Kousa Mashi

[hazardnc]

I was lucky enough to find a packet of seeds for the Lebanese squash known for its light green color and tender skin. My husband's Palestinian grandfather made the most incredible stuffed squash cooked in stabelized yogurt.

As my squash plants are blooming and the fruit is setting, I am already planning on my first attempt at this dish. I would love to get suggestions, recipes and more from you.

[boaziko]

I hope you have a great squash harvest!

What I usually do is if the squash is large cut it in half and carefully take out the 'white' content. If they are small I "drill" a hole.

The content of 12 squashes is cut into small bits and kept aside.

I mix 250 grams of chopped lamb meat

A cup and half rice,

2 table spoons of chopped parsley

1 table spoons of chopped garlic

2 table spoons of chopped mint (dry or fresh)

1 tea spoon of sumac

4 tablespoons of pine nuts

Salt and pepper.

(Operate the oven on 180 C)

Fill the squashes (or halves) dip in egg and than flower and fry lightly in olive oil.

I place the squashes in a roasting pan or baking tray, spread the "content" bits between and cover with 2 cups of chicken stock and 1 cup (or more) of yogurt, and place in the over until it gets golden on top.

This is based on some local variations.

Boaziko

[FoodMan]

For the cooked yogurt sauce, follow the procedure I outlined in this thread.

The filling that I make is normally rice (raw, uncooked), ground beef or lamb (about 1/3 the amount of the rice), samen, salt and pepper.

Simmer the stuffed zucchini in about an inch of water till pretty much cooked and most of the water evaporated (you might have to weigh them down with a plate). Now add the the cooked yogurt sauce and allow it to simmer gently for another 15 minutes but not longer. Garnish with dried crushed mint and enjoy. I always request this dish from my mom whenever I visit Lebanon and this is pretty much her procedure.

[hazardnc]

Thanks to you both. I think I will take photos of my kousa mahshi odysey when the time comes.

[Nicolai]

Just for the record. Stuffed Squash is not kousa mahshi but the correct name is Ara'a Mahshi.

I just thought you should know as I would dread to find out what you would call Stuffed Courgettes?!?!? or marrows if you like and in fact we should say gourds and technically aubergines are of course not gourds but a berry and although courgettes and squash are gourds but hey ho they are not the same.

So to cut a long story short:

Ara'a Mahshi=Stuffed Squash

Kousa Mahshi=Stuffed Courgettes

So there you go.

P.S. Yoghurt based recipe is for Courgettes/Zuchini/Marrow and for Squash=Ara'a per se the prefered recipe is not cooked with yoghurt but tomatoes based.

Edited June 9, 2006 by Nicolai (log)

[hazardnc]

Courgettes is another name for what I call zucchini I believe. And that is the real question, because the squash I am growing is a zucchini, not a yellow squash.

[sazji]

And don't forget, you can also eat the flowers as well. (But only gather the male flowers - those are the ones on the long thin stems. The female flowers have the beginnings of a squash at their base, don't go picking them!) You can dredge them in a batter and fry them, or you can stuff them as well. Delicious. Unless you are a *really* early riser, the bees will have done their work by the time you get out there, so taking the male flowers won't affect your harvest.

[hazardnc]

Here's my version. The photo is terrible as I have yet to figure out all of the functions on my new camera.

The texture, etc was all very good and I was pleased with my first attempt at stabilized yogurt, but the stuffing needed something. My recipe called for nothing more than salt and pepper. I did add garlic to the water when I simmered the squash as well as to the yogurt when I finished it up. I am thinking next time of adding seven spice mix or something.

As for the blossoms - a few weeks ago we made some fried blossoms following the recipe in Keller's Bouchon cookbook. They were fabulous. I have loads of blooms again and I am ready to give those another shot.

Sadly, I better hurry because some sort of insect is getting to the plants.

[Swisskaese]

You could add a little Baharat or cinnamon.

[FoodMan]

It's that time of year again and the lovely small (the only ones I'd use for this) zucchini are at the market. So here is a more detailed pictorial of one of my favorite comfort foods from this week.

The trickiest and most time consuming part is properly coring the zucchini. The goal is to make the wall thin, remove the pulp and not puncture the fruit. As you can see one here has a hole in it's bottom, but of course still usable. Do not throw away the pulp! It makes good Lebanese fritters/pancake of sort called "iija".

The filling I use is beef, arborio rice (I like the fat short granules), Samen (clarified butter), a little allspice and salt and pepper. I am using a large Colombian clay pot to cook the zucchini here. I also added all leftover filling into the pot.

The zucchini was simmered in water with a few cut garlic cloves for an hour and half before I added some tomato past and simmered some more.

[linda dalal]

there's a wonderful and instructional video of "how to make" stuffed lebanese kousa, the vegetarian version—our Lenten version of this wonderful dish featuring me ...with clear instructions (live action!) on how to core the kousa, stuff them, and cook on the stovetop!

this can be seen at cooking up a story.com or or even on

which features my cookbook: alice's kitchen: traditional lebanese cookingMy Webpage for alice's kitchen, that of course includes the recipes for the vegetarian as well as for the lamb and rice version of this summer favorite.

the recipe, besides being in the cookbook, is also posted on cooking up a story's website.

hope you enjoy it!

sahtein!

linda dalal

[boaziko]

Thanks Eli for the recipe (and pics), Made a distinct craving which matured into a pan full of Mahshi's, as I (always) have too much filling I added some red peppers, tomatoes and delicately hot Probelano peppers.

[FoodMan]

Thanks Eli for the recipe (and pics), Made a distinct craving which matured into a  pan full of Mahshi's, as I (always) have too much filling I added some red peppers, tomatoes and delicately hot Probelano peppers.

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All good Mahshi candidates. My mom always included small stuffed eggplant too.