Koosa Mahshi - Stuffed Courgettes

Koosa mahshi is the Levantine stuffed courgette (zucchini): whole courgettes, cored and filled with rice that has been cooked into a spiced tomato sauce and bound with fresh herbs, then left three hours on the lowest heat. We start with the sauce, not the rice. We cook tomato with ground cumin, ground coriander, salt, white pepper, red pepper and the lightest touch of black pepper until it is done, then bring the rice into it and work the two together until the grain has taken up the sauce and they are one mixture, so the filling tastes the same at the first spoon and the last. Fresh coriander, parsley and dill go in next and give the mixture its body and its scent. We fill the courgettes, pack them into the pot, cook a second sauce of tomato, cumin and salt and pour it over, then seal the lid and leave the pot on a heat too low to boil, so it cooks on its own trapped steam until each courgette is tender to the core and still whole. It is served hot in its sauce.