Arabic Stuffed Zucchini in Tomato Sauce / Kousa Mihshi Recipe

Kousa

Mihshi (Stuffed Zucchini) is an Arabic main dish and widely popular in

this region. Minced beef / lamb is mixed with raw rice and spices and then

stuffed inside the cored Kousa / koosa (marrow squash / Arabic zucchini) and

cooked in tomato paste. I used minced chicken instead of red meat.... I got the

basic recipe from my maid and then I searched on the net and made this dish to

suit our taste buds.... While searching the net I remember reading on one site

that you can make a vegetarian version of this dish by replacing the meat with

chopped mushrooms, I never tried it though.... If you like zucchini you will enjoy this

mildly spiced dish. Serve as a main dish along with some nice salad....

Method:

Cut

the stems from zucchini and scoop out each zucchini with a zucchini corer or apple

corer, removing all seeds and leaving shells about ⅓ inch thick. Discard pulp

and seeds. Rinse out the inside of zucchini with water, drain and keep aside.

Check out this video to see how to core and stuff the zucchini.

In

a bowl, combine meat, rice, half of parsley, mint and coriander, ½ tsp pepper

powder and salt.

Stuff each zucchini with the mixture. Leave about a

half inch of room at the end as rice will expand. Also do not stuff the mixture

too tightly as the expanding rice will break the zucchini. (You

can cover the top of zucchini with a round cut piece of potato, so that the

filling won’t come out while cooking, this step is optional only as an extra precaution).

Heat oil in a big pan, add chopped onion and garlic

and fry for 5 minutes or until light brown.

Add

diced tomato, tomato puree, chilly powder, all spice powder, pepper powder and

salt to the onions. Sauté for 5 minutes.

Add stuffed zucchini to the pan.

Add

enough boiling water to cover the zucchini and let simmer over medium heat for

45 minutes or until the meat and rice in the stuffing is cooked thoroughly. (make

sure not to stir a lot or the zucchini will break and the filling will come

out).

Squeeze a few drops of fresh lemon juice over

zucchini and sprinkle the cinnamon powder and left over parsley, mint and

coriander leaves.

Allow to cook for another 10 minutes or so or until

the gravy is thick.

Serve with a bowl of salad.

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