Filled Zucchini, a vegetarian dish that tastes very good

[eiasu]

Hallo,
I am writing a cooking book in english and i am not very firm with english.
Please comment if there are suggestions,
thank you very much!
Hava a very nice meal!
eiasu

Filled zucchini (courgette)

• 350 g parboiled rice
• 6 zucchini
• 1 bell pepper red, 1 cm squares
• 1 carrot, thin 2cm stripes
• 3 tomatoes, 2 cm cubes
• 200 g sweet corn
• 5 chillies, finely chopped
• 3 onions finely chopped
• 1 head garlic, finely chopped
• 200 gr Swiss cheese, grated
• 200 gr Gruyère, grated
• 50 gr sunflower seeds, roasted
• 3 tbsp coriander powder
• 5 tbsp soya sauce
• 4 tbsp dried oregano
• 4 tbsp dried basil
• 4 tbsp sesame oil
• 4 tbsp gyros spice mix (paprika, chilli, oregano, parsley, rosemary, thyme, marjoram, allspice, bay, garlic, onion)

Boil the rice according to the instruction on the package.
Cut the zucchinis lengthwise in half and scrape out the inside, leave a wall of one cm and a bottom of 2 cm, so that the result is a small zucchini boat.
Fry the onions in a pan in oil until they are brown, then add the garlic and the chillies and fry shortly.
Mix the fried things with the vegetables, the rice, the sunflower seeds and the spices.
Fill the zucchini bowls with the rice mix and put some cheese on top of each filled zucchini. Put all zucchinis on a tray and bake them in the oven for about 40 minutes at 180 degrees, until the zucchinis are cooked, but still have a firm consistency and the cheese is a little brown.
Enjoy!

 

[Claire]

Looks and sounds yummy. Your English is fine, just most Americans don't cook by grams and use inches instead of centimeters, but you instructions are clear enough that most experienced cooks could work with it. This is a great forum to practice your English and we appreciate it!

 

[eiasu]

Looks and sounds yummy. Your English is fine, just most Americans don't cook by grams and use inches instead of centimeters, but you instructions are clear enough that most experienced cooks could work with it. This is a great forum to practice your English and we appreciate it!

Wow Claire,
thanks very much!
Our book will be published in Germany and basically will have a very little
distrubution in Europe so whenever there is a difference between UK english and US english i choosed the UK english that should be more common in Europe.
Ciao!
eiasu

 

[BreezyCooking]

Thanks for what looks like one of the very best vegetarian stuffed zucchini recipes I've ever seen!! Can't wait to try it, especially since fresh zucchini is VERY abundant around here right now - lol!

My only comment would be to change the term for the rice from "parboiled rice" to just "cooked rice" depending on what you really mean. "Parboiled" implies the rice should be only partially cooked, & even though the rice will be baked later, I've found partially cooked long-grain rice will rarely continue to cook sufficiently in the somewhat dry environment the rest of a recipe like this will provide. And if you do mean "partially cooked rice", then you may want to add basic instructions for that as none of the rice packages I have in my cupboard at the moment (long-grain white, brown, Jasmine, Camargue Red, etc.) have directions for "parboiling" or any sort of partial cooking.

 

[ella/TO]

Maybe parboiled means "Minute Rice"??????

 

[Claire]

I believe parboiled refers to "Uncle Ben's" (just to use the most popular U.S. brand), not minute rice at all. I don't have my food encyclopedia at hand but if I remember right, the method for making that type of rice was established to keep more nutrients in the rice. A lot of people don't like it, but I do for some dishes, especially cold rice salads. It takes as long as any other rice to cook (actually a little longer I think), but you're more likely to get separate, whole grains which is why some restaurants use it (less likely to get clumping and what I call "blow-outs"). Minute rice is a different thing altogether. I may be wrong (and if so, I'm sure someone will call me on it, but I'm working from memory, too lazy to go upstairs and search my reference material at 4 a.m.).

 

[eiasu]

Thank you very much for the help,
about the parboiled rice is as Claire said,
taken fron the Uncle Bean, that is very known also here in Germany!
ciao
eiasu

 

[advoca]

This much too fiddly IMHO. Furthermore, the courgette (zucchini) you are using must be much fatter than the ones I can buy.

 

[BreezyCooking]

It's no more "fiddly" than many Chinese recipes, IMHO.

 

[GrillingFool]

I like fiddly. Slicing, dicing, measuring, mixing... that's my de-stress therapy.

I'll be trying this too.

 

[eiasu]

I like fiddly. Slicing, dicing, measuring, mixing... that's my de-stress therapy.

I'll be trying this too.

Yes, you got the point,
preparing food can be a meditation,
pouring love, time, attention and care into nutrition can only be good!
Please let me know of the result ok?
Ciao
eiasu

 

[BreezyCooking]

I like fiddly. Slicing, dicing, measuring, mixing... that's my de-stress therapy.

I'll be trying this too.

I agree. In fact, I did "fiddly" myself last night via Chinese Fried Rice. Lots of dicing of carrots, bok choy, onion, turkey ham, etc., etc. There's something very comforting about it.

 

[sparrowgrass]

Are you sure you mean Tablespoons for the spice amounts? 16 US tablespoons is a cup--you have a cup of dried spices for 6 zucchini, which sounds like a lot.

 

[Bilby]

A US tablespoon is less than an Australian one, and I think similarly in Europe.

So maybe it would be useful if in addition to a Tablespoon measurement, etc, a gram/mls measurement is also offered in brackets. It makes international conversion a lot easier.

 

[eiasu]

A US tablespoon is less than an Australian one, and I think similarly in Europe.

So maybe it would be useful if in addition to a Tablespoon measurement, etc, a gram/mls measurement is also offered in brackets. It makes international conversion a lot easier.

And to answer to sparrowgrass also , yes are tablespoon and that´s a dish quite spicy, that is also written in the book in the introduction that i have attached below:



Practical note:

• tbsp is a level tablespoonful
• tsp is a level teaspoonful
• The recipes of this book are designed to serve 8 people.
• The recipes of BuddhaHill are mainly hot and spiced,
  you can change the amount of spices according to your liking.

 

[Elf]

First Good Luck on your cook book.
Second I find this recipe interesting enough to copy and hunt down some large zucchini and try it. Have you tried the stuffing in any other vegetables like peppers?

 

[BreezyCooking]

Elf, while it's too late in the season this year, next season I plan on trying this recipe (cutting the ingredient amounts in half) using the small adorable round zucchinis that I had so much fun stuffing with bread stuffing, orzo stuffing, etc., this past summer. If you don't grow them yourself, many farmers markets carry them.

 

[Elf]

Breezy Cooking I was planning to go to the Farmers Market this Saturday with hopes of finding end of the season bargains, but the local mega mart might have to do. Whole Foods some times surprises you on what they have. We have one of their largest stores here.

 

[eiasu]

First Good Luck on your cook book.
Second I find this recipe interesting enough to copy and hunt down some large zucchini and try it. Have you tried the stuffing in any other vegetables like peppers?

Hallo Elf,
thank you very much,
i did not know that was so unusual to find big Zucchini,
it changes a lot,
i am from Italy and you can easily find much bigger one of the ones that i find here in Germany where i am living now.
Anyway just for your request i have publiched the recipe of the love-filled red peppers,
you can find it here:
http://www.discusscooking.com/forums/f32/love-filled-red-peppers-60782.html#post855746
plese have a look and let me know!

ciao
eiasu