Growing up, weekend breakfasts meant frying aajeh in the kitchen. Aajeh is a delicious parsley-rich omelette popular across the Middle East. Unlike the classic French omelette, parsley is the star of the show; the eggs are there to hold everything together. Aajeh are fried, simple, and delicious. I love aajeh so much, I stole convinced my mom to give me her traditional aajeh pan from Aleppo. The pan has small dimples/craters that allow you to make individual aajeh fritters. As far as I’m aware, no other city in Syria (or the Middle East for that matter) prepares aajeh this way. Most recipes call for frying the aajeh as a large disk in a non-stick skillet.
Today I’m going to feature the Aleppan variation that I learned from my mom. If you want to prepare individual fritters, but your mom doesn’t have a special aajeh pan you could steal, you can make free-form fritters by carefully ladling spoonfuls of aajeh mix into a non-stick skillet lined with oil. Alternatively, the Danish/Dutch have popular pancake (aebleskiver/poffertjes, respectively) that are cooked in a similar pan. You can find them on Amazon.
Aajeh
yields ~6 servings
Components
- 6-8 eggs
- 1 bunch parsley, finely chopped
- 2-3 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 1 medium yellow onion, grated
- 1 tsp dried mint
- 1 tsp Aleppo pepper
- 1/2 tsp allspice
- olive oil, for pan-frying
- salt, to taste
Putting them all together
- Grate the onions making sure to squeeze out some of the excess water.
- Lightly whisk the eggs until the yolks and egg whites are combined.
- Mix all the ingredients together.
- Place an aajeh pan or a non-stick skillet over medium heat.
- Line the bottom of the pan with a thin layer of olive oil.
- Once the oil barely begins to shimmer, begin ladling spoonfuls of the aajeh mix.
- Cook 2-4 minutes on each side (depending on how big you made your aajeh and how high your heat is. Repeat until aajeh mix is finished.
- Transfer the fried aajeh to a plate lined with paper towels to absorb the excess oil.
Note: The Danish/Dutch have popular pancake (aebleskiver/poffertjes, respectively) that are cooked in a similar pan. You can find them on Amazon.
When I saw the title of the post I knew exactly what it was. ‘Frituritas de perejil’ is what they were called in my Syrian-Cuban home. I have my mothers pan, thank you for posting and reminding me to make them soon.