Tag Archives: stuffed zucchini

KOUSA MAHSHI & BEETROOT CHAAS

5 Feb

KOUSA MAHSHI

KOOSA MAHSHI

Kousa Mahshi  or Stuffed Marrows is squash or zucchini stuffed with rice and meat. It is a very popular dish and made in, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, Iraq, Jordan, and Cyprus. This dish is served hot as a main course. In Syria, this dish is flavored with mint and garlic. In Cyprus, the flowers of the marrow are also stuffed. 

koosa

In the middle east, the zucchini is a lot smaller than the zucchini typically found in the US. Actually, the vegetable they use isn’t zucchini — it’s another type of summer squash, called kousa.  It’s lighter in color than zucchini, and smaller and slightly more bulbous in size and very sweet and juicy.

koosa-mahshi

Koosa are very easy to hollow out and stuff. Be sure to save the innards of the koosa and sautee it with some seasoning and serve it as a side dish with your mahshi.
This dish is a  bit of work,with all the halowing and stuffing but a delicious and tasty dish.

stuffed zucchini

INGREDIENTS:

  • 10-12 medium size marrow squash
  • 1 cup coarsely ground lean beef or lamb meat
  • meat bones, like rib bones, to cover bottom of cooking pot (optional but adds taste)
  • 1 1/2 cups brown rice
  • 1 1/2 cups tomato juice
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp pepper
  • 2 tsp olive oil
  • 1 large onion -finely chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves minced
  • 2 bay leaves
  • fresh parsley
  • 1/8 tsp allspice
  • 4 tomatoes, pureed

MAKING KOOSA MASHI

METHOD:

Wash the squash and cut off tops. Hollow from one end with kousa corer, apple corer or small spoon. For the zucchini filling – Mix rice(soaked,washed and drained) ,  meat, seasoning and black pepper. Loosely stuff squash three-quarters full (rice expands as it cooks).
In a pot,heat olive oil and add the onion,saute untill softened. Add the minced garlic. After a few sec add the tomato puree, salt, water , pepper,bay leaves, fresh parsley and the meat bones. Close the lid and simmer for half an hour till the bones release oil and the tomato sauce is thicked to the desired consistency. Arrange the stuffed squash in layers over the simmering  tomatoe broth . If cooking without bones, be sure to simmer  very gently so as not to burn the squash. Taste and adjust the sesonings.  Bring to a boil, reduce to very low simmer and cover. Cook for half an hour or until squash is tender. You can cut one squash in half to be sure that the rice is cooked.  Serve hot with pita bread or flatbreads.
Laban, or labneh, goes really well with this dish. Laban is a very thick Lebanese yogurt. Mix it in a bowl with some lemon juice and add a dash of salt…  to taste, of course. You can add a dollop to each squash before it’s served.

koosamahshi

Note:- In place of rice,you could even use broken wheat,quiona.....etc

BEETROOT CHAAS

– a delicious savoury buttermilk drink

image

  • Beetroot – 1/4 of a medium sized beetroot
  • Carrot – 1/2 
  • Green chilli – 1
  •  cumin– ½ tsp
  • Salt
  • mint – 10 leaves
  • yogurt– 1 cup
  • Water – 1 cup

METHOD:-
image

Grind beetroot, carrot, green chillie, cumin, salt, mint leaves and ½ cup yogurt in a mixie. Then add the remaining yogurt and water to it and blend again. Serve it chilled or at room temp accordingly topped with mint leaves. ……A fitting finish to a simple meal.

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