Best Family Favorite Czech Recipes

A great savory Czech appetizer or even main course are mushrooms. A commonly served mushroom dish is Smazene zampiony or fried mushrooms. These tasty little  nuggets pair nicely with a cold pilsner or even a glass of wine. As much as I enjoy tasting deep fried foods, I am not a big fan of the deep frying process in the kitchen given the potential mess involved. Also, if I am going to break out the deep fryer or iron skillet for frying, I will usually have several deep fried items in mind to make the effort worth the clean up. For example, if I deep fry mushrooms, I will also consider coating and frying up some zucchini, cauliflower, and even cheese. (Please check out my other post on Czech fried cheese). When deep frying appetizers or even chicken, I prefer to cook with my fry daddy kept in the garage. I will set up a portable table and fry away in my garage which keeps the odor of the oil out of the home. Fried mushrooms are a hit in my home and these go nicely with a sauce accompa

Krizaly before baking Doing some research across various message boards and recipes sites (of which some were translated from Czech); I found numerous methods to prepare dried apples. This dried fruit is a popular snack in the Czech Republic. There are many benefits to dried apples. They are healthy, lightweight, provide energy boost, and are an excellent way to preserve apples that might be on their way out or getting soft. I like to add dried apples to hot cereals or incorporate into dumplings. Homemade dried apples are also a heck of a lot cheaper than buying them packaged in the dried state. I enjoyed digging away on this topic as some websites showed the apples being dried next to a furnace or tented alongside a radiator for a couple of days! If I had radiators throughout my home, I think I would give this method a try. My furnace is enclosed in a very dusty room with too many spiders to count, so I decided to pass on that approach and dried the apples using the electric oven

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