I was sent some seeds of a Maltese zucchini called qarabali. I've never grown zucchini before, but with free seed I thought I'd give it a shot. On Friday it made its first female flower, which I hand fertilized with a male flower, and by Sunday this was here to greet me!
![http://www.alexareynolds.com/garden11/zucchinijan.JPG](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vjJs5lGqO4uNHoRtMrQaRlQY0N3p-Krhf0YZ16nJPtak8XtaClhDvxB61vSwXFuZV5wNy7TYFeaVP8loDVhWY6FcbvkWlSa1LLmFdBlY8glvWvggSa7J3i=s0-d)
By Wednesday it was time to pick it. Pretty fast turnaround.
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As you can see, qarabali is a round zucchini made for stuffing. So that's what I did! After reading a few recipes for inspiration I had a go without a recipe. Shallots, pumpkin, the insides of the zucchini and some raisins along with couscous and Moroccan spices. Not all the stuffing fit so I ate the rest as a side dish.
![http://www.alexareynolds.com/garden11/zucchini2.JPG](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_tLp8pQ7O8JlPZrnJuib6hgv9mAdul9wTzZ5JK4uqYYjZovInkUc97b4Z9_-2-KU5IuvmtRU6E4qU7aRecgQQzjRZqsGol_jl9T-v30zyYkdkm8mE5Y=s0-d)
It was pretty tasty if I do say so myself. The zucchini itself is very mild, almost like a cucumber, so it's better with the stuffing. Now if I'm lucky, I'll have a massive glut of them before long, zucchini is notorious for either never setting fruit or setting more than you could possibly eat.
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Wednesday 26 January 2011
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1 comments:
Yum, I love qarabali!! There are two ways to cook it which are traditional Maltese cuisine. One is to chop it up and fry it in a lot of olive oil with some bacon and onion. The other recipe is to stuff it with pork and veal mince among other things. I'll be posting a recipe for the latter on my blog www.5sensescooking.blogspot.com tonight! After reading this, I might try my hand at growing some qarabali myself.
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