Stuffed squash

Stuffed squash

Stuffed squash
Origin
Alternative name(s)	Punjene tikvice, Kabak dolması, Kungulleshka të mbushura, Γεμιστά κολοκυθάκια, Полнети тиквички, Пълнени тиквички, Stuffed zucchini
Region or state	the former Ottoman domain: the Balkans, Turkey, and the Levant
Details
Course served	Main course
Type	Dolma
Serving temperature	Hot
Main ingredient(s)	Summer squashes, minced meat, rice

Stuffed squash, marrow, or zucchini is a dish of the region of the former Ottoman Empire from the Balkans to the Levant, 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.

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.

Name

The name in various languages generally means literally "stuffed squash": Croatian: Punjene tikvice; Serbian: Punjene tikvice; Serbian Cyrillic: Пуњене тиквице; Albanian: Kungulleshka të mbushura; Macedonian: Полнети тиквички; Bulgarian: Пълнени тиквички; Greek: Γεμιστά κολοκυθάκια ; Turkish: Kabak dolması; kousa mahshi Arabic: كوسا محشي‎‎ / ALA-LC: kūsā maḥshī.

Kousa mahshi, stuffed zucchini.

Variants

In Syria, this dish is flavoured with mint and garlic. In Cyprus, the flowers of the marrow are also stuffed.

The cultivar is called "Cousa" in Robinson and Decker-Walters (1997) 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".