Qarabali mimli - stuffed (marrows!)

I continue to feel challenged about how to describe Qarabali.  This is a hugely popular Maltese vegetable, loosely described as a marrow, but the marrows and qarabali are quite different.  The Marrow is a member of the squash family, as are courgettes, but the Maltese Qarabala (singular) seems to be an in between a courgette or zucchina and the marrow.  The taste is pretty strong, and closer to the courgette, but it is fat and just perfect for stuffing.

Like with most stuff I have difficulty finding, my eyes are always peeled for Qarabali, but so far the big supermarkets here in the UK do not have this in their radar yet, or have not found it to be a marketable vegetable, probably because they are not too pretty and shoppers here dont like veg that looks a bit wonky.   You can see what the vegetable looks like in its' plant form here

Amy, my dear Italian vegetable supplier and home grower, chucked three giant qarabali in my bag during my weekly shop with her.  Arguably, these are maybe just well grown courgettes here that Amy leaves to grow for her own Italian based vegetable stuffed recipes (as they are not the rounded vegetable I am so used to) however this was the right time to cook Qarabali Mimli once more. :)

So this is what the vegetables look like.  Too long and not round enough but a conveniently large size for stuffing.

Next step is to top and tail the veg.  I sliced them in 2 to make filling easier.

And now for the filling - you will find lots of recipes with minced beef but some Maltese housewife would use corned beef as the base for this.  This is undoubtedly part of the British influence on Maltese cooking, when Corned Beef was part of the 'ration' Maltese families regularly received every week, up to the '70's.  Therefore Corned Beef was used as stuffing for many recipes and found it's way in pies, soups and pasta.  You may prefer to take a healthier option and replace this with some lean beef mince.

I will just list the ingredients here, how much you put and in what ratios depends on your taste and particularly on the size of the veg you are filling.  You will find that there is really not much cavity space available, though you may want to cook the remaining filling separately and serve it with pasta or rice or even baked potatoes as a side.

Filling:  

Corned Beef

Roughly chopped tomatoes

breadcrumbs

hard boiled eggs

fresh parsley

pepper to taste (no salt as corned beef is already very salty)

Gouda or other suitably melty cheese for topping

Olive Oil for drizzling

First you will need to scoop out the soft core and seeds of the marrows.  I have found that the easiest way of doing this is using the pointed end of a potato peeler or an apple corer.  Don't go too far down as you don't want to puncture the marrow. 

Mix all the roughly chopped up ingredients together, apart from the cheese, which will be added at the final stage.  Make sure the mix is not too moist by adding a fair amount of breadcrumbs.  Water will steep out of the marrows when cooking so the mix needs to be quite dry.  Fill the cavity with the stuffing and heap a bit on the top. (and yes, my oven needs a clean!)

Bake in a fairly hot oven about 180C until you can pierce the marrow easily from the side with a skewer. 

At that point add the cheese and bake till it melts!  

Serve with baked potatoes, rice or salad.  Enjoy! :)