Tulum's recipes for having Turkish brunch at home

Turkish-born chef Coskun Uysal can usually be found reinventing traditional Anatolian dishes at his hatted Melbourne restaurant, Tulum, recipes he has documented for his first cookbook, Tulum: Modern Turkish Cuisine. But it's the comforting breakfast dishes his mother used to make that give him a special pang of homesickness. The freshly minted Australian citizen has adapted the dishes to bring a ray of sunshine to brunch in his new homeland.

Turkish breakfast salad

In Turkey, friends and family get together at weekends and cover a broad table in shared mezze dishes. This herb-fragrant salad brings everything together on one plate. Uysal says he used to fight with his sister for the tangy dressing left at the end, soaking it up with plenty of soft, fluffy pide bread.

INGREDIENTS

• 500g heirloom tomatoes, cut into eighths
• 100g baby cucumbers, thinly sliced
• 50g olives
• salt, to taste
• 200g feta
• 5g dried oregano
• leaves from ½ bunch of basil
• leaves from ½ bunch of dill
• leaves from ½ bunch of marjoram
• pide bread, to serve

Dressing

• 250ml (1 cup) olive oil
• 75g pomegranate molasses
• juice of 2 lemons
• 5ml (1 tsp) rosewater
• salt and black pepper, to taste

METHOD

1. To make the dressing, place all the dressing ingredients in a blender and mix until combined, then set aside.
2. To make the salad, add the tomatoes, cucumbers and olives to a non-reactive bowl, then add salt and half of the dressing. Mix well and set aside for 5 minutes to marry the flavours together.
3. To serve, place the feta in the middle of a deep bowl, and add dressing on top with the oregano. Arrange the tomatoes around the cheese and add the olives and cucumbers. Scatter the dill, basil and marjoram leaves on top of the tomatoes and serve with pide. Alternatively, divide the ingredients among four plates and serve separately.

Serves 4

Gozleme and avocado

This stuffed savoury flatbread is one of Turkey's best-loved dishes, but serving it with avocado and an egg gives it an Aussie accent.

INGREDIENTS

• 4 eggs, to serve

Gozleme

• 250g yoghurt
• pinch salt
• 300g (2 cups) flour
• 150g baby spinach leaves, washed and chopped
• 150g feta, crumbled
• 50g vegetable oil

Avocado

• 2 avocados
• 100ml olive oil
• juice of 1 lemon
• 30g dukkah

METHOD

1. To make the gozleme, place the yoghurt and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix well until smooth. Slowly add flour and mix until dough comes together in a soft, sticky ball. Cover the bowl and set the dough aside to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
2. Preheat the oven to 120C fan-forced (140C conventional). Divide the dough into 4 portions on a generously floured surface, then roll each piece into a rectangle roughly 25cm x 30cm, with one of the short ends towards you. In the centre of the dough, add a quarter of spinach and feta, and season well with salt and pepper. Fold the dough over the filling from either end, like folding a letter, lightly press to remove air bubbles and seal the edges with a little water.
3. In a hot frying pan, add a little vegetable oil and cook the gozleme, seal side down, until the pastry is golden, flip over and repeat on the other side and keep warm in the oven until ready to serve.
4. For the avocado, simply cut in half and peel, then sprinkle with salt, lemon juice, olive oil and dukkah.
5. To cook the soft-boiled eggs, bring 500ml (2 cups) water to boil in a large pot. Slowly lower the eggs in and cook for exactly 5 minutes. Remove the eggs from the pot and put straight into iced water for 5 minutes to stop the cooking process. Peel the shells when the eggs are cool enough to handle.
6. To serve, cut each gozleme into quarters, stack them on a plate and serve with half an avocado and an egg.

Serves 4

Baked feta cheese and egg

The trick to preparing poached eggs ahead when you're expecting company is to chill them after cooking, then reheat them just before serving.

INGREDIENTS

• 10ml white vinegar
• 4 eggs
• 300g feta cheese
• 5g dried oregano
• pinch black pepper
• 250g cherry tomatoes, halved
• 100g mixed olives, pitted
• 100ml olive oil
• 5g salt
• 8 slices of sourdough bread
• fresh herbs, such as basil, thyme, tarragon and dill, to serve

METHOD

1. To poach the eggs, bring 1 litre (4 cups) water to a simmer in a large pot then add the vinegar. Crack an egg into a small bowl, stir the water and slide the egg into the centre of the pot. Repeat with remaining eggs. Simmer for 5 minutes, then remove from the water with a slotted spoon and plunge into iced water. Drain on paper towel and set aside.
2. To bake the feta, heat the oven to 200C fan-forced (220C conventional). Cut the cheese into quarters and place each quarter in a small ovenproof ramekin. Season with oregano and black pepper.
3. In a small bowl mix together the tomatoes, olives and olive oil. Divide tomato mixture among the ramekins and bake the feta and tomatoes for 5 minutes until the cheese is golden and soft. Remove from the oven.
4. Toast the sourdough. To serve, reheat the eggs briefly in gently simmering water, place a soft poached egg on top of each ramekin of baked feta, arrange fresh herbs around the plates and serve with toasted sourdough.

Serves 4

Cilbir (Turkish eggs) and spinach

A contemporary update on Coskun Uysal's favourite boyhood snack has become Tulum's best-known dish. This is a simpler version of his mother's recipe – with optional rose petals to make it look sexier.

INGREDIENTS

• 500g yoghurt
• 2 garlic cloves, finely grated
• 50ml olive oil
• 500g baby spinach leaves, washed
• 10ml vinegar
• 8 eggs
• 200g butter
• 5g paprika
• 5g rose petals (optional)
• toasted sourdough, to serve (optional)

METHOD

1. In a deep bowl mix the yoghurt with the garlic and a pinch of salt until creamy and smooth. Set aside at room temperature.
2. Heat the olive oil in a frypan over a high heat. Add spinach and saute until cooked (about 2 minutes), seasoning to taste with salt and black pepper.
3. To poach the eggs, bring the water to a simmer in a medium saucepan and add the vinegar. Crack an egg into a small bowl, stir the water and slide the egg into centre of the pot. Repeat with remaining eggs. Simmer the eggs for 5 minutes, then remove from the water with a slotted spoon and plunge into iced water. Drain on paper towel and set aside.
4. Heat the butter in a saucepan, add paprika and cook over a low heat until the butter melts and the paprika infuses the butter (about 1 minute).
5. To serve, place a quarter of the yoghurt on the base of each serving bowl, and top each with some of the sauteed spinach. Reheat the eggs briefly in gently simmering water, add 2 eggs on top of each dish and drizzle a little of the paprika butter on each. Sprinkle with rose petals and serve with sourdough (if using).

Serves 4

This is an edited extract from Tulum: Modern Turkish Cuisine by Coskun Uysal. Photography by Tim Grey. Published by Melbourne Books, RRP $49.99. Buy now