Brunch on Saturday: Turkish breakfast trumps anything American or European
This week in Brunch on Saturday, grab yourself a Bosphorus-inspired meze feast or whip up a tasty Lebanese casserole
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Sometimes, the safe brunch staples of eggs Benedict, smashed avocado toast and thick American pancakes topped with blueberries are exactly what you need. Other times – well, they just feel a little overdone.
And on weekends when you feel like that, you should head to Yosma in central London’s Marylebone and ditch American and European comfort food in favour of a taste of kahvalti, or Turkish breakfast.
The term literally means “before coffee” and is the meal gorged on before the first coffee of the day.
Yosma boasts a menu inspired by Istanbul, particularly the three pillars of the waterside city’s culture: meyhane meze bars, mangal grilling, and seafood.
The restaurant is vast, airy and despite only having opened in September, it doesn’t lack in personality, thanks to the white tiling and exposed concrete, chocolate-coloured wooden seating, low-hanging lamps and Turkish-inspired monochrome illustrations.
Served from 10am to 2pm, brunch at Yosma offers up simple ingredients in hearty and flavour-packed dishes. Go for the simit – warm, soft bread sprinkled with sesame seeds and served with a sweet and moreish honeycomb and kaymak clotted cream. Or the sucuklu yumurta, with eggs baked in tomato with spicy beef sausage, yogurt and chilli butter.
The plate sizes mean that selecting a few items to share will leave your stomach full but your palate very satisfied indeed. Those with room left for pudding should try to squeeze in the excellent, syrup-drenched kunafa cheese pastry, washed down, of course, with a strong Turkish coffee.
Yosma, 50 Baker St, Marylebone, London W1U 7BT; 02030196282; yosma.london
Brunching in...
Beef, chard and egg casserole
This is a delicious, Lebanese-inspired dish served with a tahini yoghurt-style dressing. It’s the dressing that takes it up a notch, and brings you back into the kitchen to make it again and again. The dressing can happily keep in your fridge for three days – but don’t add the parsley until just before you are ready to use it – and is also great with oily fish and roasted vegetables. I love using Swiss chard for this dish, which is in season between July and November, but you can use any kind of chard you like.
Serves 4
For the tahini dressing
150ml tahini
70ml lemon juice
150ml water
1 garlic clove, grated
Salt to taste
30g flat-leaf parsley, chopped
For the casserole
Olive oil for frying
1 red onion, finely chopped
400g lean minced (ground) beef
2 garlic cloves, grated
1tsp chilli flakes (spicy red pepper flakes)
1tbsp tomato purée (tomato paste)
2tbsp water
200g Swiss chard, roughly chopped
4 duck eggs
Make the dressing by whisking together the tahini, lemon juice, water and garlic in a bowl until you have a creamy, smooth texture. Add salt to taste and set aside. To make the casserole, preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F/Gas 4).
Pour 1 tablespoon of oil into a large frying pan over a medium heat and then add the onion. Fry the onion for 3-4 minutes until it is translucent. Add the mince and half of the garlic to the pan, and fry for 5 minutes before adding the chilli flakes and tomato purée.
Continue to cook for around another 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the beef is a little crispy and brown in colour.
Recipe from Breakfast Morning, Noon and Night, by Fern Green. Published by Hardie Grant, £18.99
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