Do you know what Siamese twins are? No, I don’t mean two chocolate-faced kittens from the same litter; nor do I mean two babies who emerged from their mother’s womb joined at the hip, even though both of these answers are technically correct. If I were to say they may also be called irreversible binomials, would that give you any clues? Nope – didn’t think so! So allow me to enlighten you: Siamese twins in a linguistic context means a pair or grouping of words that are always used together in an idiomatic expression, usually joined by the words “and” or “or”. And they are referred to as irreversible because the word order cannot be reversed without the meaning of the idomatic expression being lost or altered. Think, for example of
- rock and roll
- above and beyond
- heads or tails
- dead or alive
- now and then
- odds and ends
- short and sweet
- sooner or later
Nobody talks about Elvis playing roll and rock; or something happening later or sooner! Or at least if they do, you can be guaranteed they are not native English speakers 😉 What got me thinking about these fascinating word pairs was the expression “feast or famine”. It is definitely an irreversible binomial expression and it means that one always seems to have either too much or too little of something, but never just enough. Feast or famine perfectly describes our relationship with courgettes over the past two summers. Last summer, Nick ignored all sensible advice and planted something like eight courgette plants. This was despite the fact that each plant can produce 20-30 fruits over a season and the fact that there are only two of us in the house! And so it came to pass that i made stuffed courgette flowers; and courgette salad; and courgette & feta terrine; and courgette stir-fry; and stuffed courgette boats; and courgette tart; and courgette bread. And still they came. Feast is one way to describe it – although overdose would be nearer the mark! This year, in an attempt to curb the courgette overload, Nick planted only four plants and thanks to a bit of benign neglect and the slugs, we ended up with only one plant. So it would be fair to say that after last year’s courgette feast, this year was a bit of a courgette famine. The upshot of this was that instead of giving them away by the basketload and using recipes that used up the largest volume of courgette in one helping, we chose our recipes a little more carefully and tried to showcase each of our limited supply of courgettes. One summer weekend our friends held a wine tasting afternoon where each couple had to bring a dish and a wine from the same country and other guests had to guess what the country was. Nick being Nick decided to throw everybody a curve ball and bought a Lebanese wine, and then wanted to make a dish that was not so obviously Lebanese as to give the game away. What he came up with was Lebanese stuffed courgettes. I say Lebanese, but versions of this dish are made all over the Middle East in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, and Cyprus. The basic idea is to hollow out and stuff the vegetables with a mixture of raw mince and uncooked rice and then simmering them whole in a tomato broth; but the result of this deceptively simple preparation is quite heavenly, laced with the perfume of Middle-eastern spices. And to Nick’s delight, the only person who correctly guessed the country was an Egyptian guest who knew the dish and pronounced it very authentic! If you can’t get your hands on Lebanese wine, this dish will pair well with a fruity light red wine like Beaujolais or Pinot Noir – and it is a great way to use up the final courgettes of the season, should you still have a couple in your vegetable drawer. If you love your vegetables stuffed, you may also enjoy:
- My pattypan squash with a cheesy bacon stuffing
- Michelle’s’ bell peppers stuffed with couscous, pine nuts and raisins
- Nazima’s roasted squash stuffed with rice, sprouts and coriander pesto
- Ren’s globe courgettes filled with lamb and cinnamon rice
- Kellie’s tomatoes stuffed with sardines and chermoula
- Helen’s cheese, fig and bacon stuffed mushrooms
- Kalyn’s stuffed green peppers
- Sally’s stuffed courgettes
- Jan’s over-stuffed cheese and bacon jacket potatoes
- 2 medium to large courgettes
- ½ cup long-grain rice (uncooked)
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 350g beef or lamb mince (preferably not lean)
- 1 tsp ground allspice
- 2 tsp salt
- ¾ tsp black pepper
- 4-5 fresh mint leaves, finely chopped
- handful of shopped flat-leaf parsley leaves (and some extra for garnish)
- 500ml chopped tomatoes, including juice
- 250ml chicken stock
- half a lemon
- Hollow out each courgette, removing all the seeds. Work from both ends and start with an apple corer, then use a small melon-baller to hollow the courgette out until you are left with walls of about 8mm thick all along the courgette. Discard pulp and seeds.
- Wash the rice in cold water in a bowl until the water runs almost clear, then drain in a sieve.
- Heat the oil in a deep, heavy frying pan over medium heat and sauté the onion until it turns golden brown (about 6 to 8 minutes). Add garlic and cook for a further minute, stirring all the time; then remove the pan from the heat.
- Transfer about 60 ml of the onion mixture to a bowl and let it cool slightly. Add the rice, meat, allspice, parsley, mint, 1.5 teaspoons salt, and ½ teaspoon pepper. Mix well with your hands. Stuff the meat and rice mixture into the courgette shells with meat mixture but be careful not to pack them too tightly - the rice will expand during cooking and you do not want the shells to split.
- To the remaining onions in the frying pan, add the tomatoes with juice, chicken stock, remaining ½ teaspoon of salt, and remaining ¼ teaspoon of pepper and bring to a gentle simmer. Put stuffed courgettes into the tomato sauce and simmer, covered, until rice is cooked through. This should take about 60 - 75 minutes depending on the size of the courgettes. Cut one courgette in half to check doneness.
- If sauce tomato is too watery once the courgettes are cooked, remove the courgettes and keep warm then boil sauce to thicken and reduce it for about 5 minutes. Return the courgettes to the sauce before serving and finish with a squeeze of lemon and some flat-, stirring, until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes, then return zucchini to sauce. Squeeze lemon over dish before serving and sprinkle with the remaining flat-leaf parsley.
Sally - My Custard Pie says
Can’t ever resist stuffed veg – my Mother-in-law makes a Cypriot version similar to this but puts some lamb chops right at the bottom of the pan for an even richer sauce. Thanks for the link love.
Jeanne says
I know – what’s not to love about stuffed veg, right?! And I adore the idea of putting lamb chops at the bottom of the pan – imagine the flavour of the sauce :o)
Ren Behan says
I absolutely adore home cooked Lebanese food (and restaurant food for that matter!) but I’d love to try this one at home as it’s such a traditional, homely, warming dish – perfect for this cold weather! Thank you for my mention, too. x
Jeanne says
Mmmm, I so agree with you on loving Lebanses food! This is such an easy and tasty dish to recreate at home 🙂
Jacqueline Meldrum says
At first I thought that was a giant courgette, but that aside I love the idea and could quite easily make this veggie. A nice one to impress guests with.
Jeanne says
Hah – we do *have* giant courgettes but they would be too unwieldy to use in this dish! And yes – v v easy to make a veggie version of this 🙂
kellie@foodtoglow says
Bookmarking this for our next courgette glut! This elegant dish looks and sounds fantastic. We love Middle Eastern food and this sounds a perfect dish for a banquet of such foods. Although I don’t eat meat I know my foodie in-laws would love this so much. I sometimes need help thinking of meaty dishes for others so this is a great help, Jeanne. 🙂
Jeanne says
It is a great dish to use up a courgette glut Kellie! And it’s also a good dish to make a vegetarian and a meaty version – substituting soya mince or pulses in the stuffing should be no problem whatsoever 🙂
Deena kakaya says
I’m quite taken by how pretty, neat and clever these stuffed courgettes look and whys a wonderful way to use courgettes for a special dinner. I’m sure I could do a vegetarian version of your lovely and fresh recipe by substituting the mince and keep everything else the same. X
Jeanne says
I was amazed at how well they held together and sliced! We have served them at dinner parties and the guests are always suitbaly impressed 😉 I am quite sure these could easily be made vegetarian, either with soya mince or maybe with lightly crushed chickpeas instead of mince?
Fiver Feeds says
Stuffed courgette, great idea. Have to make&eat them 🙂
Jeanne says
Stuffed courgettes are great – and best of all is that they look very impressive without being too difiicult to make 🙂
Robin O says
I always love reading your posts. Clever word play and thought provoking paired with a tasty recipe. Lebanese foods are trending, and as always you are in the lead. Bravo Jeanne!
Jeanne says
Aaah, thanks Robin! 🙂 Middle-eastern foods are so fab – such subtle and varied flavours!
Nazima says
I love how you hook the reader. Siamese twins 🙂
this is a lovely recipe – the region does some wonderful stuffed vegetables and those delicate spices are wonderful. I had a similar stuffed pepper in Istanbul which also had some preserved lemon slices in it that I have been trying to recreate, such was the deliciousness of it!
Jeanne says
Why thank you 🙂 Always thrilled to hear somebody enjoys the writing on Cooksister. And I am a huge fan of stuffed vegetables as well, Middle-Eastern and otherwise. High Timber across the river from the Tate Modern had a crab-stufed tomato on their summer menu where the tomato was blanched, skined, then had the bottom cut off and seeds scooped out from below. Once it was stuffed it was stood upright on the plate – so you could not tell it was stuffed till you cut it. So clever!!
Bintu @ Recipes From A Pantry says
I learnt how to make stuffed pepper in turkey but have not done much with that since I came back. I am with Nick on the planting at least 8 plants (we did 10). You can never have enough courgettes.
Jeanne says
Hahahah we have to garee to disagree there – I learnt last year that you can have enough courgettes 😉 They were seriously taking over my house! But a sweet, home-grown courgette is a thing of great loveliness – often the ones sold in the shops are quite bitter. Hope you get to try out a stuffed courgette recipe again soon!
Rosa says
Scrumptious! Middle Eastern food is so amazing.
Cheers,
Rosa
Jeanne says
Thanks lovely! And yes, Middle-Eastern food is one of my favourite cuisines 🙂
Meeta says
I saw this when I was in DUbai and it’s been with me ever since … I love kousa mahshi – remember the amazing way an Egyptian friend of my mum cooked it. Such a perfect warming dish. As for Siamese twins … well I miss mine 😉
David says
The problem with courgettes is you either have too many or not enough
Margot @ Coffee & Vanilla says
It did look for a moment to me like a giant stuffed Polish sour cucumber and that is why followed the recipe… but this is so much better! 🙂
NORMA CRICHTON says
I AM TRYING TO MAKE THESE BABY MARROW’S TODAY. THANK YOU FOR THE RECIPE.