Azerbaijan: Kükü
I'm not particularly careful when it comes to cooking and using dishes. My partner likes to complain that I'll never use the same pot or utensil twice - instead I'll just grab a new spoon or saucepan or whatever it is, rather than using the same thing I've used already. In my relationship, I tend to do the cooking and my partner does the washing up, so I don't pay that much attention to the amount of dirty dishes I create. My partner, on the other hand, is very aware of it and is constantly getting frustrated with me. I am trying to be more careful now though, especially in meals where I'm making more than one dish, and I will try to reuse the same spatula or spoon or whatever throughout the entire meal.
As soon as I served this dish I knew that he would make a fuss. I used butter on the bottom of the saucepan to prevent everything sticking, but my god did it stick. I think I left half the dish on the bottom of the pan because it just would. not. come. off. "Haven't you heard of oil?" my partner exclaimed as he did the dishes later. I had soaked the saucepan immediately after serving, but it seems that even that didn't really help.
I would certainly recommend using a non-stick frying pan rather than a stainless steel pan (such as the one that I used).
In Azerbaijan, kükü (pronounced as kyukyu) is used to describe any dish that uses eggs as a binder with the rest of the ingredients and then browned on both sides on the stove. It makes me think of an omelette, but apparently kükü is not the same, as there are more other ingredients than eggs, whereas omelettes have eggs as the predominant ingredient.
My recipe used spinach, coriander and dill, while also calling for mint if desired. I have been growing a coriander plant on my windowsill throughout lockdown but I discovered yesterday that some bugs have gotten to it which is extremely disappointing. I salvaged as much of it as I could but then had to run down to the local Co-op in the hopes they had more. They didn't so I selected parsley instead which would just have to do.
My verdict of the dish, other than using a non-stick frying pan, is that it had too much dill. Dill is my coriander: some people love it, others do not. I do love coriander, but dill is just a bit much for me - it has such a distinct flavour and I feel like if you don't have enough other ingredients then you'll only taste dill in the meal.
Either way, I thought this dish was simple, and relatively tasty. Again, too much dill. But maybe if I had more coriander then it wouldn't have been so bad - parsley doesn't quite have the same sharpness needed to overcome the dill. Additionally, it's usually served with a garlic and yogurt sauce, but I didn't have any yogurt so I couldn't make it to accompany. Ah well!
Kükü - Azerbaijani Herbed Eggs
Serves 4
Ingredients
As soon as I served this dish I knew that he would make a fuss. I used butter on the bottom of the saucepan to prevent everything sticking, but my god did it stick. I think I left half the dish on the bottom of the pan because it just would. not. come. off. "Haven't you heard of oil?" my partner exclaimed as he did the dishes later. I had soaked the saucepan immediately after serving, but it seems that even that didn't really help.
I would certainly recommend using a non-stick frying pan rather than a stainless steel pan (such as the one that I used).
In Azerbaijan, kükü (pronounced as kyukyu) is used to describe any dish that uses eggs as a binder with the rest of the ingredients and then browned on both sides on the stove. It makes me think of an omelette, but apparently kükü is not the same, as there are more other ingredients than eggs, whereas omelettes have eggs as the predominant ingredient.
My recipe used spinach, coriander and dill, while also calling for mint if desired. I have been growing a coriander plant on my windowsill throughout lockdown but I discovered yesterday that some bugs have gotten to it which is extremely disappointing. I salvaged as much of it as I could but then had to run down to the local Co-op in the hopes they had more. They didn't so I selected parsley instead which would just have to do.
My verdict of the dish, other than using a non-stick frying pan, is that it had too much dill. Dill is my coriander: some people love it, others do not. I do love coriander, but dill is just a bit much for me - it has such a distinct flavour and I feel like if you don't have enough other ingredients then you'll only taste dill in the meal.
Either way, I thought this dish was simple, and relatively tasty. Again, too much dill. But maybe if I had more coriander then it wouldn't have been so bad - parsley doesn't quite have the same sharpness needed to overcome the dill. Additionally, it's usually served with a garlic and yogurt sauce, but I didn't have any yogurt so I couldn't make it to accompany. Ah well!
Kükü - Azerbaijani Herbed Eggs
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup coriander (or 1/4 cup coriander and 1/2 cup parsley, as I did)
- 1/4 cup dill
- 1 cup spinach
- 2 spring onions
- A few leaves of fresh mint
- 5 eggs
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 50g butter
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Wash herbs, dry, and chop finely. Put them in a large bowl. Finely chop spinach and spring onions and add to the bowl.
- Add flour, eggs, salt and pepper. Mix well.
- Melt butter in a deep frying pan. Pour the egg mixture into the pan and place small pieces of butter on the top. Cover pan with lid and fry over low heat until eggs are cooked.
- Cut kükü into quarters and turn them over. Cook for another 5 minutes, then turn off heat and leave for another minute before serving.
- Serve hot or cold with yogurt-garlic sauce.
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