This one is a follow up of the previous recipe on Maestra, the traditional one pot greek dish that is such a stable for the summer and the winder and the spring and the fall… Yeah you got it all, year around. Once you cook it you can serve it straight up, but you can also have some fun with it. Fun meaning… Decorate it. Make it fancy. You deserve some fanciness in you dinner. And this one is great dressing trick for burgers or chicken. You only need cheese.
Take two thin slices of swiss cheese (or any other melting cheese you can find sliced).
Cut them in 5 pieces, adjusting their width, to avoid those taste holes.
Lay five of them parallel to each other, with a very small distance in-between them, and weave the other slices like making a basket.
Once done you will have a basket weaved type of cheese slice.
Now take a cup or any other container and lube it with a few drops of olive oil. You can use any container, even a large cookie cutter that you cover one side with a wax papper or your hand if it is cool enoudgh (not your hand… your manestra).
Fill it with the manestra.
Cover it with a your serving dish. Here the measuring cup. The handle can be used to hold it against the plate.
Flip it over and…
Slowly remove the cup, revealing a nice tower of the manesta.
This one got tipped over a little but, it is ok… I did my best.
Put the cheese on top. This one is hot form the pot so it can melt the cheese. If yours is not enough pop it under the boiler for a few secs.
Already some of the oils of the cheese start coming out and there is some color change.
Cover it with a metal bowl to radiate back the heat form the manestra.
And there you have it. A great dish that can become even greater with some creativity and some imagination. You can use those trick to pretty much everything.
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