Kusa

 

This is my 3rd post under traditional recipe for BM#27. I really wanted to try out something that I have never cooked before. I have a Filipino maid "Mary"& prior to working here in Singapore she was in Jordon with a Arab family working for 2 years. I happened to check with her on what they cooked & what was their traditional food. Mary told me about Kusa & also she was only in charge of housekeeping. There was another maid to do the cooking & cleaning of dishes. Because of this she never cooked there nor learnt their recipes. Well she told she is very familiar with Kusa as they cooked it more often at home. Well in this weeks grocery I picked the mini cucumber & asked her for the recipe. I was not very convinced with her version as it sounded very bland & non glamorous. I immediately looked up the net, got to know how it looks & also how its made.

To give you a lill back round of the dish: Kusa Mihshi is squash, Mini cucumber or zucchini stuffed with rice and meat. It is made in Syria, Cyprus, Lebanon, Greece and Turkey. This dish is served hot as a main course. You can add any vegetables or meat into it. Its more like squash stuffed with pulav or Biriyani. To suit our taste buds I have used some Indian spices & made this dish with pepper Chicken sausages. This dish was really to die for... Very glamorous, spicy, aromatic & extremely tasty. We had this for dinner last night & my hubby was all praises about this dish. This is how I made it.

Ingredients:

• 6 - 8 small Cucumber
• 1 cup chopped sausages(I used chicken pepper)
• 1.5 cup Basmati Rice
• 3 cups hot water
• 1 tspn  minced garlic
• 1 tspn minced ginger
• 1 Tspn Chili powder
• 1/4 tspn turmeric powder
• 1/2 tspn garam masal powder
• 1/4 tspn cinnamon powder
• 1/4 tspn cardamom powder
• 1 onion chopped
• 1 tomatoes chopped
• 1 potatoes cut into roundels
• handful of coriander leaves to garnish
• 2 tbspn oil

Method:

1. Rinse squash. Cut off squash tops. Core out the middle of the squash with a corer.
2. In a pan add oil fry ginger garlic, onion until translucent.
3. Tip in the chopped tomatoes, Potatoes, chili powder, turmeric & garam masala. Cook this for 2 mins.
4. Now add in the chopped sausages, Rice & saute it for about 3 to 5 mins.
5. Lightly work in the rice stuffing into the squash, about 2 tbs each, and continue until all the squash are stuffed. Its ok if you have more rice left in the pot.
6. Now pour the hot water into the pan in which rice is cooking & also tip in the stuffed squash.
7. Close the lid of the pan & cook this on low flame for about 20 - 30 mins or until the rice is cooked well. Add in more water if required.
8. Finally garnish the dish with chopped coriander leaves.

Note:

• The rice needs to be a little over cooked.
• You can add in minced meat or even any vegetables of your choice in this dish

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#27