Squash Dolma

Dolma or Dorma is usually a vegetable stuffed with something and then cooked in a gravy or fried. There is the Turkish dish where rice is stuffed in grape leaves. The  dish that my mother makes back home is made from 'Potol', a special squash or gourd that I have seen only in India -- of course we get the chopped and frozen version here but I cannot count that as 'real' food. I have often wanted to make this dish not only because it tastes great but also because is beautiful to look at.

On receiving some comments from my last post, Fish chop (recipe here), that the fish stuffing was  easy to make, I decided to use the same recipe for the stuffing.

To prepare the squash for stuffing, I first peeled out alternative stripes on the squash. This makes the dish attractive as well as ensures the squash is seasoned to the core. After this, I halved the squash, cut a round slice to make a lid and then, scooped out the inside to make a hollow pipe like structure. One end of the squash was left intact while the cut end was sliced one more time to make a lid out of the edge (see picture). The hollow squash was then seasoned with salt.

The next step was to insert the fish stuffing (recipe here) into the hollow squash and seal the covers with wooden toothpicks or small pieces of wooden barbecue skewers. The squash was then deep-fried in heated oil, each side for about 4 minutes until it became slightly golden brown.

We were impressed with the outcome of this experimentation and I thought I must share this with all my friends who miss this dish and would like to make it from fresh ingredients. For the kids though, I am not sure this is going to work -- my little one rejects anything unfamiliar so I have to resort to sneaky ways of feeding her squash. Hey, they say all is fair in love or war -- it is both when it comes to feeding toddlers,  so I guess I am fair :)