Cilbir Recipe
Recipe
1 cup plain Greek yogurt (made with whole milk, at room temperature)
1 to 2 garlic cloves (finely minced)
¼-⅓ cup freshly chopped parsley
2 eggs
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 to 2 tablespoons vinegar (optional)
2 teaspoons Aleppo pepper (or red pepper flakes)
Preparation
In a small mixing bowl, combine the room-temp yogurt and garlic, a good pinch of kosher salt and whisk well. Divide the yogurt mixture between two serving bowls and set aside for now.
Bring a medium saucepan full of water to a boil. Stir in the vinegar.
Meanwhile, crack an egg into a small fine mesh sieve over a small bowl. Gently swirl the eggs in the sieve to drain the liquid part of the egg whites (this gives you a neater-looking poached egg). Transfer the egg to a ramekin.
When the water is ready, using a wooden spoon, stir the water to create a vortex. Quickly add the egg to the middle of the vortex and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. When ready, using a slotted spoon, transfer the egg to a plate that’s been lined with parchment paper.
Prepare and cook the second egg exactly as you did the first.
While the second egg is cooking, quickly make the olive oil sauce. In a small skillet, warm the olive oil and Aleppo pepper over medium heat.
Immediately transfer the poached eggs to the prepared yogurt bowls (simply place each egg on top of the yogurt mixture) and drizzle with the heated oil.
Serve immediately with your favorite rustic bread.
PITA Recipe
Ingredients
2 ¼ cups warm water 110 degrees F, 45 degrees C
6 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 teaspoons white sugar
3 teaspoons instant dry yeast
Get Recipe Ingredients
Instructions
Whisk dry ingredients together in a bowl.
In bowl of a stand mixer combine warm water and olive oil.
Pour the dry ingredients on top of the water and with the dough hook attachment mix the ingredients together about 1 minute. Increase the speed to medium low until the dough is smooth and elastic, abut 5 minutes. The dough will be a little tacky.
Let the dough rise in a greased covered bowl until almost double in size. About 1 ½ hours. The time will depend on the heat in your kitchen.
When doubled preheat oven to 500 F (260 C)
Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Roll and stretch the dough gently into a long rope. With a bench knife or sharp knife divide the dough into 12 pieces. Form each piece into a smooth tight ball by stretching the sides to the bottom until it is taut. You may need to repeat this several times.
After you've formed the balls start at the first one you made and using you fingers pat each ball down to form a small disk. Once you've done this to the 12 pieces use a rolling pin to roll each pita into a 4" circle. They should be ¼" thick. You don't want them too thin or they won't puff up.
Put the pitas on a lightly floured countertop and cover them with a towel. Let pitas rise 30 minutes, just until they begin to puff.
When ready, place 3 pitas on a nonstick wire cake rack. Place cake rack directly on the oven rack or baking stone. Bake 4 to 5 minutes until puffed and they are slightly brown.
Remove them from the oven immediately and cover them with a damp towel.
We have several cake racks so we're able to keep the pitas baking until all are finished. We cool them right on the rack with the damp towel. The damp towel is important because you don't want the pitas to get hard. If you don't have additional rack you may have to put them in a sealed brown paper bag and reuse the cake rack for the additional pitas.
Once they are cool wrap them in plastic wrap and freeze them in a large freezer bag. They freeze well, but I can't tell you for how long -- they are gobbled up pretty quickly.
Notes
Optional: You can add 1 tablespoon garlic or onion powder. Also you can add 1 tablespoon dried Italian seasoning, or any other combination that you like. Add this to the dry ingredients
An introduction for the RECIPE and descriptions PLUS YOUR MUSIC CHOICES and ARTIST(S)
I wanted to combine the beautiful flavours of Turkey while also following my bite sized philosophy, with a goal of healthy eats, while still in the confines of my blog’s focus.
This dish sticks with me because it's an exceptionally beautiful dish with complex flavours while still being simple. With only 7 ingredients, this protein dense dish meets high macro standards while still being indulgent and rich. This dish comes to the forefront of my memories because of my weekend ritual with my dad ever since we moved to Westport. When leftovers were too unappealing we would sneak out and drive to get falafels and fresh pitas for dinner. Plopping on the couch when we got home, and watching adult swim, leaving our clothes a mess from the tzatziki and garlic sauces. Although the TV blasted (my father is half-deaf) we would still end up talking through our favorite shows, and I always made sure to sit on his “good side” to hear me best. My father and I still have that nice tv-dinner ritual, and this recipe brings the nostalgia from these nights into a simple breakfast dish with a rich history. Encapsulating those flavours of garlic, dill, lemon and yogurt from the nostalgic taste of that tzatziki.