Stuffed Zucchini Middle East Style Food

MIDDLE EASTERN STUFFED ZUCCHINI

Steps:

• Mix together the ground lamb, basmati rice, 2 tablespoons tomato puree, 1/2 teaspoon mint, salt, and pepper; mix well, and set aside.
• Slice the ends off of the zucchinis and hollow out the centers using an apple corer. Stuff with lamb mixture.
• Stir together the remaining tomato puree with 1/2 teaspoon salt in a large skillet. Place the stuffed zucchini into the sauce, and add enough water to cover the zucchini. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes.
• Stir in the garlic, lemon juice, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon of mint. Recover, and simmer an additional 15 minutes. To serve, cut the zucchini crosswise into rounds and arrange on a serving plate. Spoon sauce over the top.

HERB-STUFFED ZUCCHINI

Steps:

• Split 2 medium zucchini and scoop out the seeds; season with salt. Combine 1/3 cup panko breadcrumbs, 1 chopped tomato, 1/4 cup mixed chopped parsley and dill, 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts, 1 minced garlic clove, 2 tablespoons olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Spoon into the zucchini; drizzle with olive oil. Bake at 425 degrees F, 25 to 30 minutes.

LEBANESE STUFFED ZUCCHINI

Steps:

• Wash and dry the zucchinis, cut off the stalks and slice off the dried tips at the opposite end without removing too much flesh.
• Carefully hollow out the zucchini. Start from the stalk end by inserting your corer about 3/4 of the way into the zucchini, making sure not to poke the bottoms or the tender skin of the zucchinis. Twist the corer and pull out the zucchini flesh. Do this a few times, until you have a generous cavity.
• Set cored zucchini aside.
• In your food processor, add the cut pieces of tomatoes and pulse a few times until well blended.
• In a large mixing bowl, thoroughly mix the stuffing ingredients of rice, ground beef, butter, fresh blended tomatoes, spices and salt until fully combined (I do this by hand).
• Using your hands stuff the zucchini with the beef mixture, leaving half of an inch free at the top to allow the filling to expand.
• Repeat for the rest of the hollowed zucchini.
• Arrange the stuffed zucchinis in a large pot, add water, just enough to slightly cover the zucchinis.
• Cover the pot, place on medium-high heat, and bring water to a boil.
• Reduce heat to medium- low, add tomato sauce or tomato paste, or both ( depending on how thick you like you sauce to be).
• Cover the pot and simmer for 45 minutes or until the zucchini is tender and the rice stuffing is fully cooked.
• Taste the sauce and adjust salt if you'd like.
• Transfer to a serving plate, serve and enjoy!

STUFFED ZUCCHINI MIDDLE EAST STYLE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Cut zucchini lengthwise and remove seeds.
• Place cut side up in one or two large casseroles dishes (depending one the size of the squash.) Spray a large skillet with oil cooking spray, gently cook onion until transparent.
• Combine cooked onions with ground beef, rice, parsley, allspice, salt and prpper, and mix throughly.
• Fill each zucchini boat with the meat mixture, mounding it up and packing it in.
• Pour 1 cup (240ml) water on the bottom of each pan, around the squashes.
• cover pans tightly with aluminum foil, bake 45 minutes.
• Meanwhile, prepare yogurt sauce: In a heavy saucepan, combine yogurt, egg white, cornstarch, and salt.
• Stir mixture over medium heat until it comes to a boil.
• continue to stir and cook for 5 minutes; it will thicken slightly as it cooks.
• Add garlic and cook for another 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
• When Zucchini has cooked for 45 minutes, remove from oven, uncover, and pour yogurt sauce over Zucchini.
• Return to oven, uncovered and cook for 10 minutes more.

TEX-MEX STUFFED ZUCCHINI

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F and line a baking sheet with foil. Halve 2 zucchini lengthwise; scoop out the seeds, leaving a 1/4-inch-thick shell. Chop the scooped-out zucchini flesh and transfer to a bowl. Grate the remaining whole zucchini on the large holes of a box grater; add to the bowl along with 1 teaspoon salt. Set aside 10 minutes, then squeeze out the liquid.
• Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, minced jalapeno, chile powder and grated zucchini mixture; cook until tender, 4 minutes. Let cool, then stir in the cheese. Spoon into the zucchini halves. Transfer to the baking sheet and bake until bubbling, 20 minutes.
• Combine the tomato, scallions and cilantro in a small bowl. Spoon over the zucchini, then top with pickled jalapenos.

STUFFED ZUCCHINI WITH PARMESAN

Steps:

• 1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Cut the zucchini in half lengthwise and use a small spoon to scoop out the seeds, forming a shallow cavity. Finely grated one of the seeded zucchini into a bowl, salt and set aside. Liberally sprinkle the other zucchini shells with salt and place cut-side down on paper towels while preparing the filling.
• 2. Melt 3 tablespoons butter in small skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and pepper and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute longer. Lightly squeeze the grated zucchini to remove the excess moisture and add to the onions and peppers. Cook until the mixture dries slightly. Remove from the heat, stir in the panko, cheese, and thyme. Season with salt and pepper. Cool slightly.
• 3. Wipe the salt from the zucchini and dry as thoroughly as possible with paper towels. Divide the filling among the zucchini halves, mounding them slightly down the center. Place on a lightly oiled baking sheet and bake until the zucchini softened and the tops brown, about 20 minutes. Carefully transfer zucchini to a platter and serve warm or at room temperature.

KOUSA MIHSHI BI LABAN (STUFFED ZUCCHINI WITH YOGURT)

Steps:

• Choose either medium or small zucchini. Wash well cut of stem end. Using a corer hollow out zucchini leaving rounded end intact. (I actually use the wrong end of a small spoon and it works for me) 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, pepper and canola oil if meat is lean.
• Fill zucchini with stuffing. (The rice expands and the meat will shrink so fill them all the way).
• Arrange zucchini in layers in a large pot, sprinkling each layer lightly with sea salt. Add water and invert a plate on top of the zucchini and bring to a slow simmer, cover and simmer gently for 1 hour or until tender.
• Meanwhile heat the stabilized yogurt. When it begins to simmer/boil, add garlic and boil for 2 minutes, then remove from heat.
• When zucchinis are cooked, remove plate and pour garlic yogurt mixture over them and leave over medium heat for 10 minutes to boil gently. Cook uncovered until sauce is thick.
• Crush the dried mint to a coarse powder and sprinkle on top. Leave off the heat for 10 minutes before serving. Serve with mashed potatoes or steamed rice.
• Enjoy!

GREEK STUFFED ZUCCHINI (KOLOKITHAKIA YEMISTA AVGOLEMONO)

Steps:

• Cut zucchini into 1/2s or 1/3s, cored on one end (the other end is left intact) and remove filing carefully with corer so that a not-too-thick wall of zucchini remains to contain the filling, keep 1/2 the zucchini flesh removed from the coring, minced (not the shells- but the actual part of the zucchini that was removed, the other half makes a lovely omelette with a bit of parmesan for another meal!).
• You can prepare your zucchini from the previous day and keep, wrapped, in the refrigerator- this actually makes a lot less work on the day of preparation as it's the coring of the zucchini that takes up the most time.
• Mix the meats, onion, garlic, rice, parsley and zucchini in a bowl and season to taste with salt and pepper.
• Stuff this mixture into the opening of the one end of each zucchini piece and make sure the filling goes all the way into the vegetable.
• Level opening neatly so that no filling comes out.
• Layer the filled zucchini pieces in a big pot and add enough boiling water to just cover.
• Put in the stock cubes and the butter and cover.
• Simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour (knife tip should slip into a piece easily), and take off heat.
• Carefully remove the zucchini pieces with a slotted spoon and place on a reheatable serving dish.
• Strain the cooking liquid left in the pot to remove any pieces of zucchini or grains of rice that may be floating around.
• In a large bowl, whisk the eggs with the cornstarch and lemon juice (add the juice of 1 lemon at this point).
• Slowly ladle in (literally the thinnest of streams) your hot cooking liquid, whisking the eggs all the while so they don't curdle.
• Keep doing this till nearly all the cooking liquid has been used and then pour your egg mixture and any cooking liquid left back into the pot and heat on a low flame until the sauce has thickened.
• Taste, if it needs more lemon, add up to 1/2 more.
• This is what is called an'Avgolemono Sauce' (Egg-lemon Sauce)- it is delicious.
• When ready to serve, put 2-3 piping hot pieces of the stuffed zucchini on each plate and nap with the sauce.
• Serve with feta cheese on the side (you won't believe how good a nibble of feta tastes with each bite of this!), good, crusty bread (you want to get all the sauce), and wine.