çılbır (turkish poached eggs with garlic yoghurt and burnt butter dressing)

Çılbır (pronounced “chil-ber”) is a traditional Turkish egg dish. It is the divine combination of lightly poached eggs, served with garlic yogurt and tempered with warm spice and butter dressing. Sometimes, the butter dressing is infused with Aleppo pepper, paprika, dried mint and cumin, but mostly, it’s just Aleppo pepper.

You may know Çılbır as ‘Turkish Eggs’, but it is also known as çıpıl or çırpır. It is said to have been served in the Topkapı Palace kitchens of the Ottoman Empire as far back as the 15th century and appeared on a food list prepared for Sultan Mehmet IV in the 17th century. I believe that çılbır, as we know it today, is the product of the 19th century, as the recipe was mentioned in Turkey’s first printed cookbook, Melceü’t-Tabbâhîn—meaning Shelter of Cooks—in 1844.

For me, çılbır is as humble as a poached egg dish goes. Simple ingredients come together for an unexpected flavour explosion. Aleppo pepper adds a lovely red hue to the yogurt and depth without being too hot. My husband also thinks the garlic yogurt in çılbır takes away the heaviness of egg yolks. I think it’s an interesting way of looking at it.

Çılbır is traditionally consumed as a breakfast dish, even though it shows up as a ‘cold meze’ in Deniz Gürsoy’s Çilingir Sofrasında Rakı Mezeleri cookbook. But that’s not the case in our house. My husband prefers to have it for lunch; sometimes, we both prefer it as a light dinner.

I’ve recently noticed that çılbır is gaining popularity in the West. I think Peter Gordon and Nigella Lawson are responsible for its popularity. As a matter of fact, Nigella Lawson called it ‘the new eggs benedict’, and Mr Gordon had it on his menu at The Providores & Tapa Room for 17,5 years.

Famous food researcher and the owner of Çiya restaurants, Musa Dağdeviren, talks about a cute tradition in his book The Turkish Cookbook (published by Phaidon). He says, “A poached egg per person is placed on a tray, and then an evil-eye bead is placed under one. The wishes of the person who finds the evil eye bead are granted for the day.”

Evil eye beads are believed to protect you against jealousy, negativity, and ill will. You can find these beads at the entrances of houses and in cars, and they are attached to newborn babies and children. I have it on my dog’s collar.

Notes on Çılbır Ingredients
Greek Yogurt: If you are using thick Greek-style yogurt, you definitely want to thin it with a bit of water. This makes spreading garlic yogurt on top of eggs easier and helps it blend better with crushed garlic.
Aleppo Pepper, also known as pul biber or Turkish chilli flakes: The flavour profile of Aleppo pepper can be described as lemony, sweet heat, and it can be found at Middle Eastern grocery shops in Sydney. I buy mine from Gima in Auburn or Arzum Market. Some online shops carry pul biber and deliver, too! I recently started to see Yotam Ottolenghi’s brand at Woolworths, so that’s another option. If you cannot find it, Peter Gordon recommends Korean chilli flakes called gochugaru.

Aleppo Pepper

Unsalted Butter: I prefer unsalted butter because I like to work with plain ingredients and play with flavours. You could add salt to butter if you want to but you can’t take it out when needed.
White vinegar: I use 100 ml for 1 1/2 litres of water, and it may seem excessive, but trust me, it isn’t. Vinegar miraculously helps eggs hold their shape better. No tentacles. If you use red wine vinegar, the colour of the eggs will change once they’re poached. You don’t want that. So, stick to colourless vinegar.

Equipment Needed
• A wide and shallow pot
• Garlic press
• Slotted spoon
• Small pan for the butter dressing

Recipe Notes
• Warm your plates as the moment cold garlic yogurt is added, the eggs and the butter dressing cool down fast.
• Drain the eggs well; otherwise, you may end up with a messier çılbır. Better yet, dry them on a paper towel.
• Do not burn the butter.
• Even though the dish is traditionally served without herbs, I recommend dill or parsley for a fresher, modern finish.
• Mop çılbır up with some Turkish bread or sourdough.

How to Serve Çılbır
There are also differences in the way çılbır is served. An award-winning cookbook author and blogger, Özlem Warren, serves the eggs on top of garlic yogurt in her vegetarian cookbook called Sebze. In contrast, Musa Dağdeviren places the eggs under the garlic yogurt as I do.

During my hotel management days, I remember our cook making çılbır for the hotel guests. It was always a crowd-pleaser. My recipe below is based on his recipe, only with a twist. And now for the recipe…

Çılbır
Serves 2

Ingredients:
• 4 fresh free-range eggs at room temperature
• 100 ml white vinegar

For Garlic Yogurt:
• 1 cup plain yogurt, preferably Greek-style (definitely unsweetened; don’t even think about it)
• 1 clove garlic, crushed

For Burnt Butter Tempering:
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper (pul biber)
• 1 teaspoon or maybe a bit more dried mint

To Garnish:
• Fresh dill

Directions:

1. Fill a shallow and wide saucepan with water until approximately 5 cm (2-inch) deep. Add vinegar and bring to a boil.
2. Meanwhile, crush the garlic and mix it with yogurt. If the yogurt is too thick, thin it with a little water. Garlic yogurt needs to be a bit runny to make it easy to spread over the eggs, and a thinner consistency also makes it easier to mix the garlic in.
3. Melt the butter in a small saucepan. When it starts foaming, add the pul biber and dried mint. Swirl it around and remove it from the heat.
4. Crack the eggs individually into a ramekin or a small bowl. You could process two eggs together if you want to. When the water starts boiling, reduce the heat to medium. The water should be just simmering. Slowly tip the eggs into the water. Poach the eggs for 2 minutes and remove them with a slotted spoon. Divide the eggs between plates.
5. Return the spiced butter dressing to the heat and heat it a little.
6. First, top the eggs with garlic yogurt and then drizzle with spiced butter dressing.
7. Garnish çılbır with fresh dill and serve immediately with some crusty bread.

Afiyet Olsun! (Bon Appetit, in Turkish)

Resources:
Dağdeviren, Musa, The Turkish Cookbook, Phaidon Press Limited, 2019
Yerasimos, Marianna, 500 Years of Ottoman Cuisine, Boyut Yayınları, Istanbul, 2011
Nedim bin Tosun, Mahmut, Aşçıbaşı (1898), ed. Mary Işın, YKY, Istanbul 1999
Şavkay, Tuğrul, Osmanlı Mutfağı, Şekerbank, Istanbul, 2000
Gürsoy, Deniz, Çilingir Sofrasında Rakı Mezeleri, Oğlak Yayıncılık, Istanbul, 2007