For many years, girls from the rural part of Malta would go to work for urban families - and in many cases, like in ours, become part of the family. Tereza would insist on doing the cooking while I was at university and I actually learnt many traditional Maltese dishes from her.
To make this dish, she would put the meat in a Pyrex plate over a big pot of simmering broth that would then be served as the first course - frugal cooking to save electricity - she would say - when in actually fact it killed 2 birds with one stone (or two dishes with one pot!)
my old kitchen...
Ingredients
8 very thin slices of beef
3 garlic cloves, crushed and chopped
2 tablespoons of chopped parsley
2 tomatoes
1 celery head (just the leaves)
4 strips of bacon, chopped
1 tbs olive oil
Salt and pepper
METHOD:
Place the meat, garlic, bacon,tomatoes, celery and chopped parsley in a large plate.
Drizzle the oil on top and season with salt and pepper.
Cover with foil or another plate and steam over hot water or a saucepan of simmering soup for about an hour.
When the meat is tender, serve with mash or boiled potatoes.