Are there actually people who don't like pancakes? Just throwing it out there. After all, these pancakes, or crepes as we prefer to call them, are available almost everywhere. Even in Turkey. However, pancakes are probably not one of the Turkish dishes that you might consider typical. But they are.
Admittedly, many modern Turks call pancakes "krep", which is derived from the French word "crepe". But they don't have to, because Anatolia has always had pancakes without sugar, which are called "Akıtma". So we've learned something new again: pancakes are also a Turkish dish.
For us, this means that we can also talk about pancakes. At last! Because these soft flatbreads with a light egg flavor are simply part of breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Our Turkish recipe for savory pancakes is particularly suitable for a Turkish breakfast. This Turkish dish tastes like börek and can be prepared in just a few minutes.
At the same time, there are no limits. You can therefore refine our Turkish pancake recipe with various vegetables, spices and herbs. Our Turkish dish is vegetarian. But of course there's nothing to stop you adding a few cubes of sucuk to the pancake batter.
White cheese vs. sheep's cheese: what's the difference?
It is often assumed that sheep's cheese aka feta is used in Turkish baking. This is not the case. What is often referred to as sheep's cheese in Germany is so-called white cheese* (beyaz peynir). This is a brine cheese and can of course also be made from sheep's milk. Börek and pide with cheese in Turkish restaurants usually use white cheese made from cow's milk. In fact, the range of other cheeses on offer in Turkey is quite small. For every ten types of cow's milk cheese, there is perhaps one goat's and one sheep's milk cheese.
But you're not entirely wrong about the sheep's milk cheese. Because brine cheese* has a comparatively strong taste. And you can of course also use feta in our vegetarian recipe.
So: prepare the black tea and chop the parsley. We eat savory pancakes with white cheese!
Turkish breakfast recipe: savory pancakes with cheese
Ingredients (for 3-4 pancakes)
- 2 eggs
- 1.5 cups (300 ml) of milk
- 1.5 cups (190 grams) of flour
- 120 grams/4 oz brine cheese/feta*
- parsley
- Pul Biber*, dried mint* or spices of your choice
- salt
- Oil for frying
Preparation
Step 1: Beat two eggs in a bowl.
Step 2: Add the milk, flour and salt. Stir everything together.
Step 3: Add crumbled white cheese* or feta and as much chopped parsley as you like to the batter. We used about 5 stalks. Mix everything in.
Step 4: Grease a non-stick frying pan with a tablespoon of oil and heat it up. Now bake the pancakes. Always take a ladleful of batter in the pan. Fry the pancake over a medium heat on both sides until brown. Do this until the batter is used up. Serve this savory pancake recipe warm with your Turkish breakfast.
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