Greek Stuffed Zucchini (Halal)(Kolokithakia Yemista)(Gluten Free

UmmBinat's Note:

A good five stars with the sauce. This is DH's favorite meal and mine too right now. Modified from The Complete Middle East Cookbook by Tess Mallos (She is Greek). This is well worth the effort. Serve this dish with mashed potatoes or it tastes excellent served with Hashweh ("rice Stuffing") Middle East, Palestine used as a bed of rice for laying the zucchini on. Along with a fresh salad this will be a wonderful meal.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 30 mins
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs

Ingredients:

Serves: 6

Yield: 24.0 stuffed ...

• 24 medium sized green zucchini
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 lbs ground beef lamb
• 1/3 cup white basmati rice
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 4 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh mint (don't omit, you may use dry mint if fresh is not available)
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon bahrat mixed spice (Baharat Aka Middle East Mixed Spices - the Real Mix)
• fresh ground black pepper
• salt
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1 1/2 tablespoons rice flour (to be gluten free)
• 2 eggs, separated (does not work with egg replacer)
• 1 lemon, juice of

Directions:

1. Wash zucchini and cut off stems and reserve them.
2. Scoop out centers of zucchini with a small spoon or zucchini corer. (I use the opposite end of a spoon which may work better depending on the shape of your cutlery).
3. Make corks from the reserved ends by trimming each.
4. Rinse and set zucchini aside.
5. Gently fry the onion in 1 tbs olive oil until soft.
6. Mix onion into the meat with the rice, tomato paste, 2 tbs parsley, mint and cinnamon, bahrat, seasoning to taste with salt and pepper.
7. Fill each zucchini with the meat mixture and cork closed.
8. Place in layers in a pot, add chicken stock, the other 1 tbs olive oil and salt to taste.
9. Invert a heavy plate on top of zucchini and cover tightly.
10. Simmer gently for 1 1/2 hours.
11. When cooked drain off stock carefully into a small pan.
12. Reduce to 1 1/2 cups over heat and thicken with flour mixed to a paste with a little cold water.
13. Let it boil for 1 minute.
14. Beat egg whites in a bowl until stiff, add yolks and beat throughly, gradually beat in lemon juice, then boiling stock.
15. Return sauce to the small pan and place over low heat stirring constantly until egg is cooked *** DO NOT BOIL ***.
16. Arrange zucchini on warm serving dishes and spoon some sauce over them.
17. Garnish with chopped remaining parsley and serve the rest of sauce in a jug.
18. Serve this with mashed potatoes or Hashweh ("rice Stuffing") Middle East, Palestine used as a bed of rice and a fresh salad.
19. Totally enjoy!

Reviews

[MarraMamba]

Selicious!!! I made this for a friend whose daughter is gluten free and she loved it

[Linky]

This was SOOO good! I had larger zucchini, so rather than try to hollow them out and cork them back up, I cut them in half the long way, scooped out some of the seeds and pulp. I added the scooped out pulp to the meat/rice mixture. The sauce is amazing! I used about a Tablespoon of bottled lemon juice b/c I didn't have a real lemon. My DH raved about how wonderful they were!