Lebanese Stuffed Marrow Recipe

This long weekend we stayed with Dave's Dad Trevor in Bridport, Dorset. As a souvenir they gave us a large marrow from their garden. Dave's Lebanese Grandmother used to cook stuffed marrow for him and used it this dish is one of his favourite childhood memories.

We tried to recreate this memory and it was delicious.

Ingredients:

• 1 marrow
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 can of chopped tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon All Spice
• a handful of mint leaves roughly chopped
• 250 g mince beef or lamb
• 1 cup longrain rice
• 500 ml chicken stock

1. Chop the marrow in half and hollow out it out with a kitchen knife and spoon.
2. In a pan fry the chopped onion for 2 minutes and then add the crushed garlic. Fry until slightly brown.
3. Fetch a separate bowl. Drain the tomatoes in a colander (but keep the juice) and mix half of the tomatoes with the rice (make sure not to use too much rice  as it will expand when you cook it).
4. Now add the spices, mint and minced meat to the rice. Add salt and pepper to taste.
4. Add in half of the fried onion and garlic to the mix.
5. Now stuff the marrow with the meat rice mix.
6. Place the stuffed marrows in a large pot with the chicken stock and add the leftover tomatoes, onions and garlic  to the stock.
8. Cooked on a low heat for about 1hr.