Best Family Favorite Czech Recipes

Soups and stews always seem to be a great way to take the sting out of a cold winter day. Chicken and dumplings and liver dumpling soup are some of my favorite kettle or dutch-oven prepared soups. I also have another fun soup to make that uses a different cooking method. I like to prepare beef barley soup with the ever popular crock pot. Those that have surfed this blog long enough know that when I get away from Czech recipes, I like to resort to posting a slow cooker meal or something fun on the grill. Well, low and behold……here is one more. The recipe below provides a rather generous quantity given I have family of five and I like to have enough for follow up meals. If you would like to give this one a go, simply cut the recipe ingredients in half. The choice of beef cut is also at your discretion, as I highly recommend beef short ribs if not using a chuck roast. Round steak will also work. Crock Pot Beef Barley Soup 3 lb chuck roast, trimmed of fat and cut into small stew size ...

Several key sweet treats come to mind with Christmas. Czech baking is about as good as it gets when it comes to Christmas dessert trays or cookie platters. Several Czech sweets seem to be close cousins of some Christmas cookies, pastries, and breads of those sampled from German, Austrian, Polish, and Hungarian cookbooks.   They are all pretty darn good and I shall list those common Czech sweets one might find at a Czech Christmas table……at least in my family. 1.        Houska – There seems to be an ongoing debate on baking and Czech message boards about the Christmas bread that consists of braided sweet dough with dried fruits and slivered almonds. Some consider this bread a Houska while others call it Vanocka.   I cannot say yea or nay to what the actual name is. There are some that refer to smaller unsweetened table bread or roll as being a Houska while stating that Vanocka is the sweetened variety. My Czech grandparents and Teta referred to...

As a kid I always despised liver. I even recall an old “Far Side” comic that displayed a “Liver N Onions” truck driving down a quaint neighborhood road and children are running in the opposite direction with terror on their faces. Not exactly the ice cream man. I do have a soft spot for two liver” bi-products”. One of them is the commercially made liverwurst or Braunschweiger. The other is the super delicious Bohemian liver dumpling soup. This soup is typical of most Czech restaurants and is usually served in a very clear consommé or beef soup. My recipe captures the flavor but does not match the clarity one would find in a Czech restaurant. The difference being that I like to add back the remaining ingredients (in tiny bite size) pieces as it seems a waste to throw them away. My recipe also cheats with using a prepared stock aside from making the stock a la natural with oxtails or soup bones. If you want to go that route, by all means do so. Otherwise, stick to this recipe to save som...

Frozen Apple Cider Drink Took a trip out to the apple farm this past weekend to gather up a dozen apple cider donuts for the family. Aside from fresh cider beverage and pumpkin pie, cider donuts define fall in our household and we make it a point to drive out for the dozen or so donut fix every October. The other fun item we enjoy every fall at this farm and bakery is the delicious apple cider slushie. The ingredients to this Indian summer cool treat don’t get any simpler. Mix a blender full of ice and a healthy dose of farm fresh apple cider. Blend the frozen treat until the ice cubes are broken down into a slushy or ICEE consistency. Serve in glasses with straws. I will get about three to four servings per blender full. Cider Slushies with a Kick Okay. Mom and Dad enjoying the cool cider slushy treat think……………”hmm, how would this go with a little splash of alcohol”. That is not a bad idea. Here is the recipe. 1. Fill Blender With Ice. 2. Pour about half of blender conta...

While I feel free to share or occasionally push my Czech recipes on to the blogosphere audience, one thing remains constant with most of these dishes. They are almost always served with Knedliky (dumplings). The occasional exception may be the boiled potato or potato pancakes (bramboraky). I love, love, love homemade knedliky. Nothing against the fine folks at Chateau, but a kettle full of fresh yeast raised dumplings is the way to go. That being said, it is probably wise to make enormous batches to make the time spent in the kitchen worthwhile. Consider triple or quadrupling the recipe and plan on freezing some for the next few months. Dumplings are definitely conducive to freezing provided the method is done correctly. I also recommend a freeze period no greater than sixty to seventy days. I honestly have not gone beyond this timeframe so not exactly sure the max here! Once the dumplings are done cooking and sliced, they can be prepared for freezing by one of two methods. One me...

I have an overabundance of green peppers in my garden that I am hard pressed to use up before they over-ripen. I have already used up a few as they have been mixed in the last few weeks with the likes ofs omelettes, salads, and Italian beef sandwiches. Peppers are a different sort as they really can’t be frozen for later use as can be done with beans, carrots, etc. I love these vegetables and almost consider them a fruit as they tend to get sweet when subjected to high roasting temperatures. Aside from my tendency to grill peppers or continue using them in skillet dishes, I turned my attention to making a stuffed green pepper soup. The recipe is easy to follow and will yield enough servings of soup for several meals. There are several ways to make this soup though the essentials include the peppers (of course), onion, tomato base, and rice. When preparing the soup, make sure to keep the rice on the side and warm. Serve the soup directly on top of the rice upon serving. Keeping these ...

I am a big fan of sweet doughs that often resemble donuts and seem very airy. You know, the kind of baked or fried dough that springs back when you press down on it. These doughs are typical of the dunkin donuts long john or boston cream donut or jelly bismarck. I also associate this dough with the infamous polish paczki. My mom used to make what she called Shishky (Slovak) or what is considered Vdolky. The dough started out as flat rounds then raised quite a bit when exposed to heat, often producing almost a partially flattened tennis ball or baseball shape. She would finish them off with putting a little prune or raspberry filling on top with a dollop of whipped cream or dusting of confectioners sugar. Some people like to take the finish batch of Vdolky and shake them up in a paper back with cinnamon sugar. They are really tasty especially if you eat one while it is still relatively warm. Go ahead and make mom some Czech donuts for Mother’s Day. Czech Donuts - Shishky (Vdolky)...