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Alternative names | Stuffed zucchini |
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Type | Mahshi |
Course | Main course |
Region or state | the former Ottoman domain: Egypt, the Balkans, Turkey, and the Levant |
Associated cuisine | Egyptian cuisine |
Serving temperature | Hot |
Main ingredients | Summer squashes, minced meat, rice |
Ingredients generally used | onions, spices, tomato sauce |
Similar dishes | Stuffed peppers |
Stuffed squash, courgette, marrow, mahshi, or zucchini is a dish common in Egypt, the Balkans and the Ottoman cuisine, a kind of dolma. It consists of various kinds of squash or zucchini stuffed with rice and sometimes meat and cooked on the stovetop or in the oven. The meat version is served hot, as a main course. The meatless version is considered an "olive-oil dish" and is often eaten at room temperature or warm.
The placenta and seeds of larger, shorter, cylindrical immature squashes are pulled off, and the further proceeding is similar as for punjene paprike or sarma. [1] Often, punjene tikvice (stuffed squashes) and punjene paprike (stuffed peppers) are made together, as a mixed dish. [2]
In the Levant, this dish is flavoured with mint and garlic. In Cyprus, the flowers of the marrow are also stuffed. [3]
The cultivar is called 'Cousa' in Robinson and Decker-Walters (1997) [4] p. 77: "Some summer squash cultivars, e.g. the vegetable marrows (Cucurbita pepo) are consumed when almost mature. In the Middle East, nearly mature fruits of 'Cousa' are stuffed with meat and other ingredients, then baked".
In Canada, stuffed squash is often prepared with tomato sauce or spaghetti sauce as well as with melted cheese on top. [5]
Turkish cuisine is largely the heritage of Ottoman cuisine, Seljuk cuisine and the Turkish diaspora. Turkish cuisine with traditional Turkic elements such as yogurt, ayran, kaymak, exerts and gains influences to and from Mediterranean, Balkan, Middle Eastern, Central Asian and Eastern European cuisines.
Stuffing, filling, or dressing is an edible mixture, often composed of herbs and a starch such as bread, used to fill a cavity in the preparation of another food item. Many foods may be stuffed, including poultry, seafood, and vegetables. As a cooking technique stuffing helps retain moisture, while the mixture itself serves to augment and absorb flavors during its preparation.
The zucchini, courgette or baby marrow is a summer squash, a vining herbaceous plant whose fruit are harvested when their immature seeds and epicarp (rind) are still soft and edible. It is closely related, but not identical, to the marrow; its fruit may be called marrow when mature.
Moussaka is an eggplant (aubergine)- or potato-based dish, often including ground meat, which is common in the Balkans and the Middle East, with many local and regional variations.
A marrow is the mature fruit of certain Cucurbita pepo cultivars used as a vegetable. The immature fruit of the same or similar cultivars is called courgette or zucchini. Like courgettes, marrows are oblong, green squash, but marrows have a firm rind and a neutral flavour, making them useful as edible casings for mincemeat and other stuffings. They can be stored for several weeks after harvest, to be processed for food when required. They are a vegetable used in Great Britain and areas with significant British influence, though their popularity is waning in favor of immature summer squash like courgette.
Squash blossoms are the edible flowers of Cucurbita species, particularly Cucurbita pepo, the species that produces zucchini (courgette), marrow, spaghetti squash, and many other types of squash.
Iraqi cuisine is a Middle Eastern cuisine that has its origins in the ancient Near East culture of the fertile crescent. Tablets found in ancient ruins in Iraq show recipes prepared in the temples during religious festivals—the first cookbooks in the world. Ancient Iraq's cultural sophistication extended to the culinary arts.
Balearic cuisine is a Mediterranean cuisine as cooked in the Balearic Islands, Spain. It can be regarded as part of a wider Catalan cuisine, since it shares many dishes and ingredients with Catalonia and the Valencian Community. Others view it as part of a more global Spanish cuisine. Traditional Balearic cuisine is rich in vegetables, cereal and legumes as well as being low in fats. A succinct selection of the primary dishes would be ensaimades, seafood and vegetable stews, sobrassada, coques, tombet, Maó cheese and wine.
Bosnian cuisine is the traditional cuisine of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is influenced by Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian and Balkan cuisines.
Neapolitan cuisine has ancient historical roots that date back to the Greco-Roman period, which was enriched over the centuries by the influence of the different cultures that controlled Naples and its kingdoms, such as that of Aragon and France.
Seon (Korean: 선) is a traditional Korean dish made from steamed vegetables such as zucchini, cucumber, eggplant or Napa cabbage and stuffed with meat. Although the term is a counterpart of jjim—a category of dishes that are made by steaming meat or seafood—the concept is not clearly settled.
Algerian cuisine includes multiple flavors and influences, reflecting the country's history and position at the crossroads of the Mediterranean.
Aehobak, also called Korean zucchini or Korean courgette, is an edible, green to yellow-green summer squash. Although nearly all summer squashes are varieties of Cucurbita pepo, aehobak belongs to the species Cucurbita moschata. Commonly used in Korean cuisine, an aehobak has the shape of zucchini, but with thinner, smoother skin, and more delicate flesh. It is usually sold in shrink-wrapped plastic.
Sheikh al-mahshi, sheikh el mahshi or shexmahshi (Kurdish) is a popular dish in the Middle East consisting of zucchini stuffed with minced lamb meat and nuts, bathed in a yogurt sauce or tomato sauce (derivative). Certain sources point to Syrian origin.