Czechmatediary

Dill is one of the major spices used in the Czech cuisine. It pretty much shares the throne with parsley, caraway seeds and thyme. We make dill soups, dill gravy, dill cookies….(just kidding with the cookies!). The fancy name for dill weed is Anethum graveolens, a member of the parsley family. It is native to the eastern Mediterranean region and western Asia. The word dill comes from the old Norse word dylla, meaning to soothe or lull. It dates back in writing to about 3000 B.C., where it was mentioned in Egyptian medical texts. Czech dill soup is one of my all-time favorite dishes. It is a perfect winter meal because it is rich, creamy and nutritious - no need to have a second course after this baby :0)

CZ: Kopr spolu s petrzelkou, tymianem a kminem vladne ceske kuchyni. Delame z neho polevky, omacky, buchty (no to snad jeste ne)…..kopr je proste milacek vsech Cechu (a myslim ze i Slovaku). Nedavno jsem narazila na vyborny recept na koprovku, trosku jsem ho upravila a tady je. Sdilim s vami mou nove nalezenou kuchynskou pohadku :0) (more…)

It is really getting close to Christmas and most of us are getting ready for some serious Christmas-cookie-baking marathon. I myself will be baking some more of vanilla crescents (there is never enough of those guys) and some vanocka. To make it easier for you here is a complete recipe list of them:

CZ: Vanoce se blizi a s nim i neodlucitelny maraton peceni vanocniho peciva. Aby se vam lepe peklo, udelala jsem list vsech vanocnich receptu tak si ohrnte rukavy a jde se do toho!

• Rum balls/Rumove koule
• Vanocka
• Walnut Tarts/Orechove dorticky
  
• Linz Tarts/ Linecka kolecka
• Vanilla crescents/Vanilkove rohlicky

Now that Thanksgiving is out of the way (still have a bellyache by the way) let’s talk CHRISTMAS!!! My Czech friend Martina agreed to some truly delicious guest post…

Ted kdyz je Dikuvzdani jiz za nami (porad mam z neho jeste precpane bricho), muzeme se zacit bavit o VANOCICH!! Moje kamaradka Martina (ceska) nam popisuje sve vanoce…plus vyborny recept.

CZECH COOKIE BAKING AND HOW CHRISTMAS IS THE TIME OF PEACE ;0)

- by Martina

When I think about a Christmas time back in Czech - when I was just a little girl - my mind pictures the classroom environment just before the winter break. The blackboard was written all over with notes for our teacher not to test us anymore since we had to be helping our moms with Christmas baking and had no time for studying. That’s right, we had to help with  baking of the cookies, gluing them together with filling and decorating them. The note would usually sound something like this: “Christmas is the time for peace and not for testing; if we get an ‘F’, your fish will not taste the same’ (it rhymes in Czech)”. And to our surprise, the teachers took the note to their hearts and left us alone. Probably they were really afraid that their carp will not taste that good. It worked every year. (more…)

An American Tartar sauce tastes nothing like the Czech one. I don’t know why but it just tastes completely weird to me. I know that many of us are going through the Czech Tartar sauce withdrawals so I did some research and picked the 2 most authentic recipes. The first one is the easier way out where one does not need to use raw eggs - you just start adding stuff to the already made mayonnaise.  The second recipe is for the hard-core food lovers who don’t mind having couple of raw eggs in their dish. Although one risks to get a salmonella poisoning it may just be worth it :0)

PS: Tartar sauce can be used on just about anything but it is a must when eating fish or the Czech-style  fried cauliflower. (more…)

WARNING: if you you want to stay clear of garlic breath stop reading right now. This recipe is so potent that it will give you one just by reading these words! Traditional cesnecka (Garlic soup) doesn’t have much in it but garlic and few herbs. I don’t know what the magic is, but at the end it ends up tasting so yummy and rich! This particular recipe came from Sher who is an American expat living in Prague with her Czech husband and who also has a fun blog called Sher off the Beaten Path. Dobrou chut! And don’t forget, the more garlic the merrier!

Click HERE for the Cesnecka recipe.

CZ: Tak uz je to tady - cesnecka!!! Jestlize se bojite cesnekoveho (neboli tzv. zabijackeho) dechu, radsi tyto slova ani nectete, protoze tento recept je tak silny, ze vam v krvi zacne kolovat cesnek, aniz byste pozreli jedine sousto. Ja cesnek miluju, takze pro mne to neni problem :0). Recept je prevzaty od Sher, tedy spise od jejiho blogu zvaneho Sher off the Beaten Path. Sher je Americanka, ktera uz nejakou dobu zije se svym ceskym manzelem v Praze.

Recept na Cesnecku najdete zde (kliknete zde).

In today’s globalized world some ‘ignorant’ soul might call this dish a vegetable tempura. But we, the experienced cauliflower-lovers know, that it is not just some kind of an appetizer. When served with a side dish - like the mashed potatoes for example - breaded (or ‘fried’) cauliflower is a delicious main course!

CZ: V dnesni globalizovane spolecnosti muze nejaka ta ‘ignorantska’ duse nazvat smazeny kvetak ‘vegetable tempura’. Samozrejme ze my, zkuseni kvetakovci vime, ze smazeny kvetak neni jen nejaky predkrm. Kdyz se totiz serviruje s brambory, je z toho velmi chutna a syta vecere! (more…)

Skubanky is a traditional main course in the Czech Republic, but since it tastes sweet, Skubanky fits more into the dessert category if served in other countries. In the Western part of the Czech Republic it is also called kucmoch, however in both cases it is a simple meal out of boiled potatoes, little bit of flour, sugar and a lots of butter. CZ: Je na case uvarit si skubanky! Od te doby, co jsem je naposledy jedla uplynulo asi 100 let, tak jsem si rekla, ze je na case, aby si me chutove bunky trosku zavzpominaly. Me skubanky (nebo-li kucmoch) dopadli trosku ridce, ale stejne jsem si na nich pochutnala. Ingredients

:

• 2 lbs of potatoes (about 16 medium-sized potatoes; If you make a circle with the thumb and the index finger and let about 2 inch space between the tips, that is a medium potato)

- use Russet potatoes as they have the largest amount of potato starch in them

• 7 oz (1 cup) of all-purpose flour (Wondra flour works even better)
  
• 1 stick of melted butter
• ground poppy seeds (0r cinnamon) and sugar for dusting the škubánky

No. of servings: 4 (more…)

I am definitely not an expert on Slovak cuisine so I called on for some help. Lubos has a blog called ‘Slovak cooking’ and one of his tasty recipes introduce us to the magic of traditional Slovak Sour bean soup (click here). It kind of reminds me the Sauerkraut soup which I have introduced to you in the past. It definitely looks delicious and healthy and it is scheduled for one of my next week’s dinner courses :0)

CZ: Jelikoz nejsem expert na slovenskou kuchyni, zavolala jsem si na pomoc Lubose. Lubos ma blog zvany ‘Slovak cooking’, kde se to hemzi dobrouckymi recepty, jako je napriklad tato zakysana fazolova polevka (kliknete zde) - prava, slovenska! Pripomina mi trosku nasi zelnacku: je zdava a brni vas po ni pusa. Tak dobrou chut, ja ji mam naplanovanou na pristi tyden!

I know I have posted a bread recipe in the past but - thanks to my awesome high school friend Eva - I have an easier version for you.  You don’t have to wait days and days until your dough ferments anymore, you just simply ad a package of yeast. Remember, bread-making is an artistry so don’t worry if your first one does not look like a magazine-cover snap shot!
PS: Also, if you have a baking stone, use that, but if you don’t just use a baking tray.
CZ: Sice jsem jiz v minulosti recept na cesky chleba publikovala, ale ted mam pro vas verzi mnohem jednodussi; nemusite kvasit svoje vlastni testo, proste tam hodite pytlicek s drozdim! Recept pochazi od me stredoskolske kamaradky Evy, ktera si ho velmi pochvaluje (a ja samozrejme take). A nevzdavejte to, kdyz se vam ten bochnik parkrat nepovede - to vite, peceni chleba, to je veda!!
PS: Jestli mate kameny pekac tak pecte chleba na nem, jestli ne, tak pouzijte tormalni pekac.

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LECO (pronounced ‘lecho’) is a delicious traditional Czech/Slovak meal. Since it has an egg in it I am afraid that most Americans would eat it just for breakfast which is a shame. We used to have it for lunch or dinner but never breakfast!!! If you like, you can ease into it by adding some American-style cilantro (blah!) or avocado (yum!).

CZ: Cechy bez leca jsou jako Cechy bez Vaclavskeho namesti - proste by nestaly za nic! Leco je jednoduche, zdrave a velmi lahodne. Muzete si ho poamerictit pridanim cilantra (fuj!) nebo avokada (mnam!).

Ingredients:

• 1/2 onion, thinly sliced
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 4-5 tomatoes, chopped
• 1/2 polish kielbasa, sliced
• 2-3 eggs

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