Linda Dalal Sawaya: Bringing the people behind our food to life. I cut off the tip and the little tiny bit at the end; going to use this squash corer. I’ll do the big ones first. The stuffing we used for another dish, so it’s none of it is wasted. I used to love these for this little, these beautiful little cores. The idea is to get this whole thing cored at about an eight of an inch thick, without breaking it or piercing the edge. So when I was little, my grandmother and mother didn’t want me to do it because I would inevitably do it the wrong way, but eventually, other-end takes practice. Okay, just coring out the center and scraping. It’s kind of got a sharp blade.

Female Speaker: Can you tell me about this device that you have?

Linda Dalal Sawaya: This is something my mom had made when she came to America, because she wanted to make Lebanese squash and they weren’t grocery stores like that are today where you can buy one of these. So she had somebody, a metal worker take a brass tube and cut it, and shape it so she could use it to scour her squash. So one trick in order to guage how far not to go through the end that I do is, I kind of measure on the outside so I know I can go no further in than that, before I have kind of pierce in, but I still got a ways to go.

Female Speaker: What do you call these devices?

Linda Dalal Sawaya: A squash corer. So when I get to the end, one way I check is I hold this up to the light and amazingly enough, it’s transparent. Where it’s the right thickness. If it’s a little opaque, if you can’t see the light through it, it’s still too thick.

Female Speaker: You can use green zucchini for this Italian zucchini?

Linda Dalal Sawaya: And you can also use yellow crookneck squash. We cut off the crookneck, and use the round the bulbous part. Okay, I am going to do my holded-up light inspection. Looks pretty good, you want to see? Now we are going to drop this. This is a bowl of salted water with one clove of garlic in it to give it some flavor. And, that’s why I have the western squash waiting. And then, there is spring onion, fresh parsley and fresh mint, and some salt, pepper, cayenne pepper. This is the vegetarian version, there is a meat version, but I like the vegetarian version. Could you get my pot? Always, we have to have our hands clean, because we are using our hands for everything. So, this also had some olive oil in it, and that at the very end I’m going to pour a lemon juice and the tomatoes. So, I have a pot where they can stand up. They’ll probably tilt a little bit. So, now just use your hand and you start stuffing.

This is slow food, part of the slow food culture So, when I am doing this, I am not getting impatient. Also, it help to have somebody else doing it, because it goes faster if there is two people. So, I’m not going to pack it down real tight because the rice has to have room to expand. And I’m going to fill it to about half an inch from the very top.

Kind of clean it up a little bit, and that will be the first one in the pot. Now, we adjust it as I add to it. Okay, I am going to rinse off. And now, I need them to stand as vertical as possible, but I’m going to put a lid on here. So, I have the whole tomatoes, and I can just pour it over the top. This is going to make the sauce and also get inside. I use half of the oil in the dressing, the other half goes on top. You may have third of one cup of lemon juice, which I squeezed from fresh lemons. We can’t use that other any lemon, fake lemon things. And, I want to be sure that goes inside. I add one cup of water. We need to stove it up, I think I’ll do it on the back burner here. So goes on high until it comes to boil, and then I will turn it down. And simmer for about 45 minutes. A little Lebanese peas, just add some things, and cucumber…

Female Speaker: Is it a Lebanese cucumber?

Linda Dalal Sawaya: Middle Eastern cucumber. If you make it with love, it will be delicious.