Friday, October 14, 2011

Kousa Mahshi: Stuff it

Humans love to stuff things with meat.  Is it hollow on the inside? FILL IT WITH MEAT!  Can it be made hallow on the inside? MEAT IT! What should I do with this chicken, duck and turkey that I have? STUFF THEM INSIDE EACH OTHER!

Thus, every culture has a signature stuffed meat dish.

Kousa Mahshi in Arabic, Stuffed Squash in English, was suggested for dinner one night by my doe-eyed boyfriend when I asked him what food he missed from Jordan.  His family recipes are in Arabic, and Arabic recipes translate to pretty much gibberish in English if they're translated by someone who doesn't know the ins and outs of a kitchen.  Since cooking is not one of Raed's many skills (except in almost burning his apartment down trying to make french fries), he can't help with the translations beyond a literal compost of words and metric measurements.  So, the below recipe, eaten and approved by a real-live Arab, was portioned together from a "translated" recipe, the internet, a little bit of good old fashioned know-how and some luck. It might sound complicated, but it's actually one of my favorite go-to recipes.

Kousa Mahshi

1 1/2 cups water
2/3 cup UNCOOKED long grain rice
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1 large can good quality crushed tomatoes
1 medium chopped onion
5 to 6 medium zucchini
1 pound ground lamb*
1/2 bunch chopped fresh mint
Salt & Pepper

1. In a large dutch oven, saute the onions in a tablespoon of olive oil on medium high heat until tender, about 6 minutes. Add about a teaspoon of salt and pepper to taste.

2. Add the tomatoes and water. Bring to a boil then back down to a simmer on low heat for 20 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, wash the zucchini and remove the stem end.  Carefully tunnel out the center of each zucchini with an apple corer.  You may have more luck if you cut each zucchini in half... that's what I do. There should be a bout a centimeter of vegetable left around the outside. (An apple corer will make your life much easier, but in my pre-corer life i used a vegetable peeler with a lot of success)

4. As you finish coring, place the zucchini in a large bowl of saltwater and the chopped fresh mint.  Let them sit in this water bath for 10 minutes before stuffing.

5. Combine the lamb, rice, 1 teaspoon salt, nutmeg, allspice and pepper to taste in a large bowl.  Knead the ingredients together with your hands until all ingredients are equally distributed.

6. Stuff the zucchini with the lamb mixture.

7. Place the zucchini into the tomato sauce in two layers.  Make sure there is enough sauce to cover everything. If there isn't, add water.

8. Bring the mixture up to a boil, then back down to a simmer.  Simmer on medium-low for 45 minutes to an  hour.

*I like to buy 1 1/4 pound of lamb so that I have a little stuffing left over to make 2 meatballs.  It's very hard to tell if the rice is done in the center of the kousa.  If you've made the meatballs, you can cut them open to check instead of cutting open several squash wondering what's going on in there.


  1. Love Stuffed Zucchini, grape leaves, Cabbage leaves.. Did you try that last one ?

  2. I have... there's a bit of a hitch in the giddy-up on that one. I keep making them too thick. Well, I make them thin... I always think... and then the rice expands. Heh. I'm working on it.