilli flakes
• 1/2 tsp chilli powder
• chopped fresh dill
• salt

How to make it:

1. Mix yoghurt with minced garlic well with salt to taste, and spread the mix on a plate. This will be the "bed" you rest your eggs on later.
2. Heat olive oil on super-low heat. Add in chilli powder and chilli flakes, and stir them to make the chilli oil. Put aside. (Note: Very important to not overheat the oil because my chilli powder burned into a black mess a few times from overheating!)
3. Poached your eggs. I cannot teach you how to poach eggs because I'm a total amateur myself, but I watched plenty of YouTube videos and am able to poach eggs pretty good now!
4. Place poached eggs on the yoghurt bed. (I always poach my eggs one at a time to be safe, so one egg is always less warm than the other by the time I am ready to eat.)
5. Drizzle chilli oil all over eggs and yoghurt bed. I usually sprinkle a little bit more salt here too.
6. Topped with chopped fresh dill - I like it a lot with mine, as you can see from the pics!
7. Done-zel Washington!

As always I would have two toasted bread on the side for dipping into the yolk and mopping up the inevitable yolky yoghurt bed. Yu-hum-my.

Have fun trying out this simple brunch idea! If you do try it out, let me know how yours goes.

PS: Also, if you're Turkish/a Turkish cuisine expert and found a million flaws in this recipe, please let me know how you cook your Cilbir so I can improve it!