Biftek with Mushrooms, Onions and Potatoes

Czech Version of Minute Steak

Biftek is a Czech version of “minute stake” that is cooked in a frying pan. "Biftek" comes from French "le biftek", which is borrowed from the English "beefsteak", while the English "beef" is originally from the French "le bœuf" and Czech cooks adopted French version “Biftek. What a linguistic mess, ne se pas?

This meal is relatively fast and simple; by the time potatoes are cooked the meat, onions and mushrooms are done as well and as a bonus all in just one frying pan.

Ingredients

(Serves 2)
1 large sirloin steak cut in 2 equal pieces
1 medium onion, peeled
Cremini mushrooms, 8 – 12
Salt and Pepper
Hungarian paprika
Flour
4 medium Red potatoes
Oil

Butter

Instruction

Trim the steak of extra fat and membranes, pound the steak with meat mallet or heavy frying pan till about 1/4” thin, season with salt, pepper and paprika. Lightly dredge in flour and set aside. Trim mushrooms leaving only about 1/2” of stem and cut in half. Cut onion in half and cut into thin slices.

Boil potatoes is lightly salted water till tender, about 15 minutes from time they start to boil. While the potatoes are cooking heat large heavy frying pan with 1 Tbs. of oil, add onions and cook while stirring until they start to turn color. Push on side of pan and place mushrooms cut side down in frying pan making sure that there is a coat of oil on bottom.  When nicely golden move mushrooms to the side next to onions. Add more oil if needed and start frying the steak for about 1 - 2 minutes. Turn over and repeat. If the steak is 1/4” thick it takes about 4 - 5 minutes to cook it to medium well done (hey, it is minute steak after all).

Serve on preheated plates with mushrooms and onions on top and potatoes drizzled with butter on side. Spoonful of Dijon mustard on top kicks it up a notch or two.

Baked Pasta with Eggs, Ham and Cheese

This is my take on traditional Schinkenfleckerln that is so popular in Bohemia (Czech Republic) and Austria. In original Schinkenfleckerln, pasta being used are short and flat flakes, sort of like broken wide noodles, or Fleckern. I used spaghettini instead because I had leftovers from my Salmon and Pasta dish that I cooked previous day. Also, instead of traditional baking pan or casserole I used large 8oz. non-stick muffin pan. The reason for this change was that it gave me 4 times more surface area that had a nice crunch, the best part of this meal, as far as I am concerned. My brother and I were always fighting for the corner portions because they were the crunchiest, we have shunned the middle, soft parts.

Another very easy meal to make, especially if you have leftover pasta on hand.

Ingredients

4 shallots or 1/2 medium onion
4 cups cooked pasta, room temperature
4 eggs
1 cup chopped ham
1/2 cup grated cheese
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 °F and place rack on middle shelf.
Sauté the shallots in little bit of butter until soft, about 5 minutes and let cool.
Chop the cooked pasta into 1/2 inch pieces.
In a mixing bowl beat the eggs until whites and yolks are well combined, add pinch of salt and pepper, cooked shallots, ham, cheese and pasta and mix so that all the pasta pieces are well coated with eggs and all ingredients are well combined. Pour into buttered muffin cups or casserole, cover loosely with aluminum foil and bake in oven for 30 minutes. Remove aluminum foil and bake additional 15 minutes or until top is golden brown. Remove pasta from pan by turning it over on a baking sheet and serve with pickles or/and lettuce. It can be served as a light lunch at room temperature.

Fresh Wine Sausage and Potato Salad

Traditional Czech Christmas and Easter Meal

Fresh wine sausage actually falls into two categories on my blog: Charcutepalooza and Christmas. Traditionally, this sausage was served before or after Christmas or Easter and was always accompanied by potato salad and mustard and sometimes with freshly grated horseradish. It is a fairly light sausage, as far as sausages go, and is pleasantly tangy with lemon peel and white wine. In some regions of Northern Bohemia it was made with a mix of pork and veal while in other regions pork was the only meat used. I made lean version using 2 parts veal and 1 part pork. As is the case with any fresh or cured sausage one tool that really makes it easy, and I do consider it indispensable, is stand mixer with paddle. Of course, you can use bowl and stiff wooden spoon like our grand-parents, but it is a lot of work to beat the meat and spice mixture into a sticky forcemeat while adding wine at the same time. Even though I have not tried it since I have 8 quart Blakeslee stand mixer, I guess that you could use a food processor fitted with a dough blade to do the mixing. The wine has to be completely absorbed by the meat. Since I got my new vertical sausage stuffer I am definitely on a sausage kick but this sausage, just like any fresh sausage, can be formed into patties or short round sausages, dredged in flour and cooked in a frying pan or baked/roasted in the oven. For such a delicious sausage there are very few ingredients. One ingredient that has to be measured carefully is salt. Always weigh the salt, do not go by table spoon or tea spoon measurements, not all kosher salts (and always use kosher salt) are created equal. I did some tests and one cup of one brand differed from another brand by as much as 30% in weight, and that is a lot of difference! Generally, for sausages the ratio of meat to salt is 10 grams of salt for every 450 grams (1 pound) of meat. Another ingredient that is absolutely critical in this sausage is lemon zest. It is better to use rather more than less, after all it is the lemon zest that gives this sausage such a refreshing taste. One more thing. I never buy ground meat, ever. I have to know what is in my meat and when you buy store bought ground meat it is anybody’s guess as to what kind of crap is in it. Just check number of recalls of ground meat products due to e-coli contamination and other problems. To me it is worth the extra effort to grind my own meat. 

Ingredients

1 lb. veal shoulder

1/2 pork but

1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg

15 grams Kosher salt

1/2 tsp. freshly ground white pepper

Lemon zest from 1 lemon

White wine, about 1/2 cup

Sheep casings and skewers (if used)

Flour for coating

Oil for shallow frying

 Remove all sinew from veal and pork. Mix salt, pepper, nutmeg and lemon zest in small bowl. Cut the meat into 1” cubes and rub the spice mixture into the meat. Place in re-sealable bag, flatten the bag while removing as much air as possible and refrigerate overnight.

Next day place the bag with meat in the freezer for half an hour or until the meat starts to get hard. When thin crust develops on the surface of the meat, grind it using die plate with 1/4” or 3/8” holes. Place the ground meat in stand mixer bowl fitted with paddle or food processor with steel dough blade (I think that plastic dough blade would brake), turn the machine on and start adding the chilled wine. Stop when grind starts to look sticky and develops little shine. Meat is now ready for stuffing into sheep casings forming coils that will fit frying pan or formed into patties or sausages. Place bamboo skewer from one end of the sausage coil, through the centre where the other end is and out opposite side. The skewer will hold the coil together and makes it much easier to handle. To cook the sausage, preheat frying pan with about 1/4” of vegetable oil, coat or dust the sausage or patties with flour to give it nice crust and fry till it is golden brown, 3–5 minutes. Turn sausage over and cook another 3-5 minutes. Serve with mustard and Potato Salad.

Vanilla Crescents - Czech Christmas Sweets

Vanilkové Rohlíčky

Vanila crescents is another item that is on every Czech Christmas table. If you don’t make them you just buy them, just like potato salad and open sandwiches (Obložené Chlebíčky) being other “must have“ for Christmas. It is a little bit tedious because of the time it takes to roll all these small crescents but it is well worth it. When you eat them they just melt in your mouth. Hmmm...No wonder, with all that butter!

 Ingredients

1/2 pound (2 sticks) softened butter

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 egg, lightly beaten

2 cups sifted pastry flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups finely chopped almonds or hazelnuts

Confectioners' sugar 

Cream butter and add sugar then add egg, salt and vanilla extract.

Beat in the flour half the cup at the time, then add almonds and continue mixing until mixture becomes slightly stiff dough.

Shape dough into a log, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line two 12 x 15-inch baking sheets with parchment paper.

Pinch off walnut-size pieces of dough, roll them into ½” thick round strips and shape into crescent shape.

Bake 15-20 minutes or until light golden brown on the bottom.

While still warm, roll in confectioners' sugar or vanilla sugar. Let them cool and store in an airtight container.

These will keep several weeks. Dust with more vanilla sugar before serving.

All shaped and ready for the oven...

They are so brittle that you just can’t dump whole baking sheet into the sugar, they have to be coated one by one.

Czech Farmer’s Cheese Pie - Kolaches

Tvarohové Koláče

Last week I have decided to make one of the most popular and traditional pastry in Czech kitchen, Kolache or Wedding Pie (every Czech wedding has variety of these delights). It is traditionally made round, about  4” in diameter and around one inch thick using sweet yeast dough and topped with variety of toppings like ground poppy seeds, prune jam and most popular of all, creamed farmer’s cheese. If farmer’s cheese is not available, dry ricotta or paneer are great substitute. I have a recipe here for homemade paneer. I prefer to raise the yeast dough in a refrigerator overnight, it has a much finer texture when baked. Also, I always use food processor with steel cutting blade to make any dough, especially pizza dough, so instruction will reflect this. It is the fastest method with great results and with minimal clean-up. I know that in baking measurements are taken very seriously but since I didn’t find any recipe that looked like what my mother made I just came up with my very own version and it worked fantastic on first try!

Note: You can use just plain bread flour or even all-purpose flour, I guess, but I have not tried it so I have no idea how light the kolache will be.

 Dough

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1-1/2 cup bread or hard flour

1 envelope instant yeast or 1-1/4 tsp. dry instant yeast

1/2 tsp. salt

2 Tbs. sugar

1 egg

2 Tbs. melted butter

2/3 cup warm milk (more or less, depending on moisture content of the flour)

Place flour, yeast, salt and sugar in work bowl of food processor fitted with steel blade and pulse few times until well combined. Add egg (no need to separate the egg) and turn on for about 10 seconds. Add melted butter and process for another 10 seconds. The flour will look grainy. Turn processor on and pour in 1/2 cup of milk. After 15 seconds or so start adding additional milk 1 Tbs. at the time until the dough starts to come together. When it forms a ball the dough is done. Remove the dough from work bowl, form it into a smooth ball and place in lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and store in refrigerator overnight. 

Cheese Topping

250 grams Farmer’s cheese

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/4 cup sugar

1 Tbs. lemon juice

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 cup raisins soaked in warm milk

1/4 cup sour cream or 2 Tbs. 35% cream

With electric hand mixer or wooden spool beat the cheese with egg, sugar, cream, lemon juice and vanilla extract. Do not over mix, leave some farmers cheese lumps intact. Mix in raisins, cover and set aside.

Assembly

Four hours before baking remove dough from the fridge. Roll the dough into a log shape about 2-1/2” diameter and then cut pieces about the same length. Roll the pieces into a ball, flatten them to finger thick disk with higher rim, place them on oiled baking sheet, cover and keep in draft-free and warm place till they raise a bit, about 1 hour. Brush the edges with melted butter, spread the filling on top of kolaches to within 1/2” of the edge and sprinkle with shaved almonds. Place in 400 °F preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes. Let cool on wire rack, sprinkle with icing sugar and serve still warm.

Hungarian Gulyás (Goulash)

Goulash is a stew or soup made with meat, vegetables and potatoes. In Hungary, it is lot closer to soup then a stew and it doesn’t contain tomatoes. There are many versions in former states of Austrian Hungarian Empire. In Czech Republic and Slovakia the liquid base is chopped tomatoes and it is served with either bread or Bread Dumplings, in Austria it is served with rye bread and in Northern Italy with spaetzle or gnocchi. However, one ingredient that is constant right across whole former Empire is paprika, and lots of it. Also, in Czech version, there are as many onions as there is meat, by weight, and green and/or red peppers are always included and potatoes are seldom cooked in goulash itself but rather on side if used as side dish.

As is the case with every national dish there are many regional varieties. Szeged goulash is made with pork, some potatoes are replaced with sauerkraut and sour cream is added at the end of cooking. Znojemský (Moravian) Goulash is made with beef, onions, peppers and chopped pickles. In short, there are as many varieties as there are regions. In this post I will deal with a basic beef goulash using tomatoes and with potatoes on the side.

Ingredients

1 Lb. stewing beef
1 Lb. onions, roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 Tbs. Hungarian paprika
1 tsp. caraway seeds
2 green and 2 red peppers, roughly chopped
4 tomatoes, skinned, seeded and roughly chopped
Tbs. lard or vegetable oil
2 Tbs. flour
2 bay leaves
1 tsp. dried marjoram
Salt and pepper to taste
Cayenne pepper (optional)

 Place flour and beef inside plastic bag, close it and shake the beef until all sides are evenly coated with flour. Shake off all excess flour and set aside.

Heat up lard or oil in heavy pan or Dutch oven on high heat. Place the beef cubes in lard, leaving space in between, and brown on all sides. Remove beef to bowl and set aside. The beef will release some juice.
Pour off the lard leaving just a thin coat on the bottom. Lower the heat to medium, drop in the onions and garlic and cook till light golden brown.
Off the heat sprinkle the paprika and caraway seeds on top and then mix until onions are evenly coated.
Put back on medium heat, add peppers and tomatoes with its juices, stir and bring to simmer.
Put back the beef with collected juice, bay leaf and black pepper. Bring back to simmer on medium high, lower the heat to low and simmer, stirring and scraping the bottom every 15 minutes or so.
Braise for 3 hours making sure that there is enough liquid. If too dry add some liquid such as beer, wine or stock.
Other option is to cook the goulash in the 350 °F oven. 10 minutes before serving add marjoram and adjust seasoning (salt, cayenne pepper).
Serve in preheated shallow bowl with potatoes, pasta, bread dumplings or just slices of rye bread.
As is the case with many stews, this goulash taste better when reheated next day and when served with a different side you end up with a new meal.

Beef is already coated in flour.

Meat is browned, onions and garlic are cooked and paprika and caraway seeds are mixed in.

Peppers, tomatoes with its juice are added and brought back to simmer.

Beef is returned to pot with bay leaves, pot is covered and slowly braised for 3 hours.

Fruit Dumplings with Cottage Cheese and Butter

Ovocné Knedlíky

Strawberry Version

If you ask any adult Czech living abroad what childhood foods they miss the most, the Fruit Dumplings will be at the top of a list, no doubt. My mom was a master in making these and when I came to Canada every summer I dreamed about them. When she visited us for the first time it was this recipe that I just had to have. The version here is slightly modified because European ingredients are bit different but taste is the same.

There are several types of dough used for fruit dumplings. Some regions use dough made with potatoes and flour, others use cottage cheese and flour and some combine cottage cheese, boiled and riced potatoes and flour. I like to follow the KISS principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid) and just use plain flour.

 Ingredients for the Dough

1/4 cup milk (room temperature)
1/4 cup lukewarm water
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 egg yolks or 2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. instant yeast
1/4 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
2 cups all-purpose flour

Filling

1 pint strawberries, hulled, washed and halved.

 Process

In a bowl, mix together milk, water, vanilla extract and eggs.
In a food processor, pulse flour, salt, sugar and instant yeast to combine.
Slowly add liquid contents from bowl through the feed tube and mix till dough doesn’t stick to work bowl, about 45 seconds.
Since the flour moisture content varies you may have to adjust the ratio of liquid to flour by working in more flour if too wet or adding more water if the dough doesn’t form a ball.
Place the dough in clean, lightly buttered bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let it rise in warm and draft-free place until the dough has doubled in size, about 1 hour.

 Assembly

Punch the dough down and roll it out on floured board. You can roll the dough into 12-by-16 inch rectangle and cut it into 12 four-inch squares or roll it into a cylinder shape about 2” diameter, 18” long and cut into 12 disks about 1-1/2” wide and then flattened into pie shape that is 4” diameter. I did the later because I find it easier to make a ball with round disk instead of square.
Lay 2 strawberry halves into center of each disk, enclose the sides and roll it into a ball. Make sure that all the seams are tight and strawberries are well enclosed.
Place each dumpling on floured baking sheet, cover with towel and let them rise for 10 minutes.
In 4-quart pot, bring 3-quarts of lightly salted water to a bubbling boil. With a large slotted spoon, carefully place 4 or more dumplings (depending how wide your pot is) in the water. Partially cover the pot and once dumplings come to top, gently boil for 4 minutes. Turn dumplings over and cook additional 3 minutes.
Remove dumplings to large platter with a slotted spoon and immediately open each with 2 forks or prick them in several places with sharp needle to release the steam.
Repeat the process with remaining dumplings.
To serve, place 3 dumplings on preheated plate, top with cottage cheese, dribble melted butter on top and as an option, sprinkle sugar on top.
These dumplings are also popular when filled with pitted plums.

Steak Tartare

(Czech version)

Steak Tartare is one of the biggest delights for a true carnivore like me. It is a raw ground beef (tenderloin or sirloin) combined with other ingredients and served on toast. This is a very simple and simplistic description. What you put in meat mixture and how much is a personal choice so I will just give a basic guideline.

Steak Tartar was named after Tatar tribe of medieval Central Asia. Wikipedia has a great article on history and development of this gourmet dish.

I can not emphasize enough how important fresh meat and eggs are in this dish. Check your eggs for freshness by using water test method or just check the date on egg carton. Meat has to be super fresh and any membranes or sinew must be removed, all you want is just red meat and nothing else. Of course, you must be the one to grind the meat using super clean and cooled grinder. I put my meat (cut into cubes) together with meat grinder parts and mixing bowl, in the freezer for about half an hour before grinding. You want to keep the Tartar as cold as possible from preparation to serving.

Ingredients

3/4 lb Ground beef tenderloin or sirloin (see note above)

1 Egg yolk, raw

1 tsp. Capers, chopped

1 Tbs. Onion, chopped

1 tsp. Parsley, chopped

1 tsp. Hungarian hot paprika

1/2 tsp. Black pepper, freshly ground

1 tsp. Worcestershire Sauce

1 tsp. Dijon mustard

1 tsp. Ketchup

3 Anchovies, creamed

(Adjust amounts to your personal taste)

8 slices toasted rye bread, crust removed

2 cloves garlic, peeled

Instructions

Mix all above ingredients (except toasts and garlic J) in chilled stainless steel, ceramic or glass bowl using 2 forks till all ingredients are well combined. Do not mix with your hands, you want to keep the mixture as cold as possible. When done, transfer to chilled serving bowl or plate together with a toasted rye bread and garlic.

Rub garlic on one side of toast and spread tartar on same side. Best beverage to accompany this great meal is original Pilsner Urquell, of course.

Beef Rouladen (Hovězí Ptáčky)

As far as I know most European country has a version of this meal. In some places pork is used but mostly very thin piece of beef roast is the traditional cut.

The filling varies from place to place, not only between countries. In North Bohemia traditional filling is smoked bacon, sausage, onions, hard boiled egg and pickle. This time I made half sized version but recipe is for a full sized Rouladen.

Ingredients:

Rouladen

4 slices of rouladen beef (see note bellow)

4” piece of Polish Kielbasa, skin removed and cut into 4 pieces, lengthwise

1 hard boiled egg, quartered

4 pickles, cut in half, lengthwise

4 slices smoked and pre-cooked bacon or ham

1/2 chopped onion

Dijon mustard

Hungarian Paprika

Black pepper and salt

Note: Rouladen beef is cut from rump or round roast and is about 1/4” thick and about 6” wide and 10” long and is tenderized with mallet. This makes the beef quite larger and tender.

Sauce

2 slices smoked bacon, chopped fine

1/2 chopped onion

Dijon mustard

Hungarian Paprika

Black pepper and salt

1/2 cup of red wine or Marsala

Direction:

Place beef on cutting board with wider end closer to you.

Spread about 1 Tbs. of mustard on front half ob beef and season with paprika, pepper and salt.

Place bacon or ham on top, followed by sausage, pickle, onions and egg.

Make sure that all toppings, except bacon, are on a nice pile. Start rolling away from you. After 1 and 1/2 turns fold the sides over to enclose the filling and finish rolling. Make sure the roll is tight. Secure with butchers twine around and across.

This time I did half size rolls.

Heat frying pan with 1 Tbs. of oil and 1 Tbs. of butter on medium high. Brown rolls on all sides and set aside. Do not crowd in pan.

When all rolls are browned discard the oil and butter. Add 1 tsp. of fresh butter and chopped bacon. Brown bacon and then add onions and sauté till golden brown. Pour in wine and scrape all fond from bottom of pan. Add chopped pickles and return beef rolls into pan, bring to gentle simmer and cook for 45 minutes. Add wine as necessary if sauce is too low.

Add mustard and chopped eggs and simmer for 5 more minutes. Do not boil or mustard will become bitter.

Remove rolls from pan, cut the twine and slice into 1/2” thick slices.

Serve on preheated plate with the sauce and rice.

Tenderloin with Sour Cream Sauce and Dumplings

Svíčková na Smetanĕ s Knedlíkem

Just like Pork Roast, Sauerkraut and Dumplings this is a typical Sunday lunch or supper but since tenderloin is so much more expensive then pork roast it is a very special meal. Also the fact that it takes a lot more work to prepare makes it even more special. There is a lot of chopping involved but food processor or mini chopper makes it a breeze. Same goes for finishing the sauce with immersion blender. Since both cuts of beef are quite dry the meat is larded.  

Ingredients:

2 lb beef tenderloin or eye of round (not as tender)

1 large carrot, peeled and very finely chopped

1 onion, peeled and very finely chopped

Celeriac, about 1/4, peeled and very finely chopped

1 parsnip, peeled and very finely chopped

2 slices of 3/8” thick bacon fat cut into 3/8” strips

1-1/2 cups beef or chicken stock

Freshly ground:

6 Allspice

1/2 tsp. peppercorns

6 cloves

1 bay leaf

1 cup sour cream

2 Tbs. flour

Directions:

Lard the meat and tie with butcher twine every 3”.

Season with ground spices on all sides and place into a heavy, sealable bag. Put all chopped vegetables in the bag together with meat and close the bag while removing as much air as possible. Distribute the vegetables until they cover all sides of meat. Place in refrigerator and marinate overnight.

Next day, remove meat and vegetables from bag, scrape all vegetables from meat, set aside and reserve vegetables.



Beef is ready for frying pan. Dumplings are raising in the background.

Preheat oven to 350 °F.

Heat a frying pan on high, add 1 Tbs. of oil and brown meat on all sides, about 3 minutes on each side. Move to a roasting pan.

In the same frying pan cook reserved vegetables till lightly brown, about 10 minutes. Remove to roasting pan and place most vegetables under the meat.

Pour in the stock, cover pan and bring to boil. When stock starts to boil turn off the heat and move the pan on middle rack in oven and roast (braise), covered, for 1-1/2 hours or till internal temperature reaches 140 °F.

Meanwhile, steam the dumplings that were made ahead.

Remove meat to plate, cover with aluminum foil and let rest.

Scrape all fond (brown coating on side of roasting pan) into vegetables and pour into high sided sauce pan. Using immersion blender, liquefy the sauce till smooth.

Place sauce pan on heat and bring to simmer. Meanwhile, in a bowl, whisk sour cream with flour till smooth and well combined. Pour in a cup or so of hot vegetable sauce and whisk till smooth (to temper the sauce). Remove all the sour cream mixture back into sauce pan, mix and reheat. Do not bring to hard boil, just a very gentle simmer. Pour in accumulated juices from meat into sauce pan and mix.

Ladle in some sauce on preheated plate, slice the meat and place on sauce together with dumpling slices. Serve with Pilsner Urquell.

Liver Dumpling Soup

Yes, another dumpling recipe. This comfort soup is one of our favorite soups to go to when it is miserable outside. It is too bad that many people would never give a second look at anything that has a liver in it. I use very fresh calf or baby beef liver for these dumplings and you can’t detect any liver taste or smell at all. As is the case with most soups you can easily control how substantial the soup is just by modifying ratio of stock to solids, in this case number and size of dumplings and amount of egg noodles and vegetables.

For dumplings:

Baby beef or Calf liver, 1 slice

1 egg, beaten

1/4 cup milk

1/2 tsp. white pepper

1 tsp. salt

Garlic, 2 cloves, chopped

1/2 tsp. marjoram

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 cup bread crumbs mixed with 1 Tbs. flour/

Breadcrumbs, as required

Soup:

8 cups beef or chicken stock, carton or can is fine

1 large carrot

1/2 medium onion

1 stalk celery, all finely chopped

Marjoram

Garlic, finely chopped

Fine egg noodles
Parsley

Remove all traces of membrane on liver, roughly chop and then run through grinder or food processor to make a coarse paste. Remove to mixing bowl and add beaten egg, milk, salt, pepper, baking powder and marjoram and mix till well combined. You will now have fairly thin batter. Add 1/2 cup of bread crumbs with flour, mix well and let it rest for 10 minutes or so for bread crumbs to absorb moisture from liver mixture. Remix and add adjust with more bread crumbs or milk until you can form a ball. Form walnut size balls and set aside.
To make soup, pour stock  into a soup pot, drop in all chopped vegetables and bring to boil. Cook for 5 minutes, lower heat to simmer and drop in all liver dumplings, being careful not to splash hot stock. Gently lift dumplings with spatula from bottom so they don’t stick. When all of them are floating on top, cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Add fine noodles and stir to prevent noodles from sticking together. Cook additional 5 minutes, add marjoram, taste and  adjust seasoning. Serve with chopped parsley sprinkled on top.

Potato Dumplings - Chlupaté knedlíky (Czech)

(Chlupaté knedlíky) Czech

Potato dumplings are somewhat similar to Gnocchi in that main ingredients are potato, flour and egg except these dumplings are made either with grated raw potatoes entirely or cooked and raw combined. Also, some use only flour as a binder while others use only farina (cream of wheat), then there are recipes that use both in all sorts of proportions. There are literally hundreds of recipes in Czech Republic for potato dumplings. Every region, city, village and family has their own. Actually, I think that same is true about any peasant dish in any culture. Since I’ve been making gnocchi for a while now and am comfortable with potato based dough I came up with my own version.

1 raw Russet potato, peeled and grated fine

1 Russet potato, “baked” in microwave (see Gnocchi recipe)

1 egg, beaten

1/3 c. farina (cream of wheat)

1/3 c. flour

1 tsp. baking powder

Salt and white pepper to taste

Peel and rice cooked potato in food mill. You can grate cooked potato using box grater or, to be more rustic put it in heavy plastic bag and smash it with heavy frying pan J.

Mix raw and cooked potatoes together with the beaten egg. Sift together farina, flour, salt, pepper and baking powder and fold in potato mixture. The dough should be stiff enough to form a small ball.

Bring salted water in a large pot to roiling boil. With soup spoon form balls little smaller then golf ball. When all dumplings are ready drop them gently into boiling water. Dumplings should loosely cover the bottom in one layer. When water comes back to boil lower the temperature to gentle boil. Release dumplings that stuck to bottom of a pot and boil for 15 minutes.

When done, remove with slotted spoon to preheated frying pan with some bacon fat or lard and coat lightly.

Sprinkle with dry toasted bread crumbs and serve.

Potato dumplings are traditionally served with sauerkraut and smoked meat.

Release dumplings that stuck to bottom

Once on surface boil for 15 minutes.

Drain and fry in bacon fat.