Thursday, July 19, 2012

Stuffed Zucchini, Andalusian Style

Adapted from The Heritage of Spanish Cooking, by Alicia Rios and Lourdes March

This turned out to be really good, but once I ran it through the carb calculator I found that the carb count is a little high (roughly 28g per serving). I think the amount of flour I used was minimal, but I'm sure the raisins and the vino are what sent the carbs over the top. I'm thinking the recipe would work just fine with a tomato-based sauce, though.

The main challenge was the onion cap, which ended up being a strip of onion, which I inserted into the zucchini cavity, folded over, and reinserted.

All in all, pretty satisfying. I put my comments in italics. Serves 4.

Ingredients for the zucchini:
3/4 cup olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped (I left this out)
Whole onion layers to use as caps
3-1/2 oz. ground pork (I used sausage today)
1/3 cup green olives, chopped
1/3 cup raisins, chopped
2 hardboiled eggs, chopped
4 medium-small zucchini (about 1-1/2 pounds), peeled and cut in half horizontally
1 tablespoon flour (for dredging)
2 large eggs, beaten

Ingredients for the sauce:
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup beef broth (I used chicken)
3 tablespoons dry white wine
2 tablespoons ground almonds

Instructions
Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a skillet and gently fry half the finely chopped onion. When it colors, add the ground pork, season with salt and brown. Remove from the heat and add the olives, raisins and chopped hard cooked eggs.

Scoop out the zucchini flesh from one end only, then stuff with the pork mixture. Top each piece with a cap made from the outer layer of a whole onion. This ended up being easier said than done, since the recipe was not specific on how to do it. I ended up cutting strips of onion, tapered at both ends, which I inserted into the open ends of the zucchini. Must still play around with this. Coat with flour and beaten egg, then fry in the rest of the oil, which should be very hot. Transfer to a heatproof casserole and set aside.

Make the sauce by frying the chopped onion in the olive oil. When it starts to brown, add the flour, stir, then add the white wine and broth. Cook for a few minutes, stirring all the time, and add salt if necessary. Strain through a fine sieve and pour over the zucchini. (This is a good idea; I skipped that step but it would have been better strained). Add the almonds and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes until the zucchini are soft. The recipe calls for it to be cooked on the stove, but I opted to use a Pyrex baking dish in the oven, and it worked fine. Transfer carefully to a serving platter and pour the sauce over the top.

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