Cypriot-Armenian Haig Varoujan Berberian, who is 89 and lives in West London, is an excellent cook. While during the lockdown I can’t taste his delicious stews and sauces, we are being very Armenian and still talking about food a lot during our Facetime chats. We recently remembered the giant Cypriot marrow, grown on his son Garo’s allotment. Haig makes a fantastic dolma from all sorts of vegetables, including marrows and shared the recipe with me for the AI blog. He and his sister Elise learned the recipe from their mother Luysapere, who was originally from Erzurum.
Marrows, courgettes and squashes are widely used in Cypriot cuisine – all called a ‘’kolodji’’, and used in pies, stews and other dishes too.
Of course, to cook a marrow like the one Haig is holding in his picture, you need several strong men and a saw, but for smaller sizes, they can be hollowed, stuffed with mince meat and tomatoes and cooked in the oven. For an average-sized marrow, Haig suggest to use a few for a family meal and divide them into 3-4 large parts, and the giant ones like in the picture can be cut horizontally in halves.
Ingredients
200gr rice
400gr ground (minced) lamb or beef
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
parsley, finely chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Directions
Place the onions, garlic, tomatoes, parsley and spices in a bowl, then stir in meat and rice. Season with salt and black ground pepper, kneading this mixture well with your hands.
Cut and clean the marrows, scoop out the seeds and membrane from the inside, and stuff them with the prepared filling, leaving a bit of space for the rice to expand.
Make a few holes in the marrow for the water to leak out. Arrange in a baking dish with some water or cover it and place in the oven. Cook on moderate heat for 40-50 minutes, depending on thickness and size of the marrows. They can also be cooked in a pressure cooker (although Haig says that stuff tomatoes are best done in the oven).
Written down by Tato Ayvazyan