Recipes from different parts of our country
Here you will find answers to the most frequently asked questions about Old Bohemian cuisine, recipes and content on this website. If you can't find the answer to your question, use the contact form at the bottom of the page. I will be happy to answer all your questions and share useful information.
Sometimes the sourdough starter is prepared directly in a bowl with flour, other times separately in a tin can, and sometimes everything is just mixed and left to rise. Either way, you always need fresh yeast, a little sugar, and especially lukewarm milk. The milk must not be boiling or hot, otherwise we would "kill" the yeast. Yeast is a living creature, and we must treat it accordingly. Heat the milk in a tin to keep it lukewarm, add a teaspoon of sugar, stir, crumble the yeast and let it rise under a towel for a few minutes to activate the yeast. We will know that we have prepared the sourdough starter well after five or ten minutes.
There are many different combinations of gingerbread spice. If I run out of gingerbread spice at home, I use this combination: 4 cloves, 1 star anise, 2 allspice balls, 1/2 teaspoon anise, 1/2 teaspoon fennel, 2 teaspoons cinnamon and 1 teaspoon dried ginger. I measure the necessary ingredients, the spices that are whole, so I grind them in a blender. Then I mix all the spices thoroughly in a bowl and homemade gingerbread spices are born.
Almonds are a type of nut and are sold dried. They can also be eaten this way. For baking, however, we need almonds steamed many times, that is, so that they are without peels and can be chopped, cut, grated as we need. The preparation is not complicated. Just weigh the required amount of almonds, pour them into a saucepan. Pour water over them so that they are completely submerged. Bring to a boil and once the water with the almonds starts to boil. Turn off and remove from the heat so that they do not cook any longer. Let the almonds infuse for a few more minutes and bubble in hot water and when the hot water cools down. Drain the almonds and peel them. Now peeling is easy.
Preparing chocolate icing is not difficult. All we need is a bar of chocolate for cooking, an omega and a water bath. Since I don't use omega much at home, I most often use lard to prepare chocolate icing, which melts the chocolate beautifully. If I need a stiffer chocolate glaze, I use baking fat instead of lard. If there are any chocolate eggs, St. Nicholas or bunnies left that the children no longer want to eat, these chocolate figurines can also be broken and used for icing. I put a piece of lard on the bottom of the tin, then break a bar of cooking chocolate on it. Put the tin in a saucepan with water and turn on the stove. Slowly turn the stove on medium so that the water in the water bath does not start to boil and the chocolate slowly melts. If the chocolate was boiled, it would be destroyed.
Without plum jam, it used to be hard in winter. We have three basic types of plum jam, pear, plum and apple. All three types are basically similar in preparation, differing only in spices. Clean the fruit, stone it, wash it, weigh it. Pour into a saucepan, cover with water and let it boil completely. Pass through a sieve, transfer to a deep baking dish, add the weighed sugar and spices. Put it in the oven and at low temperature, let the excess water evaporate, stirring occasionally. If the plum jam doesn't pour behind the wooden spoon, it's done.
Candied fruit has different colors depending on the type of citrus peel used (lemons, oranges and limes). A few cups of sugar are needed for this. Clean the peel and cut it into strips. Put it in a saucepan, pour it in, and boil for five minutes, drain, and boil twice more to remove all impurities, waxes and bitterness. Cover the strips of peel with sugar, pour in water and let them cook on a low flame, stirring occasionally. When the water boils into syrup and the peel becomes transparent. Spread the peel on a tray and let it dry.
To prepare homemade honey or syrup, you need to collect a large amount of dandelion flowers or rhyme leaves, sugar, lemon peel. Put the flowers in a pot, cover with water, bring to a boil and cook for a few minutes. Remove from the heat, add lemon zest. Let it cool, cover and let it brew until the next day. The next day, pour everything through a cloth and squeeze thoroughly. Now add sugar and boil on the stove to the desired density at a very low temperature. Otherwise, everything would boil over and run out of the pot.
Powdered sugar is many times more expensive than classic granulated sugar. If we have a blender at home, there is no need to buy extra powdered sugar in the store, when we can easily make it at home. Just pour the granulated sugar into the blender and the blender will grind the sugar crystals finely. Now all you have to do is sift the ground sugar through the finest colander, which is used to strain sauces. We get powdered sugar/semolina, which is similar to the classic purchased powdered sugar.