Shopska salad

Shopska salad is originally a Bulgarian salad made from tomatoes, cucumber, onion, pepper and feta cheese. It’s popular across Eastern and Central Europe. Shopska salad is easy summer salad recipe, which can be served as main course or a healthy side with meat.

Ingredients

  • 2 cucumbers
  • 3-5 tomatoes
  • 2 peppers
  • 200g of Balkan feta cheese
  • 1-2 onions
  • oil

Directions

  1. Dice peeled cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers.
  2. Chop onion and cube feta cheese.
  3. Put in bowl and mix together with spoon of oil.
  4. Serve with bread.



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.



Apricot Filled Curd Cheese Dumplings

Sweet fruit dumplings (ovocné knedlíky) are unreservedly linked to summer days. But as always there are many ways how to cook this sweet recipe. You can prepare fruit dumplings from leavened dough, curd cheese or potato dough. In this recipe we use curd cheese dough. Dumplings are filled with various fruits e.g. apricots, blueberries, strawberries, plums, whatever you like. After that dumplings are cooked in boiling water and served in several ways. For example sprinkled with grated curd cheese, melted butter and sugared or with sugar, cocoa, melted butter and whipped cream. This recipe for curd cheese apricot dumplings is really quick and delicious.

Ingredients

  • 200g of fine wheat flour (or 100g of semolina and 100g of fine wheat flour)
  • 250g of curd cheese
  • 100g of butter
  • egg
  • 40g of sugar
  • icing sugar
  • apricots (or any other fruit you like)
  • blueberries
  • sour cream
  • pinch of salt

Directions

  1. Put egg, sugar, melted butter and curd cheese to the bowl. Whisk it all together, so long until the mixture is smooth.
  2. Then you can add flour and stir it again so long until the smooth dough.
  3. Roll the dough and divide it into smaller parts. Every part spread by your fingers, put pitted apricot into the middle (you can put sugar into the apricot) and wrap it into the dumpling.
  4. Cook it in boiling salted water for 6-8 minutes.
  5. Serve dusted with icing sugar, melted butter, sour cream and fruit e.g. blueberries.

 



Strawberry Popsicles

Summer just started (in the Northern Hemisphere) and that’s great time to bring you some summer recipes full of fruits. In Czech Republic roads are surrounded with small stalls selling fruits like strawberries and other berries. Strawberries are one of the favorites fruits among kids. So why not prepare an icy refreshment for your sweeties. Strawberry popsicles or ice lollies are awfully easy and good. And when served in icy fruit bowl, even your hubby won’t resist.

Ingredients

  • 500g of strawberries
  • 200g of sugar
  • 200ml of water

Directions

  1. First prepare the syrup. Boil down water with sugar until it gets thicky.
  2. Squash strawberries and mix them in the syrup.
  3. Pour mixture in popsicle forms and put a wooden stick.
  4. Put to freezer over night.

Tip for serving

  1. Prepare two bowls. Line first bowl with sliced strawberries.
  2. Put smaller bowl on them. Pour water between the bowls and put to freezer.
  3. Before serving put bowls in hot water and take out frozen bowl with strawberries.
  4. Serve strawberry pops in icy bowls.

 

 



Bublanina – Cherry Sponge Cake

Bublanina is a classic sponge cake baked during summer season. Mainly during season of cherries, strawberries and other berries. You can say that this sponge cake can be made with almost every fruit from people’s gardens – cherry, plums, strawberries, raspberries, peaches and so on. It’s fluffy and ideal with your afternoon tea or coffee.

Ingredients

  • 350 g of soft wheat flour
  • 6 eggs
  • 100 g of butter
  • 200 g of sugar
  • 1 vanilla sugar
  • 50 g of powdered sugar
  • baking powder
  • 400 g of cherries

Directions

  1. Mix butter with sugar and vanilla sugar and gradually add yolks.
  2. Whip egg whites and powdered sugar.
  3. Mix yolk mixture with whipped eggs and flour with baking powder.
  4. Put dough in baking tray (greased and dusted with flour) and lay pitted cherries on top.
  5. Bake in preheated oven 160°C (320°F) for 40 minutes.
  6. Dust with powdered sugar and serve.