)

This is such a healthy and economical way of cooking a light family meal.  You will be using one burner to cook two dishes which can either be used as a first and second course or which can be used as two seperate meals.  It is healthy because the meat for the main course is cooked over a pot of broth (brodu) and therefore there is no frying or addition of fat.  The broth can be made with beef in the typical way of else can be made with a small chicken, chicken breasts or even stuffed marrows or stuffed long marrow (qara twila).  If making with any of these other than the beef, it would make an excellent dish for the next day rather than eat all at once.

Ingredients for Broth

2 litres of water

1 onion

2 carrots (chopped)

1 marrow (chopped) unless using to make stuffed marrows

some celery and parlsey (I like to add this too to broth as I prefer to celery)

1 tablespoon tomato puree (kunserva)

4 medium-sized potatoes - cut into quarters

seasoning

(in addition put 500g of beef suitable for the broth or two chicken breasts or 1 small chicken, etc)  Stuffed marrows with meat or rikotta can also be used.

Ingredients for the Laham fuq il-Fwar

1 slice per person of beef eg rump thinly sliced (for some, one slice of thinly sliced meat will be quite sparse but one can use the meat/marrows from the broth to make up if desired, unless you want to leave the broth-meat for another meal)

6 cloves of garlic

a nice sprig of parsely all chopped finely

seasoning

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium sized tomoatoes thinly sliced

Method

First make the broth by putting the water in a large pot and placing all the chopped ingredients and meat/chicken/stuffed marrows in it.  Season.

The place a pyrex or enamel plate or dish on top of the pot.  This should fit well in such a way that it doesn't fall in the pot and can trap all the steam which is created by the broth whilst cooking.  It should then be covered with a baking sheet/greaseproof paper and a lid when ready to cook.  All must be sealed well in this way as that is how the meat cooks.

Place the slices of meat on this plate/dish so that they are spread out thinly on the plate which is going to be placed on the pot of broth.  Then season and cover with the chopped garlic and chopped parsely. Place the thinly sliced tomatoes all over the meat and a dressing of olive oil.

Cover with greaseproof paper and lid and allow to cook slowly for around 2 hours.

To serve

You can make an interesting salad and vegetable dish to go with this.  In the photo I have some boiled spinach, a simple cherry tomato salad and sauteed potatoes which have been cut like french fries but are not at all fried.  They are just cooked in a frying pan with some water, rosemary, garlic and seasoning and allowed to sautee nicely.