File in: Meat, Entree

Kh. Nicole Damick's

Mahshi Wara' o Koosa (stuffed grape leaves and squash)

Serves 12-16

Try serving Mahshi Wara' o Koosa (stuffed grape leaves and squash) with these other recipes:

• Cucumber-Yogurt Sauce

This recipe was taught to me by my grandmother. We always eat this as our Paschal meal. It's also not a meal you make by yourself. If you can't conscript help, make something else. ;)
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(1) Cut all the little stems off the grape leaves. Cut the stem end off the squash, and shave off the blossom. Core out the zucchinis and squash, leaving a 1/8-1/4 inch 'wall' throughout. (You can find the necessary tool at any Arabic grocery, just tell them what you need it for.) Reserve the insides to use for another meal.
(2) Mix rice and ground meat. Add allspice, salt, pepper, cinnamon, and nutmeg, to taste. (The FDA doesn't think sampling raw meat is safe, so if tasting the raw meat oogs you out, the mixture should go from a slightly red appearance to a slightly brown one. Allspice should be the dominant spice flavor, but keep in mind it intensifies a bit in the cooking when you do your tasting/eyeballing.)
(3) Put a 1-in. layer of lamb across the bottom of a 10 quart heavy stock pot with a lid. Meaty bones sliced across the marrow are great for this, but you can skip the bones if you can't find them and just use chunks of lamb.
(4) Stuff the cored squash with the rice mixture, packing it down as you go lightly by tapping the bottom of the squash against your palm. (The idea is to get them full, but not so full they burst during cooking the rice.) Layer them on top of the lamb.
(5) Stuff the leaves: Take a leaf and lay it vein-side-up with the stem-end end nearest you. Put a small amount of the rice mixture at the bottom of the leaf. Fold over the right, and then the left side, then roll the bottom of the leaf away from you. (You are making little grape leaf cigars. They need to be tight enough that they do not unravel, but not so tight that they tear. It takes practice, but you are rolling two jars of leaves, so you'll get plenty. Worst case they burst and still taste great, so don't stress out too much.) Layer these in the pot until you either run out of pot, or run out of leaves, or run out of rice mixture. (Leftovers of leaves and/or mixture can be used the next day for soup.)
(6) Dump the can of tomatoes over top, pour over about 1/4 cup of lemon juice. Take a heat-proof plate, flip it upside-down on top of the leaves, and press it down firmly. Cover the pot, and turn up high. Wait until you hear vigorous boiling noises (about 3-5 minutes), then turn down to low to cook for 5-8 hours. After about five hours, sample a grape leaf and check to see if the rice is soft. If not, you can add a bit of water or lemon juice to try and get it going.
(7) When ready to serve, drain out a bit of the juice and reserve. Get a platter a little bigger than the diameter of your pot and a helper. One person holds the pot and the other the platter, and you flip the whole thing over together rather dramatically. Carefully remove the pot, making sure the squash and leaves don't fall off the platter. And do this somewhere easy to wipe up.
(8) Serve with warm pita bread and yogurt sauce.