Grilled Potatoes with Garlic Dip

Potatoes are most used vegetable and side in Czech cuisine. If you were to prepare something on a grill, e.g. our recipe for skewers, you may try to make grilled potatoes in tin foil with garlic dip. It goes very well with meat and you can please your vegetarian friends as well. Of course, you don’t have to necessarily grill them, but bake them in oven.

Ingredients

  • potatoes
  • fresh thyme, rosemary
  • 250 ml of sour cream
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • salt and pepper
  • chives
  • butter

Directions

  1. Clean potatoes thoroughly, don’t peel them. Cut in the middle, but not all the way through. You can pierce large potatoes with fork.
  2. Fill with piece of butter and thyme and rosemary.
  3. Wrap potatoes in tin foil and put on grill for 30-40 minutes and turn sometimes. (You can brush tin foil with a bit of oil.)
  4. Meanwhile mince garlic and mix it with sour cream and season with salt and pepper.
  5. Serve in grilled potato skin with chopped chives.



Grilled Pork Skewers

Time of weekend family barbecues is not just pleasure time in US or UK but also in Czech Republic. Although it’s pretty obvious that meals on the menu are quite different. Czech grill parties or bonfires include mainly sausages and selection of meat. Fairly popular among Czechs are “špízy” (meat on a skewers), which can be made in many different ways. Let’s try one of the classic grilled pork skewers today. You can serve them with grilled potatoes and vegetables. And of course don’t forget a cold beer to wash it down.

Ingredients

  • 500g of pork leg
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • 2 bratwursts
  • 2 onions
  • 2 bell peppers
  • 4 potatoes
  • salt and pepper
  • olive oil

Directions

  1. Cube the pork, pour with oil and mix with minced garlic, salt and pepper. Let in fridge for several hours.
  2. Slice bratwursts, onions, peppers and potatoes. You can oil the potatoes.
  3. Thread ingredients on a skewer.
  4. Grill for about 20 minutes. Or put in oven.



Cauliflower Pancakes

Cauliflower is quite popular vegetable in Czech Republic and not just as an ingredient in vegetable soups. For a main course there are three cauliflower recipes: Breaded fried cauliflower, cauliflower pancakes and scrambled cauliflower (known as mozeček). Now fried cauliflower is most common and served even in restaurants in lunch menu, but my personal favourite are pancakes. This soft and fluffy meal beats all stereotypes about Czechs being only meat-eaters. Cauliflower meals are always served with potatoes.

Ingredients

  • 1 cauliflower
  • 2-3 eggs
  • salt and pepper
  • 4 spoons of flour
  • oil

Directions

  1. Cut off leaves and stalk. Clean cauliflower and divide to smaller florets. Boil in salted water for 10 minutes. Strain and let cool off.
  2. Squash cauliflower.
  3. Divide egg whites and yolks. Add yolks to squashed cauliflower. Whip egg whites.
  4. Mix flour to mixture and season with salt and pepper.
  5. Gently mix in whipped egg whites.
  6. Fry small pancakes slowly in heated oil from both sides.

Add flour if the mixture doesn’t hold together enough.



Nakladany Hermelin – Pickled Cheese

Nakladany Hermelin or Pickled cheese is popular pub snack that comes with beer. It’s prepared from Hermelín cheese (literally means “ermine”) a Czech version of Camembert cheese. As always there are many different recipes and ingredients. Let’s try a basic homemade pickled cheese.

Ingredients

  • big mason jar
  • 6-8 pieces of Camembert like cheese
  • 3-4 onions
  • 8 cloves of garlic
  • peppercorns
  • allspice
  • bayleaf
  • hot peppers (goat horns peppers)
  • 1 teaspoon of paprika or chilli
  • salt
  • oil (sunflower oil)

Directions

  1. Slice each cheese in the middle. Slice onion.
  2. Cover each cheese slice with paprika (or chilli), minced garlic and salt. Put the slices back together.
  3. Put in jar some onion, bayleaf, few peppercorns and allspice, then 2-3 cheeses and hot pepper. Again onion and repeat layers until the jar is filled up.
  4. Pour oil in the jar so every ingredient is submerged.
  5. Close jar and put in fridge for 3-5 days.
  6. Pickled cheese is served with bread and cold beer. Nakladany hermelin can stay in your fridge for several weeks.



Pork Roast with Dumplings and Sauerkraut

Pork roast with dumplings and sauerkraut is absolute classic of Czech food and is considered Czech national meal. The title “Vepřo knedlo zelo” says everything about main items on plate. However there can be few alterations, because one can prepare bread dumplings as well as potato dumplings. Other dilemma can arise when it comes to sauerkraut, because someone might prefer from red cabbage. In this recipe you’ll find potato dumplings since recipe for bread dumplings is already posted.

Ingredients

Pork roast

  • 1 kg of pork shoulder roast
  • salt, pepper, caraway
  • 3–4 cloves of garlic
  • 2 onions
  • 2 spoons of lard

Potato dumplings

  • 1 kg of potatoes
  • salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 spoon of milk
  • circa 400g of flour
  • 3 spoons of farina

Sauerkraut

  • 500 g of sauerkraut
  • 1-2 onions
  • 100g of bacon
  • salt, caraway
  • teaspoon of sugar
  • 1 raw potato

Directions

Pork roast

  1. Chop onion in baking pan.
  2. Clean meat and put on onion. Then salt and pepper meat. Spread minced garlic and put caraway on meat.
  3. Add lard and baste with glass of water.
  4. Put in preheated oven 190°C (375°F) for about 2 hours. Baste if necessary.

Potato dumplings

  1. Boil unpeeled potatoes and then let them to cool off.
  2. Peel and grate potatoes and put in bowl and season with salt.
  3. Whisk egg with spoon of milk, add in bowl and mix together with potatoes.
  4. Put on rolling board and gradually thicken with flour and farina until dough is not sticky.
  5. Divide dough in several parts and knead cylinder loaves.
  6. Boil in salted water for 20 minutes.

Saurkraut

  1. Take sauerkraut from brine, let drain and chop.
  2. Chop onion and stir-fry on oil or lard. Add cutted bacon.
  3.  Add sauerkraut and after 10 minutes season with salt, sugar and caraway.
  4. At last thicken with grated potato.



Svickova na smetane – Beef Sirloin with Cream Sauce

Czechs love heavy sauces with dumplings. Svíčková na smetaně (sirloin with cream sauce) is the most popular sauce of Czech cuisine. Tender meat with heavy sweet sauce is a challenge to every cook. To exaggerate, most Czech men judge their brides-to-be by their ability to make good sauce. But of course mother always does it the best way. And since the recipes pass from mother to daughter, there are as many different versions of this recipe as there are families. The cream sauce is not always served with beef, but also with pork and rabbit. Svíčková can be also considered as Christmas dish, since in some families it’s served on First Christmas Feast (Christmas Day abroad).

Ingredients

  • 1kg of beef sirloin
  • 150g of bacon (not sliced)
  • 150g of parsley
  • 150g of celery root
  • 300g of carrots
  • 300g of onions
  • 10 peppercorns
  • 5 allspice berries
  • 4 bay leaves
  • hint of thyme
  • 200ml of cream
  • 2 spoons of mustard
  • 80g of sugar
  • lemon
  • salt
  • oil
  • water or broth

Directions

  1. Clean the meat and if you want interlard with part of bacon. Salt the meat.
  2. Cut the rest of the bacon and with meat stir-fry on oil shortly. Then remove the meat.
  3. Dice onion and root vegetable and fry on oil with bacon till it gets tawny.
  4. Add peppercorn, allspice and bayleaf. Put sugar and let caramelize.
  5. Add mustard and peeled sliced lemon.
  6. Pour in water or broth. Put meat in sauce and stew for about 1,5 hour until the meat is tender.
  7. Take out the meat from sauce. Remove peppercorns, allspice and bayleaves.
  8. Blend vegetable in sauce with mixer and pour cream.
  9. Season to taste with salt, sugar or vinegar.
  10. Serve with bread dumplings. Garnish with lemon slice, cranberries and whipped cream.