Gratinated Pasta Casserole

Gratinated pasta casserole known as Šunkofleky are easy, quick and cheap dinner. It tastes best with pickled gherkins. You can use all types of small pasta and improve recipe with cheese or meat of your choice.

Ingredients

  • 500g of pasta (quadretti, macaroni)
  • 5 eggs
  • 300g of smoked meat or ham/sausage
  • oil
  • salt, pepper

Directions

  1. Boil pasta in salted water with few drops of oil.
  2. Meanwhile cube boiled smoked meat or sausage.
  3. Mix pasta and meat together in a pan.
  4. Put to preheated oven for 15 minutes at 220°C.
  5. Whisk eggs and season with salt and pepper. Pour eggs over pasta. Reduce temperature to 180°C and bake for another 10-15 minutes.
  6. Serve with pickled gherkins.



Homemade Liver Sausage

Jitrnice (liver sausage) are essential product of every pig slaughter and they are produced in all of Czech Republic. Depending on region, their preparation changes. In some parts of Moravia, people add semolina instead of buns. Boiled rice is also used and groit. During boiling we watch carefullly if the water is not boiling heavily – sausages could tear up.

Ingredients

  • 1 kg of brisket
  • 350g of pork jowl
  • 500 g pork lungs
  • 350 g pork livers
  • 500 g buns
  • 0,5 l pork broth
  • 80 g salt
  • 3 g marjoram
  • 1,5 g ginger
  • 1,5 g minced allspice
  • 45 g minced garlic
  • 1 g pepper
  • 8 m of sausage casings
  • wooden sticks (skewers)

Directions

  1. Boil brisket and jowl until semitender and lungs until tender. Cube buns.
  2. Grind boiled lungs and grind raw livers twice. Remove bones and cartilages from brisket and cube brisket and jowl.
  3. Put cubed buns in a bowl and pour part of broth, add livers, garlic, lungs and rest of broth. Salt and season and mix thoroughly.
  4. Then add meat from brisket and jowl and mix again. Season to taste if necessary.
  5. Cut thin casings to 20 cm (8 inch). Close one end of casing with skewer and fill with mixture. Then close the second end with skewer.
  6. Boil in hot water (90°C) for about 15-20 minutes. Wash boiled sausages in cold water and let cool of on wooden plate. Turn them after 15 minutes.



Pork Greaves Spread

Greaves spread is typical for pig slaughtering. Main ingredient are well sputtered greaves. The best are homemade, freshly made. Their making is pretty simple and you’ll also get delicious homemade lard. You can use lard for frying or you can put part of greaves into glass and pour with lard. When it’s cold, it’s a delicious snack to bread, that can last in fridge for a very long time. Greaves spread on its own has many variations. Here’s basic recipe, that can be enriched by boiled eggs or pickles and garlic.

Ingredients

  • 3 kg of lard
  • 2 large onion
  • 3 spoons of mustard
  • 100 ml of water
  • caraway
  • salt

Directions

  1. Cube lard to 1 cm large pieces. Put them in large pot and pour water, so it doesn’t burn  at start. Fry lard very slowly and stir a lot, till greaves are about half the size and brown.
  2. Then we take the greaves out and squeeze the oil to glass. Season with glass and caraway.
  3. Ground cold greaves add chopped onion, mustard and mix together.
  4. Put spread on fresh bread and garnish with chopped chives.

 

 



Potato Dumplings Filled with Smoked Meat and Sauerkraut

Filled potato dumplings are quite popular meal in Czech Republic, and it’s very easy to prepare. The most common filling is smoked meat, which can be enriched with bacon. Interesting alternative can be pork scratching. Potatoes for  dough can be boiled a day before. But once you make the dough, try to work with it immediately. In time it begins to thin and then it would tear up and be sticky.

Ingredients

  • 1 kg of potatoes
  • 500 g of fine wheat flour
  • 2 eggs
  • tbs of salt
  • 500 g of smoked meat
  • 1 onion for topping

Sauerkraut

 

  • 1 kg of sauerkraut
  • 1 onion
  • salt, caraway
  • 1 spoon of flour
  • lard or oil

Directions

  1. Boil whole unpeeled potatoes. Let cool off, then peel them and grate finely. Add eggs, flour and salt and knead into dough.
  2. Roll into 0,5 cm thick layer and cut to squares of 10 cm x 10 cm.
  3. Put chopped  smoked meat on every square. You can season them with salt and pepper. Then put the corners together and make into a round dumpling.
  4. Boil in steam for 25 minutes. Pinch with skewer after boiling and butter up with lard or oil. Sauerkraut
  5. Fry chopped onion on lard and add sauerkraut with pickle. Season with caraway and salt. Sauté for 15 – 20 minutes. If the sauerkraut is too sour you can sweeten it with sugar. At the end thicken  with flour mixed with a little water.
  6. Fry chopped onion on lard for final garnishing.



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.



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.