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.




Easter Stuffing

Easter stuffing is traditional meal that can be found during Easter in Czech homes. Although it’s called stuffing, it’s mainly prepared separately and only sometimes the mixture is stuffed in poultry. Stuffing can be made with meat or simply vegetarian. Also a lot of different herbs can be used. Traditional is nettle stuffing, but basically any green herbs like lovage, parsley can be used as well.

Ingredients

  • 10 old rolls
  • 6 eggs
  • 400 g boiled smoked meat
  • 50 g of melted butter
  • salt
  • pinch of nutmeg
  • handful of chopped herbs – nettle, parsley, lovage
  • almonds

Directions

  1. Cut rolls into small cubes and dunk in cup of milk.
  2. Crack eggs and split yolks and whites.
  3. Mix butter with yolks, rolls, salt, nutmeg and herbs. Also add cutted meat.
  4. Beat egg whites and gently add to mixture.
  5. Put mixture in buttered pan and sprinkle with chopped almonds.
  6. Bake for 30 minutes at 180°C (360°F).




Potato Pancakes

Potatoes are the most used side in Czech cuisine. Potato pancakes are called bramborák or cmunda and are very popular. You can either serve it simply as side dish or as main dish, for example with sauerkraut and salami. Potato pancakes goes well with goulash or katův šleh (“executioner’s whipping”).

Ingredients

  • 1 kg of potatoes
  • cup of milk
  • 1 egg
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • flour
  • marjoram
  • salt, pepper
  • oil for frying
  • optional: salami, bacon or ham

Directions

  1. Peel raw potatoes, wash and shred. Pour off some water from shreded potatoes.
  2. Season with salt and pepper. Add egg, marjoram and minced garlic.
  3. Add milk and flour. Dough shouldn’t be too thick.
  4. Panfry in heated oil in shape of pancakes.
  5. Potato pancakes serve fresh and hot.




Czech Bread Dumplings

If there’s any side dish Czechs love, it’s most definitely dumplings. Bread dumplings go perfectly with traditional Czech sauces like tomato sauce, dill sauce, svíčková (cream sauce) and of course goulash.

Ingredients

  • 500ml of milk
  • 1kg of fine wheat flour
  • 2 eggs
  • 20g of yeast
  • 20g salt
  • 2-3 old rolls
  • teaspoon of sugar

Directions

  1. Warm the milk to be tepid but not hot.
  2. Pour 100ml of milk into bowl, add crumbled yeast and sugar. Let leaven rest in warm place.
  3. Cut rolls into small cubes.
  4. Sift flour into clean bowl and mix with salt. Add eggs, warm milk and leaven (point 2).
  5. Knead thoroughly and at last blend in rolls.
  6. Cover bowl with cloth and let rise for 1 hour in warm place.
  7. After that devide dough into 3 or 4 parts. Knead again and form into long shaped rolls.
  8. Put in boiling water for about 20 minutes.
  9. Pierce with skewer to know they’re cooked.




Potato Salad

Potato salad is traditionally served with Schnitzel and cannot miss at Czech Christmas dinner table with carp. Every family prepare potato salad by their own recipe according to their taste and customs.

Ingredients

  • 2kg of potatoes
  • 3-4 carrots
  • 1 celery root
  • onion
  • 5 pickled gherkins
  • 4 hard boiled eggs
  • canned peas
  • 300g of ham
  • spoon of mustard
  • mayonnaise and tartare sauce (according to your taste)
  • salt, pepper

Directions

  1. Boil unpeeled potatoes in water with salt and let cool off. Then peel potatoes and cut to small cubes.
  2. Boil root vegeteables in water with pinch of salt and vinegar. Let cool off and cut to small cubes and mix with potatoes.
  3. Same way add chopped onion and gherkins, cubed boiled eggs, peas, cubed ham and mix together.
  4. Blend mustard and mayonnaise, season with salt and pepper. You can also pour a little of brine from pickled gherkins.