Mahshi
Abuja, Nigeria ·
Aperçu
Mahshi means stuffed, and the dish is exactly that: vegetables hollowed out, filled with a mixture of rice and minced meat, and cooked in a tomato and cumin sauce. It is the archetypal dish for feeding people. Making mahshi is slow, repetitive work, hollowing, filling, packing the pot, which is why it belongs to occasions and to households cooking for numbers rather than to a weeknight. The vegetable used varies by country and by season, and this variation is much of the pleasure of the dish. Courgette, particularly the pale Lebanese kusa, is among the most common. Aubergine, bell peppers, tomatoes and potatoes are all used, and vine leaves and cabbage leaves are rolled rather than stuffed but belong to the same family. Egyptian versions frequently combine several in one pot. The filling is rice and minced beef or lamb with herbs, and it is packed loosely, the rice swells substantially as it cooks and a tightly packed vegetable will split. A vegetarian version made with rice, herbs and no meat is entirely standard rather than an adaptation, and is often served cold.
