Iraqi Stuffed Zucchini Cousa Mashi Recipes

Steps:

• Soak the rice in warm water for at least 1/2 an hour.
• Drain rice and mix together with ground meat, spices and olive oil.
• Cut the tops off of the cousa and eggplant. Discard.
• Core cousa and eggplant scraping out the insides so 1/4 inch is left all around. (Insides of cousa can be saved for making cousa mutabbal. See end of recipe).
• Carefully cut tops of off green peppers so they can be replaced after stuffing.
• Clean insides of green peppers.
• Stuff vegetables with rice mixture leaving some room for the rice to expand when cooked.
• Fill large pot with vegetables.
• Cut tomatoes to fill blender.
• Add 2/3 blender with water.
• Add tomato paste and salt.
• Mix in blender until smooth.
• Pour tomato sauce over vegetables.
• Add more water if necessary to cover vegatables.
• Cook, uncovered, at a simmer for one and a half hours or until vegetables are soft and rice is done. As long as the sauce is there, you can cook slowly for a longer period for a tastier dish.
• Occasionally cover with additional water to keep sauce from drying out.
• Add crushed garlic and mint to pot for a few minutes.
• Serve stuffed vegetables on a tray.
• Put sauce in a serving bowl to be added if desired.
• Note: Do not put a lid on the vegetables until they are completely cool or they may burst open.
• Cousa Mutabbal, a salad served like hummus, can be made by simmering the contents of the cousa in a small saucepan until cooked. Add a little tahini, yogurt, salt and pepper. Serve with olive oil and crushed dried mint on top. Eat with pita bread.
• Fettat Cousa, a dish served in a 9x13 pan, can be served alongside as well, by tearing up small pieces of bread, generally pita, covered by the tomato sauce from the cousa mashi. Then cover with a sauce of yogurt, garlic, and salt. Top with pinenuts fried in olive oil (along with the oil).

Steps:

• Wash and hollow out baby zucchini's cutting tops off where the stems grow. Put all together in a large pot. Discard innards.
• Cut tops off bell peppers and remove seeds and membrane. Add to pot including tops. Discard innards.
• Mix ground beef (CW rinses and drains), white Basmati rice, chopped onion, chopped flat leaf parsley, sea salt, to taste & baharat.
• Stuff each vegetable until just about full pressing lightly to make sure there are no air pockets. If you press to hard the result will be too dry.
• Cork each vegetable with stem end cutting to fit if too large. Return each.
• vegetable to the pot in as even a layer as possible.
• Keep remaining filling to side as it will be used in the sauce.
• Add tomato paste to some water and mix (whisk works best) until no lumps remain. Add to pot along with more water until just over top of the vegetables, Add some extra bahrat spice mix to taste, sea salt, and bring to the boil.
• Cover and cook until partially done adding remaining filling (it shouldn't be a lot) to the surrounding liquid so that once cooked it will form a sauce not a dry rice dish. So if needed add more water/sea salt. Boil/simmer until done.
• Remove vegetables and arrange on a large platter, spoon sauce around.
• Enjoy!

Steps:

• Cut ends off zucchini and trim to same length, wash and drain.
• Boil in lightly salted water for 10 minutes or until half cooked, drain and cool (you may dip in ice water to help cool).
• Slice in half lengthwise and scoop pulp into a colander to drain a little.
• Leave about 1/4 inch thick walls in the zucchini, make them like a boat.
• In a bowl mix pulp, ham, parsley, basil, breadcrumbs, eggs and all of the parmesan except 2 tablespoons.
• Add nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste, stir well (I only use about 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg, but use to your taste, or leave out).
• In a saucepan melt 1/4 C of the butter, stir in the flour, gradually stir in milk and stir over low heat until it has thickened and is bubbly.
• Gradually stir sauce into zucchini mixture, add more bread crumbs if mixture is not thick enough to spoon.
• Useing a spoon fill zucchini shells with the mixture and arrange themm side by side in a shallow buttered baking dish.
• Sprinkle with remaining parmesan cheese and bake at 350 for 1/2 hour, serve hot.
• For an added touch mix 2 or 3 tablespoons of finely grated mozzarella cheese with the 2 tablespoons of parmesan then sprinkle on top.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375°F.
• Combine lamb filling ingredients. Mix thoroughly with hands and refrigerate until ready to use.
• Wash Zucchinis well.
• Depending on the type of zucchini used cut in 4 inch pieces or use whole small (cusa) zucchini sold in Middle Eastern stores by just removing their tops.
• I use the wrong end of a small spoon to remove the zucchini innards, there are gadgets sold to make cusa which can be used just be careful the object you chose to use is not too sharp or to large or the zucchini's may break.
• Rinse hollowed zucchinis with water.
• Discard innards.
• Stuff zucchinis with Lamb Filling, fairly full but not packed. (The rice will expand) If you like you may cork them with their tops shaved down a bit if using small cusa. I have made them without closer and they are fine!
• Oil a pan that will fit the zucchinis in evenly, packed together.
• Place zucchinis in pan, pour lemon juice on top and salt to taste then drizzle olive oil & date syrup over top.
• Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes. Uncover and bake a further 25-35 minutes or until cusa can be easly priked with a fork.
• *If extra liquid is needed add a little broth to the pan while cooking.
• Tomato sauce:.
• Heat olive oil a little and cook garlic for one minute or just until LIGHT brown.
• Add Tomato sauce and paste and simmer for 10 minutes then stir in as much drippings from the cooked zucchini as needed to make a semi thick sauce add baharat.
• To Serve:.
• Place zucchinis over a bed of rice (I like to cook mine in a light stock) and serve with tomato sauce and a fresh salad.

Steps:

• Choose either medium or small zucchini. Wash well cut of stem end. Using a corer hollow out zucchini leaving rounded end intact. Try not to puncture the skin. Soak in salted water for 10 minutes.
• Gently fry onion in butter until transparent. Add pine nuts after 10 minutes cook with onions for another 10 minutes, stir occasionally.
• Add pan contents to ground meat, rice parsley, spice and about a teaspoon of salt and pepper and 1/4 cup of water if need to be easy to work with (I don't add water).
• Fill zucchini with stuffing. (The rice expands and the meat will shrink so fill them all the way).
• Prepare the sauce: in a frying pan gently fry chopped onion in butter. When transparent add chopped garlic cook for a few seconds and chopped peeled tomatoes, tomato paste, water and cinnamon with salt and pepper to taste.
• Ladle some of the sauce into the bottom of a heavy based pan, arrange zucchini in layers adding sauce to each layer, you may have 2-3 layers of zucchini. Or I stand them up on end with the open side up (again DH tells me this is not the "proper" way to do it but if they burn then only the one end is ruined).
• Add enough water to just cover the zucchini with sauce, you may or may not need to do this depending on how much sauce you have.
• Cover and simmer gently for 1 1/4 hours or until veggies are tender and rice is cooked.
• Serve hot or warm with sauce and Arabic pita bread for dipping.