Mixed Stuffed Cabbage & Courgettes

Mixed stuffed cabbage and courgettes, malfof and koosa mahshi on a single platter: two of our Levantine stuffed vegetables, cabbage leaves rolled around rice and whole cored courgettes (zucchini) filled with the same rice, under the same sauce. That filling is rice worked into a tomato sauce seasoned with ground cumin and coriander, salt, white pepper, red pepper and a light touch of black, with fresh coriander, parsley and dill through it, so every grain carries the seasoning from one end of the piece to the other; the platter arrives hot, with a tomato, cumin and salt sauce over it. One filling means one taste across the plate, and what changes is the mouthful. The cabbage leaf is thin and wound close, so a bite of a roll is mostly filling, with a soft leaf around it that gives way to the spice. The courgette is whole and tender right through, its wall having drunk the sauce around it, so it is lifted with a spoon, sauce and all, and eaten wall and filling together. It is shared from the middle of the platter, a roll for one and a courgette for another, and it is the order for a table that wants cabbage rolls and koosa together rather than as two separate dishes.