Hello everyone! I hope the summer has been as good to you as it has me! I apologize for the lack of posts. Rest assure, you will see a rush of recipes in the near future and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!
This recipe is straight from home. It’s a recipe that I grew up with and each bite I take reminds me of the times I used to watch my mom cook up a storm in the kitchen. Kusa, like most other Lebanese dishes, is very healthy and wholesome. The protein, produce and few carbs in this dish are sure to fill you up with satisfaction!
I might state that although it is a time consuming dish to cook, it still falls in my book of recipes that are Fun, Easy and Positively delicious! =)
Servings: 5 Prep-time: 1 hour Cook time: 50-60 minutes
Ingredients:
-10 small zucchini squash (you can use the longer zucchini but it’s a bit more difficult to pit out)
-1 lb ground sirloin beef
-1-28oz can tomato sauce
-3 tbs melted butter or margarine
-1 cup uncooked rice
-6 cloves chopped garlic with salt
-4 tbs all spice
-1 tbs salt
-1 tbs black pepper
-1 1/2 cups water
Steps:
1. Vigorously wash the zucchini with a vegetable brush under cold water. This ensures the sand particles are removed before cooking…Trust me, they’re there and this is 100% necessary. Nobody wants to bite onto a grain of sand!
2. Slice off the rough ends and use a zucchini pitter (shown below) to pit out the meat of the zucchini. Make sure to leave enough around the rim so that the zucchini doesn’t break apart.
Tip: Start by twisting out a small hole in the middle of the zucchini and twist through toward the other end. This is a fragile process because it’s really easy to poke a hole in zucchini skin if you’re not careful. Look Carefully:
^ this is the amount that should be left all throughout the zuccini
3. Rinse the zucchini and set aside
4. in a medium size bowl, mix together all the remaining ingredients EXCEPT for the tomato sauce, salt and pepper and garlic
Tip: Your hands are a great tool while cooking. If you’re gutsy (as you should be after reading this blog for so long) you should take off your jewelry and use your hands to mix the ground beef and ingredients so that it is all equally distributed.
5. Stuff the zucchini with the ground beef mixture little by little so that you pack enough in
Tip: Don’t over stuff the zucchini. Tapping it on a hard surface to ensure the perfect amount of meat is stuffed is a good technique. Remember: Tap it! Don’t pound it! These green veggies are fragile little things!
6. Placed the stuffed zucchini in a deep pot in a structured manner. Make sure not to overcrowd the zucchini on each level. Space in this case is not a bad thing!
7. In a medium bowl, stir the tomato sauce, garlic and salt and pepper together. Place it in the pot over the zucchini
8. Add 1 1/2 cups water and cook on medium heat for 45 minutes before checking if it’s cooked all the way through
Tip: Don’t close the lid all the way, leave some space for the steam to travel so the sauce doesn’t over-flow
Finally, serve hot and enjoy!
Like this:
Like Loading...
Love it btw, bird nest (http://www.geocities.jp/hongkong_bird_nest/index_e.htm) is made up of about 58% soluable proteins…the highest amoung all food and even synetic protein powders it greatly increase tissue regeneration
Tomato sauce makes the stuffed zucchini even more tasty.