Sweet and Savory Persian Carrot Omelets for Tu b’Shevat
January 7, 2019
Tu b’Shevat, which this year begins the night of Sunday, January 20 (aka the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat), is a holiday that has never really been on my radar. I don’t think I’ve ever celebrated it in any way. That’s a shame, since there’s actually a really nice meaning behind it: it’s the new year of the trees! (Fun fact: there are actually four separate new years in Judaism.) And who doesn’t love trees?
This holiday, dating back to the days of ancient Israel, was initially a joyous occasion celebrated with singing and dancing. And in the Diaspora, it stayed that way in the Sephardi world, where, for the most part, warmer locales and earlier growing seasons reigned. On the day the referred to as Las Frutas (The Fruit), Sephardim celebrated big, with a day off from school for children and feasting for all.
But it wasn’t until the sixteenth century, when the community of Sephardi kabbalists who made their way from Spain to the city of Safed, in what is today northern Israel, that the holiday really came to fruition (sorry, couldn’t help myself). These kabbalists attributed great significance to this minor holiday, and went so far as to develop an entire liturgy set of rituals for it.
This liturgy grew and evolved until the eighteenth century, when it was first published as a pamphlet in Venice in 1728, Peri Etz Hadar (“Fruit of the Goodly Tree,” the biblical name for citron). It outlines a ceremonial meal, based on the Passover seder, based around four cups of wine and a sampling of at least 12 fruits and nuts.
In the Tu b’Shevat seder, the first cup of wine is white—symbolizing snow and winter—and is followed by fruits that have an inedible covering, including nuts, citrus, pineapple, and pomegranates. The second cup is golden/yellow—symbolizing the sap beginning to flow in the trees as spring sets in—and it is served with fruits that have edible coverings and large pits, including apricots, cherries, dates, peaches, plums, and olives.
The third cup is pink—symbolizing spring blossoms—and is followed by completely edible fruits or those with very small seeds, including apples, berries, figs, grapes, quinces, and pears. The fourth and final cup is red, symbolizing the fertility of the land. Psalms and Biblical verses referring to fruit and vegetables are included for recitation during the course of the seder.
Sounds fun, right? But it’s not so easy to get excited about a holiday celebrating the end of winter and the start of the growing season when it happens to fall in the darkest, bleakest, deadest of winter where you’re living—NYC, say, or, even worse, the frigid ancestral homelands of the Ashkenazim. Indeed, Tu b’Shevat wasn’t much celebrated in the Ashkenazi world prior to the late 1900s, when the establishment of agricultural settlements in Israel (and the drive to plant trees there) brought new significance to the day.
Tu b’Shevat being a minor holiday, there aren’t many specific dishes intended especially for its celebration. Rather, it has become customary to serve food containing fruits and/or nuts, and the sheva minim—the seven species for which the Land of Israel is praised in Deuteronomy 8:8. These are wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates.
Some Jews also have the custom to eat other fruits mentioned in the Bible or associated with Israel, such as bokser (carob), apples, quinces, walnuts, almonds, and pistachios. Some families serve jam or candy made from etrogim (citrons) that were used during the fall festival of Sukkot.
Popular Tu b’Shevat dishes include Hungarian wine soup, Moroccan orange salad, Middle Eastern wheat berry pudding, Bukharan vegetable and fruit stew, Bukharan baked rice and fruit, Ashkenazi barley and mushrooms, and German fried dumplings with fruit.
And Persian carrot omelets, or havij edjeh, which are what I’ve got for you today. More like little flourless pancakes than standard omelets, these sweet and savory treats are chock full of carrot, onion, lemon, and, in keeping with holiday tradition, raisins and dates. While they are not exclusively a Tu b’Shevat treat, according to Gil Marks, in whose Olive Trees and Honey I learned about the dish, these are popular choice for the new year of the trees in the Persian world. (It would also be perfect for Passover.)
This is a very interesting dish with an unusual (to me) flavor profile. There’s a lot going on, with the combination of sweetness from the fruit (and, to a lesser extent, the carrot) and savory from the onion. The lemon juice comes through surprisingly strongly, and in my opinion it’s the touch that really makes the flavors pop.
I enjoyed eating these little omelets—I served them for brunch, which I’d thoroughly recommend—though since I don’t love sweet/savory flavor combos (I know, I’m a bad Jew), I don’t know that I’ll make a point of cooking them again. But I am eager to try variation Marks includes that replaces the dried fruit and lemon with grated potato—much more my style.
If you do like sweet/savory foods and are looking to try something a little different, though, you just might love this. Marks says the dish is traditionally served with yogurt or jam. I ate it plain, but I can see a spoonful of tangy yogurt complementing it nicely.
Persian Carrot Omelets (Havij Edjeh)
4 large eggs
1 ½ teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter or vegetable oil
1 large onion, chopped
12 ounces/2 cups grated carrots
½ cup chopped pitted dates
1/3 cup dried currants or raisins
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Additional vegetable oil or butter for frying
In a large skillet, melt the butter (or heat the oil) over medium heat. Add the onions and sauté for 5 minutes. Add the carrots and sauté until softened, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from heat and add the dates, currants/raisins, and lemon juice.
While the onions and carrots are sautéing, beat the eggs with the salt in a medium bowl until blended. Set aside. When the fruit and vegetable mix is ready, add it to the egg bowl.
In the same skillet you used to sauté the onions and carrots, heat a thin layer of oil or butter over medium heat. In batches, drop the mixture in heaping tablespoon-sized servings and flatten slightly to form ¼-inch thick pancakes. Fry until golden, about 4 minutes on each side, flipping once. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Sources: Encyclopedia of Jewish Food (Gil Marks, 2010); Olive Trees and Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities around the World (Gil Marks, 2004)