Kousa Mahshi

The rice goes in raw and half-fills the shell, because it doubles as it cooks in the tomato.

Lamb. Not vegetarian — contains lamb.

Ingredients

the courgettes

• 14 small fat courgettes

the filling

• 250 g short-grain rice, rinsed
• 350 g minced lamb
• 2 tomatoes, finely chopped
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons butter, softened
• 2 teaspoons ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons salt
• black pepper

the pot

• 2 tablespoons tomato purée
• 3 tomatoes, sliced
• 800 ml hot water
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• juice of 1 lemon
• 2 teaspoons dried mint
• salt

Method

1. THE RICE GOES IN RAW AND HALF-FILLS THE SHELL, BECAUSE IT DOUBLES AS IT COOKS. This is the step that decides the dish and it is counter-intuitive: each hollowed courgette is filled only to about half, and it looks mean. Raw short-grain rice takes up roughly its own volume again in liquid, and in a sealed vegetable there is nowhere for that expansion to go -- a courgette filled three-quarters full splits along its length within twenty minutes and the filling boils out into the pot. Half full, they swell to exactly full and arrive intact.
2. THE RICE IS RAW AND SO IS THE LAMB. Nothing in the filling is pre-cooked. Both cook in the forty-five minutes in the pot, taking up the tomato liquid around them -- which is where the flavour comes from. Pre-cooked rice turns to paste and pre-browned lamb is twice-cooked and dry.
3. THE COURGETTES ARE HOLLOWED FROM THE STEM END WITH A CORER, LEAVING THE SHELL WHOLE. A narrow corer worked in and turned, taking out the core in pieces, leaving a wall two or three millimetres thick and the blossom end closed. Cut in half lengthways they are a different and much easier dish -- the whole shell is what makes this one.
4. THE SCOOPED-OUT FLESH IS NOT WASTED. Chopped and spread under the courgettes in the pot, where it collapses into the sauce.
5. THEY ARE PACKED TIGHTLY WITH A PLATE ON TOP. Laid in close rows, seam ends up, with an inverted plate over them. The plate stops them floating and knocking about as the pot simmers, which is the other way they split.
6. THE LEMON AND DRIED MINT GO IN AT THE END. Both lose their point over forty-five minutes. In at the last five minutes, off the boil.
7. The courgettes HOLLOWED from the stem end with a corer, wall 2 to 3 mm, blossom end LEFT CLOSED. The flesh kept and chopped.
8. The RAW rinsed rice, RAW lamb, chopped tomatoes, onion, softened butter, spices and seasoning mixed.
9. Each shell filled only HALF FULL. Not more.
10. The chopped courgette flesh spread in the base of a wide heavy pot with the olive oil.
11. The courgettes packed TIGHTLY on top in close rows.
12. The sliced tomatoes laid over, the purée whisked into the hot water with salt and poured in.
13. AN INVERTED PLATE set on top.
14. Brought to a simmer, lid on, and cooked over a LOW heat 45 MINUTES.
15. The lemon juice and dried mint added for the last 5 MINUTES.
16. TESTED: every courgette should be intact and the rice cooked through. Splits mean they were overfilled.
17. Rested 10 MINUTES and served warm.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Lebanon · All recipes