Czech Foods Recipes

Insalata di Patate e Calamari was a dish discovered years ago. A light potato salad with baby squid and a black olive tapenade spread mixed into the dressing. The flavours were out of this world. It wasn't very pleasing to the eye, however, as the tapenade tinged the potatoes grey. Enter the purple potato. These babies do loose a bit of vibrancy when boiled, but when spritzed with the lemon afterwards, bounce right back to a startling violet hue. Perfect for salads. I remember reading Rome-blogger Apron and Sneaker 's post about her hunt for violet potatoes, and so when I stumbled upon them at a local market, I quickly nabbed a few packages. I new they were prime for salads. The memories of the calamari salad I'd made years ago had left quite the impression. It's the heavy dose of tapenade in the dressing that makes it stand out among potato salads. Zingy lemon and a bright black olive spread tie the potatoes and seafood together just so well. I've used strictly ca...

Sauces can be daunting. Lately, Hollandaise has been taunting. Every so often, when eating my eggs, I can hear the soft and silky voice of Hollandaise, "C'mon, why didn't you make me? You know you wanted to. Oh, that's right. You can't." And there it is. Being taunted by a sauce that doesn't exist on my breakfast plate while nibbling a dry corner of toast is not the best start to a morning. Making a bad sauce is worse than no sauce at all. In my book, anyways. Sure, it's a bit strict, but just having moved from the Czech Republic where over half the national dishes were covered in a sauce, I've learned that a bad one, once used, makes for a hungry diner.  Hollandaise is one of the classic sauces I've been warned about. The hot butter can do a number on the egg yolk if not added slowly enough. But as vinegar pulled me out of my poaching paralysis, it came to the rescue here as well. Vinegar stabilizes eggs. I'd learned to add some to the e...

 Here is the recipe for the Black Forest cake from my Valentines post.  I've always been a sucker for the taste of chocolate and cherry together...... but not so much a fan of actual cherries.  For this reason, I have modified the typical Black Forest cake recipe accordingly.  I've also used a fluffier frosting than usual, the recipe for which can be found below.  It includes more milk and uses flour as a thickener in addition to the icing sugar.  However I'm sure a normal vanilla buttercream would be yummy as well! You will need: 1 recipe dark chocolate cake batter yielding 3 9x.5-inch cakes, prepared (about the same as 24 cupcakes) 1. Prepare and bake the cake, distributing the mix amongst 3 cake pans.  Reduce baking time accordingly (as smaller cakes will cook faster). For the frosting you will need: 1/2 cup milk 5-6 Tbsp flour 3-4 cups powdered icing sugar 1 cup (220g) slightly-softened unsalted butter 1 tsp vanilla Cherry or Black Cherry Jam/Prese...

"..and she feeds you tea and oranges that come all the way from China.." Suzanne , Leonard Cohen. Some weekends deliver that perfect setting of quietude usually found only early in the mornings. And when that introspective peacefulness can stretch over the course of the weekend, well, when it can do that, it is something to be savoured. It can happen on a particularly grey and rainy weekend, or when one feels a cold coming on and they've been admonished by colleagues to stay tucked in bed until Monday. And it can happen especially when seeing a very close friend with whom silence is just as pleasant as anything else that can fill a room. When that kind of weekend wraps itself around you, it's nice to have cake. Not luxurious eye-poppingly decorated cake meant for guests. But cake meant for tea. Simple cake that can be had with a quick rummage through the kitchen. A bowl full of mandarins and a half package of amaretti cookies inspired this light and brightly flavoure...

The final two heart-healthy ingredients - pistachios and cherries - make for the perfect figgy dessert pairing. Greek yogurt, honey, and vanilla bean are all that's needed to prepare four super-sized, creamy parfaits. Pistachios make for such a nice flavour with the figs, but for the next morning, the poached fig mix easily goes into breakfast mode with some muesli and walnuts stirred in with the yogurt. Either way, dessert or brekkie, it will put a smile on your heart. The heart-loving menu : Brekkie : Muesli-Pancakes with Honeyed Berries Lunch : Black Bean Chili with Swiss Chard Dinner : Pan-fried Fish with Blood Orange and Avocado Salsa Dessert : Vanilla-Poached Fig, Cherry & Pistachio Parfaits Continue to Recipe... Vanilla-Poached Fig, Cherry & Pistachio Parfaits Adapted from Bon Appétit Dec 2002 Serves 4 Eat with a late harvest Viognier (or Muscat) 1/3 cup honey 2 cups water 1 1/2 cups / 10 oz / 300g  dried figs - stems removed and halved/quartered 1 vanilla bean -...

Orange juice on Corn Flakes? Grape juice and Fruit Loops? Or chocolate milk with your Chocolate Krispies? These were some of the 'creative' breakfast adventures had by my sister and I while growing up. Sitting at the table in the morning, reading the backs of the three or four cereal boxes in front of us could get boring after awhile. Assorted sugary beverages as milk replacement was our answer to jazz up the morning. Now, I (hopefully) have developed better strategies for breakfast boredom. This one still plays with cereal a bit, but rather than adding something to the cereal, it adds cereal to the something. And that something is pancakes . Not just any pancakes, but the pancakes promised as part of this weeks heart-healthy menu . Nutty, whole-grain, buttermilk pancakes with heart-healthy flax, cinnamon , walnuts, and topped with honeyed berries . If that sounds too healthy for a sweet Saturday morning brekkie, put any reservations aside. They were soft in the middle, cris...

Second in line in the Valentine's week of heart-healthy meals is a quick and easy dinner of pan-fried fish with a citrus salsa. It all went from pan to plate within 30 minutes. Because that's how eating healthy should be - manageable. I am of the persuasion that most standard fish varieties taste great with a citrus salsa. Most recipes in this vein call for mahi-mahi. And while its sweetness certainly makes a good match, in my kitchen, this salsa has even graced the top of some cod. Snapper or bass I imagine would fit well, and even tuna would round out the flavours plus give all those tuna-y health benefits. Whichever fish you chose, this is great in the winter using blood oranges if you luck out on finding a good avocado. Happy avocado hunting! The heart-loving menu : Brekkie : Muesli-Pancakes with Honeyed Berries Lunch : Black Bean Chili with Swiss Chard   Dinner : Pan-fried Fish with Blood Orange and Avocado Salsa Dessert : Vanilla-Poached Fig, Cherry & Pistachio Parfai...