Murtuğa Recipe

Murtuğa is a breakfast dish that has been identified with Van breakfast, but actually has a place in many Eastern and Southeastern Anatolian cities' cuisines as well as Van. It is a very satisfying food prepared with very few ingredients. In summary, it is obtained by adding eggs to flour stir fried in oil. Although there is an egg involved, it does not look and taste like an egg dish. Egg is mostly used as a binder.

I don't know what those who have eaten murtuğa since birth will think, but for someone like me who met murtuğa in later stages of their lives, murtuğa is like a kind of flour halva. It gets closer to halva, especially when walnuts and honey are added. That's why it is the last stage of breakfast for me in its honey and walnut form.

Everyone's breakfast style is different. For example, if my husband has eggs such as menemen or scrambled eggs, he eats his eggs first and then switches to breakfast items such as cheese and olives. Some serve their breakfast in the form of some cheese, some jam, and then olives... I like it salty first and then sweet. For example, if I have pancakes for breakfast, I eat it first salty with cheese and olives, and then sweetly with honey or tahini-molasses. That's why murtuğa can't be my main breakfast with honey addition. Please excuse me if I'm going against the nature of murtuga and bothering people who have lived their lives with murtuga.

It would be useful to say a few words about the making of the Murtuğa. Although it is an easy recipe, it is possible to not make it good if you do not pay attention to the tricks. First of all, the amount of butter may be too much for you, I agree. But for a good murtuga it is necessary to use a considerable amount of butter. Otherwise, when the flour is roasted, it becomes sandy. The addition of eggs does not save this situation. There is nothing that can be done about the amount of butter, but if you wish, you can use any type of oil you like instead of butter. However, it is worth remembering here that if your favorite type of oil is olive oil, the bitterness of olive oil can be felt because the amount of oil is high.

The most important thing to pay attention to in making Murtuğa is the addition of the egg. As I said at the beginning, it is used as a  binder. So don't think like menemen. Roasted flour and eggs in murtuğa should be completely mixed together, and there should be no egg pieces left. For this, it is better to beat the egg in a separate bowl before adding it to the flour. Decreasing the heat during the egg adding phase and stirring quickly after adding the egg are also measures that will prevent the egg from being cooked as an egg immediately.

Enjoy the recipe...

Enjoy your meal...