Chayote with Tomatoes, Mushrooms, and Cheese

Picture
Ingredients
2 chayote, split, seeds removed
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup red onion, 1/4 inch dice
1 3/4 cups shitake mushrooms, cleaned, stems removed, thinly sliced
3/4 cup green bell pepper, 1/4 inch dice
3/4 cup tomato, peeled, seeded, 1/4 inch dice
1 teaspoon parsley, chopped
Tabasco to taste
salt and black pepper, to taste
1/4 cup Manchego cheese, grated

Directions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
  2. Put the chayote in a heavy-bottomed pot and add about 1 inch of boiling salted water. Cover tightey, reduce the heat, and boil for 10-15 minutes or until slightly tender. Remove the chayote and reserve.
  3. Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the onion, mushrooms, and green pepper; continue to cook until the moisture is evaporated.
  4. Turn the heat to low and add the tomato and parsley. Season the stuffing with Tabasco, salt, and black pepper, then let cool slightly.
  5. Spoon the stuffing into the chayote halves and top with the grated cheese.
  6. Bake until the chayote is tender and thoroughly heated.

Critique
Chef: Flavorful, a little crisp, but squash cooked nicely, filling was too oily and could have browned more, garlic especially needed to cook more, still too much "bite"

Personal/team:  agreed that filling was too oily, did not have tomatoes and that would have helped flavor the filling better; overall squash was good, but filling needed to cook longer to brown more and should have used less oil. Appearance was nice, browning on cheese was good.

Lessons Learned: steaming the chayote before removing pit makes it much easier. Since the filling has more flavor than the squash you can also scoop out more of the inside when you scoop out the pit  to make a larger "bowl" for the filling.