Zapallitos rellenos

Today it was election day here in Argentina, which they seem to take very seriously, well, in some ways at least. Yesterday, for example, it was against the law to serve alcohol after 20:00 and today almost everything was closed since it is also against the law if you don't go and vote. So, since I am not allowed to vote and didn't want to get bored I instead decided to take my old friend and landlord Tobbe up on his brilliant idea to start publishing recipes on my blog, typical of the region I'm in at the moment. This will be the first one, with a kind of vegetable I've found here that they call zapallito (pronounced something like zap-a-cheeto in English). It is kind of similar to zucchini but round instead. I am guessing if you can't find it back home the same thing should work with a really big and round zucchini too. :-P

Anyway, here's a list of the ingredients you'll need:

* 3 zapallitos
* 1/2 cup of stale old bread cut into small dice
* 1/2 cup of milk
* 1/2 big onion cut into fine pieces
* 1/2 spoonful of parsley cut small
* 50 grams of grated cheese
* 2 eggs
* bread crumbs
* olive oil
* butter
* salt
* pepper
* sugar
* vinegar
* nutmeg

This is what the zapallitos themselves look like. Pretty cute, huh?


The rest of the ingredients except the zapallitos. The laptop is neither for the recipe nor for product placing purposes, but quite useful for listening to the extraordinary concept of Electronic Tango while cooking, check out the web sites of Gotan Project and Bajo Fondo for more info. It's the same kind of music as the theme of "Twelve Monkeys" if you should be familiar with that movie.


Ok, here we go. Start out by washing the zapallitos thoroughly since they, according to the recipe I got from an authentic Argentinian person, "are full with pesticides". When you are done with the zapallito catharsis, cut them in halves. Then boil the halves for about 5 mins in lots of water along with some salt, vinegar and sugar.


Take the halves out of the water, drain the water and let them cool. Afterwards, cut off a little slice from the base of each one so that they can stand nice and stable on the table. Carefully dig out the pulp with a spoon and put it in a bowl. Sprinkle the emptied insides well with salt and pepper.


Now take the onion and fry it in the olive oil. When it turns golden, add the zapallito pulp and mix it all up. When the excess liquid has boiled off the pulp mix, take the pan off the heat and add the parsley and the grated cheese. Stir lightly and let the cheese melt.


While you are preparing the pulp mix, heat the milk in another pot until it is about to boil and then add the "stale bread dice". Let them soak for a while and then get rid of the excessive milk.


Take the onion and pulp fry and mix in the "old stale bread dice now soaked with milk". Whip the eggs lightly and add them in there as well. Make sure the whole thing gets tasty by throwing in some salt, pepper and nutmeg. Finally, use the bread crumbs to adjust the consistency and thicken it to something you would consider appropriate for zapallito filling. Then fill the zapallito interiors, put some butter on top and sprinkle with bread crumbs and grated cheese. Put it in the oven at a moderate temperature for 30-40 mins until the crust turns golden. (I have no clue what a "moderate temperature" is supposed to be, but in our gas oven I used number 2 on a range from 1 to 6, which seemed to work well.)


Mmmmm que ricos!!! I was quite happy with the result, actually. The only problem... I have no idea if they really tasted the way they were supposed to!! :-D