With the same meat mix that I used for the soup with meatballs yesterday, today I made stuffed zucchini. That’s been a special order by my daughter. She tried them in summer in Greece and it was love at first sight. You will need a special utensil to remove the core from the zucchini.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 pound (approximately half a kilo) minced meat
• 3 tablespoons rice
• 1 onion, pulped (I use a mini food processor)
• fresh dill or parsley, chopped
• salt and pepper to taste
• 4-5 medium size zucchini cut in half (or 10 small)
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 1 egg
• juice from one lemon

How to make: To make the filling, mix the minced meat with the rice, pulped onion, fresh dill or parsley, salt and pepper. To prepare the zucchini, rinse them and scrape them with a knife if needed to smooth the surface. Use a  zucchini core remover to remove the core of the zucchini. It’s very easy if you have the right utensil. Here’s one and one more photos that I found on the internet to help you out. Fill the zucchini with the meat mix. Heat the butter in a big and deep pan or a big pot. Saute the zucchini for about 5 minutes, turning sides. Add some salt and pepper. Arrange the zucchini in one layer if possible. Add water until it reaches halfway through the height of the zucchini (assuming the pan is all covered with zucchini). Cook at medium/low heat for about 45-60 min until the liquids have thickened.  To prepare the egg sauce, beat the white part of one egg until it becomes fluffy. Mix a teaspoon of corn flour with the juice of one lemon (or less if the lemon is very juicy). Combine the egg with the lemon. Add the liquid from the zucchini, slowly while you continue beating. The liquid must be hot but not boiling hot. Put the egg sauce in a small pan and cook it very lightly on very low fire. Keep stirring with a which until it thickens.  Pour the egg mix over the zucchini and shake the pot with your hands to fold in the egg mix. Do not use forks or other utensils at this point.  Ready to serve!

Notes and tips: You can find this recipe  in Greek here (συνταγές της παρέας). Vicky from tastefull.gr has some tips for this dish. She prefers to saute the onion before adding it to the meat mix. She adds some water to the meat mix to make it fluffier. On Skoura’s advice, some feta cheese can be added to the meat mix for extra flavor.