Stuffed squash, courgette, marrow, mahshi, or zucchini is a dish common in the region of the former Ottoman Empire from the Balkans to the Levant and Egypt, a kind of

dolma Dolma (Turkish for “stuffed”) is a family of stuffed dishes associated with Ottoman cuisine, and common in modern national cuisines of regions and countries that once were part of the Ottoman Empire. Some types of dolma are made with whol ...

. It consists of various kinds of

squash Squash may refer to: Sports * Squash (sport), the high-speed racquet sport also known as squash racquets * Squash (professional wrestling), an extremely one-sided match in professional wrestling * Squash tennis, a game similar to squash but pla ...

zucchini The zucchini (; plural: zucchini or zucchinis), courgette (; plural: courgettes) or baby marrow (''Cucurbita pepo'') is a summer squash, a vining herbaceous plant whose fruit are harvested when their immature seeds and epicarp (rind) are st ...

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.

Preparation

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. Often, punjene tikvice (stuffed squashes) and punjene paprike (stuffed peppers) are made together, as a mixed dish.in Croatian

Name

The name in various languages generally means literally "stuffed squash": hr, Punjene tikvice; sr, Punjene tikvice; sr-cyr, Пуњене тиквице; al, Kungulleshka të mbushura; mk, Полнети тиквички; bg, Пълнени тиквички; el, Γεμιστά κολοκυθάκια ; tr, Kabak dolması; ''kousa mahshi'' ar, كوسا محشي /

ALA-LC ALA-LC (American Library AssociationLibrary of Congress) is a set of standards for romanization, the representation of text in other writing systems using the Latin script. Applications The system is used to represent bibliographic information by ...

: ''kūsā maḥshī''. File:Kousa Mahshi.jpg, ''Kousa mahshi'', stuffed zucchini

Variants

Acorn squash stuffed with pilaf and topped with cheese

In the

Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is eq ...

, this dish is flavoured with

mint MiNT is Now TOS (MiNT) is a free software alternative operating system kernel for the Atari ST system and its successors. It is a multi-tasking alternative to TOS and MagiC. Together with the free system components fVDI device drivers, XaA ...

and

garlic Garlic (''Allium sativum'') is a species of bulbous flowering plant in the genus ''Allium''. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, Allium fistulosum, Welsh onion and Allium chinense, Chinese onion. It is native to South A ...

. In

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

, the flowers of the marrow are also stuffed. The cultivar is called 'Cousa' in Robinson and Decker-Walters (1997)Robinson and Decker-Walters (1997). ''Cucurbits''. 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".

References

{{Squashes and pumpkins Arab cuisine Jordanian cuisine Lebanese cuisine Levantine cuisine Ottoman cuisine Palestinian cuisine Squash and pumpkin dishes Stuffed vegetable dishes Syrian cuisine Balkan cuisine Israeli cuisine

Preparation

Name

Variants

See also

References