My great-grandparents immigrated to the US from Aleppo, Syria in the 1910s. They lived above the small grocery store they owned in Utica, New York. They are both ethnically Armenian but grew up in Syria, as their families had previously immigrated in the 19th century due to religious persecution in Armenia. They were both Arabic speakers, and their cultural (and culinary) traditions mix Armenian and Syrian customs.
My mom grew up in Utica, minutes away from her Sitto (grandmother in Arabic). As a child, when she visited, Sitto always cooked up some delicious Middle Eastern dishes for her and her sisters. She cooked homemade Armenian string cheese by stretching and pulling it between two kitchen chairs, then braiding it.
Sitto’s recipes have been passed down to my generation due to the efforts of my grandmother to preserve them. Sitto, my great-grandmother, was illiterate and could not write down the recipes that she cooked from memory. My grandmother, an Irish-American woman with an equal love for cooking, followed her mother-in-law around the kitchen while she cooked, writing down her steps and transforming them into recipes. She struggled to get amounts for ingredients, as Sitto measured with the heart, but through her own trial and error was able to perfect the recipes and teach them to her daughters.
My mom now cooks these dishes, including tabbouleh and rolled grape leaves (yabra or dolma), for my family. She relies on handwritten family recipes, as well as a cookbook titled Cooking Good with Sitto, published in 1982 by a Syrian-Armenian Catholic church in New Jersey. Although my family no longer speaks Arabic and we have never visited Syria or Armenia, these recipes keep us connected to our cultural heritage.
One of my favorite dishes is Koosa Michee (also spelled Kousa Mahshi), squash stuffed with a lamb, rice, and tomato mixture and cooked in a lemony, garlicky broth. Some of my favorite cooking memories stem from helping my mom make this recipe.
Some of the ingredients in Koosa Michee are hard to come across. Traditionally, it is made with Koosa squash and pomegranate molasses, which are uncommon in the U.S. but can sometimes be found in Middle Eastern grocery stores. My family usually substitutes for yellow squash found in large supermarkets, which work just as well. However, even this causes problems due to the large number of squash we purchase at one time. I vividly remember going to the grocery store with my au pair in middle school because my mom asked us to buy 48 yellow squash so she could cook the dish (we make up to five pots at once). The grocery staff looked at us like we were crazy. Eventually, they pulled out a large cardboard box of 24 squash from the back, handed us the entire thing, and said, “That’s all we have right now, come back tomorrow.”
My mom cooks Koosa Michee only once a year because it is a time-consuming recipe that requires a lot of manual labor, particularly to hollow out and stuff the squash. I remember my mom scolding me for being too aggressive with the vegetable corer and poking holes right through the squash. However, this labor-intensive process becomes immediately fun if done in a group. Nothing says family bonding quite like sitting together around the kitchen island and stuffing raw meat into squash with your bare hands (I promise we wash our hands before and after). And the flavor payoffs for this time and labor are immense.
Koosa Michee
Ingredients
Instructions
- Cut the squash in half horizontally and hollow them out using a vegetable corer, leaving a 1/4 inch margin. Do not cut through the bottom of the squash.
- In a large bowl, mix together the lamb, rice, tomato, salt, pepper, and allspice. My family always uses our hands to mix this. This meat mixture can also be used to stuff bell peppers. Stuff the squash with the meat mixture. It should be packed but leave ½ in space at the top for rice to expand while cooking.
- Arrange the squash standing up in a large pot. If there is leftover meat, make small meatballs and add them to the pot.
- In a separate bowl, mix the pomegranate molasses, diced tomatoes, garlic, peppermint, and lemon juice with 2 cups of water. Pour over the squash. Add water into the pot with the squash until it covers them by 1 inch. Cover the squash with a ceramic plate to prevent them from moving while cooking.
- Bring the water to a boil, then cover with a lid and let it simmer for 90 minutes.
- Take the pot off the heat and let it sit for 30 minutes.
- Serve warm with sliced vegetables and Armenian string cheese.
Notes
- Pomegranate molasses is a necessary ingredient, but hard to find. It can be ordered online or found at some Middle Eastern and Indian grocery stores.