Best Family Favorite Czech Recipes

Cooler weather and football games kicking into full gear made the weekend dinner menu an easy one. Our Sunday evening meal consisted of a large pot of homemade chili. The responsibility of preparing chili in our home is alternated between my wife and me.  As most of my Sunday was consumed with yard work, chili production fell into her hands for the day. While we both stick to similar recipes, my wife goes down a milder path that produces a tasty batch yet without the influence of chili or jalapeno peppers. In preparing our meal, I added my own last minute heat by chopping up some jalapeno peppers picked straight out of my garden. I diced these peppers fine and put them in a side dish that served my own personal chili topping. To say these peppers were hot would be an understatement.  The level of heat or scoville units of a jalapeno can be misleading. I have tried some jalapenos that were mild as a cubanelle or poblano on one extreme, and then had some be as fiery as a cayenne or

It is unfortunate that most of my garden produce is coming to a halt as the growing season is ending. The tomatoes, corn, cucumbers and zucchini have run their course with only the broccoli and peppers remaining.  On that note, there were four robust size peppers that were recently picked along with a few jalapenos. As we did not plan on using these peppers anytime soon, I decided it would be best prepare them for freezer storage for later use.  In prior years, we keep a bag of frozen peppers available for soups, stews, pizzas, and chili. Even if they aren’t home grown, it is good to stock up on them when they go on sale at the store during peak season. Since these peppers are going into cooked dishes, they require a blanching process which is very simple. Blanching is an extreme hot water/cold water shock to the food that allows for flavor and appearance to remain preserved when the item is store in frozen state. I have done blanching with not only peppers, but also broccoli an

Yesterday I decided to get my barbecue fix on. It has been a long time since I prepared a batch of spare ribs and Saturday was definitely the day.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to prepare a decent rack of ribs off the grill. Just know the proper steps of trimming the silver skin and excess fat, preparing the ribs for pre-baking, then finally, grilling. Step number one was to remove the silver skin from the back of the rack. The silver skin is that thin opaque or sometimes white but firm elastic film that covers pretty much the entire back of the rack of bones. I highly recommend a boning or filet knife to do the job. I had neither of those cutlery items, so I had to use one of my smaller chef’s knives that made the task rather cumbersome as it is not as flexible as the other knives. Basically start on one side of the rack and pry the knife edge under the skin, and work to peel the skin off using the assistance of the knife to try and get large sheets of this skin off in

Broccoli finally arrived in my garden and I have cut three to four bunches for meals later in the year. I like to eat a handful and freeze the rest. Preparing broccoli for later use or freezing is pretty simple. Typically I prepare my cut veggies like beans and broccoli by blanching in hot water bath then transferring to a cold water shock, then into the freezer. However, time has seemed to have got away from me this past week.  My veggies were cut a few days ago and their time spent in the crisper was just about up. (My cut broccoli was going on day three of refrigeration). As I got home last night to a very warm home courtesy of our current heat wave, I decided to forgo the traditional stove top blanch technique and  opted to steam the broccoli or as I call it, “microwave blanching” or steaming. I basically precooked the broccoli in a microwave safe container. I placed the small portion of broccoli in a microwave safe dish and placed a few teaspoons of water in the dish. I cov

Allow me to intoduce a family favorite recipe that brings back many fond memories of waking up to the smell of baked apples, pancake batter, and bacon on occasional sunday mornings in the late fall and early winter. Restaurants and households that I have visited all seemed to have done a pretty decent job of creating the Apfel Pfannekuchen, but this home recipe seems to take the cake. Yes, that pun was intended. I like the flavor and texture of the german apple pancake as it seems to be a "culinary mixer" in which custard meets bread pudding who in turn meet french toast with baked apples. Please give this one a try next time you want to create a fun breakfast for family or guests. The recipe is ideal to prepare right now as apple harvest season is upon us. The beauty of this recipe is that the batter can be prepared the night before and refrigerated prior to the next morning's use. I also highly recommend a crisp tart apple such as a granny smith to offset the sweetne

A few weeks back, I had a desire to make a sour dough starter to initiate my own homemade bohemian rye bread.   As mentioned in previous posts, this experiment has failed for a few reasons, so I went to option number two – using dry yeast. I scoured the internet in pursuit of Bohemian rye bread recipes and found one here at cooks.com. I was disheartened that there weren’t any pictures nor testimonials next to this recipe, but the recipe appeared to be easy to follow and used a combination of rye flour and all purpose flour.   Since I was a young child, I enjoyed a good Czech or German rye bread at restaurants and have been in pursuit of trying to imitate some of those good table breads. I like Bohemian rye bread because it is lighter in appearance and density (not too heavy on the rye grains) and it works well as pre-meal offering and partners well with soups or with assorted meats and cheeses.   This rye bread recipe I found adds in the European accent of caraway and fennel seeds.

One of my latest endeavors currently is preparing a Czech rye bread. There are so many variations of how to make a rye bread that it gets really confusing on which one is the appropriate method. One common theme I am realizing while I research via the web is that the rye flour in the states is much different than those sold in Europe. The rye flour here in the states is much coarser and produces a tougher texture than the smooth rye found in the Czech Republic. I have not begun my search yet for rye flours but will maybe have to suffice with what is available at the local store if I cannot find any refined rye flour. So, the first step in preparing rye dough is by making a starter. Many recipes prefer that the rye bread is made with a starter as opposed to using quick or instant yeast. The "starter" process is basically growing your own yeast /bacteria culture by mixing flour with water and covering it. Throughout the next seven days or  more, the yeast will become activ