An Oral Recipe...Kusa

This meal was a long time coming.  At the farm we grow a special variety of summer squash; it is a white zucchini called Kusa/Cusa.  Spelling depends on where you look it up, we've been growing this variety for a segment of the Lebanese population in the area for at least two decades.  We don't nearly sell as much of it as we did ten years ago but we still plant a few for the remaining customers who still cherish the vegetable.

For years I have been explaining this odd colored zucchini to other customers, how it can be used interchangeably with other summer squash and adds another color to your dishes.  I would go on to describe the dish that it is used for by the descendents of immigrants that we started growing it for years ago. "They hollow out the zucchini and stuff it with a lamb and rice mix, and cook it in a tomato sauce." Yet this week is the first time I or anyone in my family have ever prepared the dish. 

I have never been one who needs much of a recipe to cook a meal.  Most often the meals I prepare are an ever evolving process in the kitchen. This meal was no different, I asked one of our customers to send me a copy of the recipe they use, he said why don't I just tell you.  This is what I ended up with:

 No measurements or proportions but I had somewhere to start from, and often I feel vague directions gives me a desired freedom to play in the kitchen. One time I was chatting with the grand-daughter of one of our main kusa buyers and I told her that I really wanted to try to make the dish sometime.  She quickly asked if I had a corer to hollow out the zucchini, because you can't make it without the right tool.  I had thought to myself that I would be able to figure something out, I've always considered myself pretty good at problem solving.  

With the zucchini hollowed out with the aid of my drill and a 3/4" bit and the handle of a dinner spoon, the creation of the stuffing was next.  Lamb, Rice, salt and pepper and a touch of cinnamon, I also added some of my tomato sauce for moisture in the stuffing. (I used 3/4 cup of rice to a pound of lamb, which next time I would cut back on the rice.)  The tomato sauce was a few tomatoes and peppers run through the blender with a few cloves of garlic and oregano and chili powder. 

 I was cooking down the sauce for a while before the stuffed zucchini was ready, placed the kusa stuffed with lamb and rice in a soft boil and preceded to let them cook for probably twenty-five minutes.  After making sure the meat was cooked through and the rice was ready, the dish was ready to eat. 

I chose to go with a stuffed theme and also prepared cream cheese, bacon, and chive filled sweet banana peppers.  It was a mighty tasty meal, those fortunate to share the meal with me, said the recipe was one I should make again.  I was honored that this man agreed to share his recipe with me and the fun of this spoken recipe is there will be plenty of room to tweak and play when I try again. 

State of the Fields (July 18th)

 I am sure its much like most people, I have troubles drawing the lines between my work and the rest of my life.  I even tell people my job isn't a career its a lifestyle.  Even when I get a the occasional day of from the farm, if I don't leave town I'll end up there a couple times that day.  With the best intentions to focus on me and the things I would like to get accomplished in my yard, work beckons. 
Yesterday, started as a rain day, which can truly be glorious.  We received some much needed rain and I got a chance to sleep in.  Goals for the day were simple... write, garden and take some pictures in the yard.  Time allowing, go to the gym (didn't happen) and then dinner in the Cities.  I needed to tend to my tomato plants, they look the best that they've ever looked in my backyard.  Is it appropriate to look to plants with pride?  They've all been caged but needed some additional tomato clips to reign in some stray branches (this required a drive to the farm for supplies).  I also had to work on a "new" grape arbor that I just added to the yard (will share more details another time).  And through this process I brought along my stills camera to document the Joy in the Garden. 

Indigo Rose Tomato: Purple on the outside, will be red on the inside.
Bred for having the highest concentration of anthocyanins which have great antioxidant capabilities.

 

Red Zebra Tomatoes: Still green but looking pretty.

Striped Caverns: When the show some red, I'll be ready to stuff them for a delicious dinner.

More fruit to come.

 

 

 

 

 

Redbor Kale: Tasty and Beautiful.

Alma Paprika: I started growing this one for an appetizer dish involving cream cheese and bacon bits.... mmm.

Garlic: Hung out to dry, in a good way.

 This is where my walk around my back yard came to an end, and work blurs with play.  When your backyard over looks this, its hard not to take a stroll.  Through the deer gates, I continued my photo survey and decided to document it as a State of the Fields: July 18th.

Through the gates we can see low ground fields, a place mother spent most of her childhood summers and where we grow the best cucumbers for pickles around.

Kohlrabi: a tasty treat.  Hard to believe that his sister is a cabbage. 

There is dill in many stages timed out for season long pickling.

Bees can be found all throughout the farm, with thirty-six hives we know someone is always tending the crops.

One of our apiaries overlooking the a wildflower meadow and a cucumber patch,
I sure hope all that clover doesn't distract them from those cucumber blossoms.

 

Pumpkins growing for fall.

This one seems to be running a bit early?!

There is wagon-fulls of pumpkins out there!  Just beneath the green canopies.

Seems the 10 foot fence wasn't enough, this six inch one should keep them out. 
Electrified to keep the raccoons from harvesting the sweet corn before we can.

Four varieties of corn to ripen throughout the summer and fall.... I could eat it for every meal.

The rain has transitioned to overcast leaving a moist breeze in the air and lasting droplets on most everything. 

Squash.  Squash leaves, hope there's tasties beneath those.

This is a good sign, the curly-q marks the ripening melon.  Three dry pig tails and the right vibrations after a tap will let us know when to pick them.

Red hot chilli peppers: I hear they're hot and red.

Banana peppers can be both hot and sweet, both tasty.

Eggplant; blossoms present, and fruit coming along nicely.

A sea of peppers. 

Tomatoes. Staked and growing nicely.

Looks like a field of corn... but the Corn Maze is taking shape and is taller than me in places.

There is red and ripe tomatoes at the stand from the High Tunnel providing us all with delicious tomatoes. 

Many beautiful plants throughout the Garden Center.

Foliage plants can bring some of the tropics right to our Northern part of the world. 

The fresh rain has left it's mark in the soil.  And my day.

This concludes my State of the Fields walk, apparently the pull of the fields drew me out of my own yard once again.