Czech in the Kitchen

Czech Vanilla Crescents or Vanilkove Rohlicky

Posted by Pussycat in Sweets | Leave a comment

18December2016

Another year of Christmas baking is coming to a close. This year, unlike other years, I’ve made only a few choice traditional Czech Christmas cookies, Marokanky, Linzer, Gingerbread and Carpenter Curls. I made enough of each to share and to have a selection around for guests. I added the Vanilla Crescents or Vanilkove Rohlicky, ones I’ve never made before. I never appreciated their simplicity when I was a kid, but now as an adult I love their simplicity and I love the way they melt in your mouth. They are simple, easy and deliscious.

The recipe is very simple and you probably have everything in the house to make them.

Vanilla Crescents

1/2 lb butter, unsalted and room temp
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg yolk (optional)
1 1/2 cups ground almonds
1/2 teaspoon salt
lemon zest from one lemon

Icing sugar, 1 – 2 cups- enough to coat the cookies when they come out of the oven

Mix all ingredients together and form in to a nice dough… mix butter, sugar, vanilla, egg yolk, lemon zest and salt first, then add in the flour 1 cup at a time and mix to form a dough ball. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap or put in a zip bag and refrigerate either overnight or for a couple hours to allow it to rest a bit.

Roll the dough into a noodle about 1 inch thick and cut into 2 inch sections. Place on parchment lined baking sheet forming them into crescents making sure you give them a little room to expand. Bake at 325 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes depending on how big you’ve made them. The ends should just barely be browning when you take them out of the oven. The trick is to have them all as similar in size as possible so that they all bake the same. Before you coat them in icing sugar give them enough time of cool off so that they don’t fall apart when you pick them up but still warm enough that the sugar sticks to them.

Hope you enjoy them… Happy Holidays!

Kilcona Dog Park Dog Fest 2016

Posted by Pussycat in About Me | Leave a comment

11June2016

I serendipitously got involved with the Kilcona Park Dog Park board several months ago and really had no idea what I was getting myself into. I started taking our beast there because he loves to run and we wanted to make sure he was socialized with other dogs. I never wanted him to be threatening or skittish, he’s a big dog and he needed to be friendly and approachable, until of course, I needed him not to be, and this park was the perfect place for him to build those skills.

Our dog park is a great place, built around a garbage dump that was covered over with grass and trails that let him run wild and play with other dogs. It was a lifesaver over the last fall and winter when we first got Brax. He got to run, play and burn off energy and we got to walk. Win win!

We’ve met so many nice people on many our many walks and it wasn’t long before I realized there was actually a board that worked to ensure the park remained for the many who use it. Little did I know that I would be baking and cooking human grade dog treats to use as fundraisers. Dreaming up fun treats has been so much fun and for those attending our Dog Fest the recipes are here so that folks can make these yummy treats at home.

The gluten free dog bones were posted before and the recipe can be found here.

As well the Fetching Stix have also been posted before, though without the herbs and with cheese instead.

Some new additions include;

Brie Chon Freeze Paws and Bones – Delicious little Brie Ice Cream bites with Blueberries.

Dog’s Breakfast Trail Mix – A healthy trail mix that packs a little heat.

Now for the recipes… here you go folks… enjoy!

Brie Chon Freeze Paws and Bones

The base of this ice cream comes from the Roasting Rambler but instead of making a blueberry sauce I chose to add frozen blueberries to the ice cream once it was cooled.

2 cups whole milk
4 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
4 ounces brie trimmed of its rind
1 cup cream
1 cup frozen blueberries

Place the milk and cream in a saucepan and bring to medium heat… until steaming. In a seperate bowl mix the yolks and sugar and then ladle the hot milk, one scoop at a time into the yolk mixture while whisking. Once you’ve added a couple of ladles of milk into the yolk mixture then pour the yolk mixture back into the pot of hot milk and simmer gently for 2 – 3 minutes. Drop chunks of the brie into the hot milk mixture and allow the brie to melt. The mixture will thicken slightly.

Allow the mixture to cool and add the blueberries. Spoon into silicone moulds and freeze until solid. Store in a sealable plastic bag or plastic container in the freezer until ready to serve.

Dog’s Breakfast Trail Mix

I love trail mixes and this one was born out of a chocolate almond recipe I posted quite some time ago. I make these almonds all the time and often have a bag of them in the freezer. You feel like you’re getting an adult version of a chocolate covered nut but less calories and less sugar.

The proportions for this recipe are really up to the individual and preferences but mine goes something like this;

2 cups cayenne chocolate almonds
2 cups dried cranberries
2 cups banana chips
2 cups chopped dehydrated apple rings
4 cups cheerios *
4 cups chex cereal *

Mix all ingredients together and enjoy!

* Cheerios and Chex Cereal

In a deep big frying pan, melt about a 1/2 cup butter. Once the butter is melted add about 4 cups cheerios and mix to have them coated in butter. Add about a 1/4 cup cocoa powder, 2-3 tablespoons expresso instant coffee, 1/2 cup brown sugar and for the cheerios add 1-2 teaspoons of cayenne pepper. Mix all the ingredients together until all the cereal is coated in the mixture. I will do the cheerios and chex separately and then toss them into the bowl with all the other ingredients.

The amount of cayenne is a preference and some folks like it hot, others don’t. I find that if I only make one of the cereals a little spicy even folks who don’t like much spice can often tolerate it.

Kulajda – Sour Dill Soup

Posted by Pussycat in Soups | 5 Comments

16April2016

Yum

Some foods seem to be an acquired taste, or maybe just for some people. I’m not sure, what I am sure of is that this soup is one my mother loves. We didn’t have it very often, my father wasn’t a fan and when we were growing up I wasn’t much of a fan either. I remember my mom would get a craving and she would make a small pot and she would savor it, often alone. But as with many of the other unusual flavors I wasn’t born loving, as a teenager I was curious and when I had a taste on one of those days she made a small pot, I fell in love with it.

Perhaps it’s the love of sour that I share with my mom that won me over in this soup. Or perhaps it was just time. In any event, like my mom, I now make a small pot of this, when I have a craving and I savor it.

If you have had or like the koprová omáčka – Dill Sauce that is so traditionally Czech you will probably like this as well. Though I need to warn you, the traditional Dill Sauce is a sweet and sour combination, this soup has none of that sweetness, made without sugar it’s just a little tart… which I love.

I know many Czechs would say that mushrooms are essential though I can tell you that often times we didn’t have mushrooms and my mom would have a craving so she would make it without them. This is a truly Czech version that I found online Prava kulajda it can and has been adjusted many ways at my house, using extra vinegar and a bit of sour salt if we didn’t happen to have sour cream on hand. Our versions weren’t always quintessential to the homeland but they were always good.

Kulajda – Sour Dill Soup

2-4 potatoes (peeled and chopped into small cubes)
4-6 cups water (a little more than enough to cover the potatoes in a pot)
1 tablespoon whole peppercorn
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup sour cream
3-4 eggs
3 tablespoons vinegar (regular white)
handful of chopped fresh or soaked dried mushrooms *optional 😉 if you dislike mushrooms
handful of chopped fresh dill
1-2 tablespoons caraway seeds
Salt to taste

Rinse the chopped and peeled potatoes and cover with just a little more water than needed, add the bay leaves and peppercorns and caraway seeds if you’re using them. Once the potatoes are soft, mix the flour (in a cup) in with the sour cream, mixing well. Add liquid from the hot soup a couple of tablespoons at a time until it’s smooth and then (just to be safe and avoid lumps) run the mixture through a fine strainer back into the soup pot. Bring to a simmer until the soup thickens. Then add the vinegar, handful of mushrooms and chopped fresh dill.

This is where you can get a little fancy if you’re serving this right away. Break open the eggs and allow them to cook in the soup (like poached eggs) for about 3 minutes until soft boiled. Or you can make it the way I’ve always made it and once you add the eggs swirl through them with a fork so that you have broken chunks of eggs in the soup. The more you swirl through them the smaller the chunks.

Serve and enjoy!

Rawhide Breadsticks

Posted by Pussycat in People Food - Recipes, Sides | Leave a comment

2April2016

Yum

It’s April 2nd and it’s snowing in our corner of the world. I’ve been feeling lousy, battling a headache for over two weeks and my big Friday night was passing out on the couch by 8:00 pm and getting up at midnight only to crawl into bed and sleep until 8:00 this morning. I wish I could say it was just the weather, or some tequila 😉 but alas my body seems to be experiencing some issues. 🙁 I’m working on it…. For now though my answer to feeling awful, aside from sleeping, is to cook… or bake… or just to make something delicious in the kitchen. This is my way of relaxing and it doesn’t hurt that we then get to enjoy the results.

I had thought of these a while back while at a board meeting. I wanted to make rawhide like dog bones and I needed to make them in such a way that they could be made ahead and stored until ready to be consumed. I needed to be able to make them in big batches. I wanted to make them from donut or beignet dough but the though of trying to figure out how to get a deep fryer into the park, not to mention making big batches of a finicky yeast dough without a kitchen, was just not going to work. Then it occurred to me… who doesn’t love breadsticks?

Hard crunchy, salty and garlicky breadsticks. YUMMY….. I know because I ate several of them before they cooled off enough to be crunchy…. and they do get crunchy when they cool off… and they are deliscious!

They are delicious and fun when you twist and tie them up like I did…. they make for a great snack, one I think might be a winner for our Dog Fest this summer 😉

The base of the recipe comes from Manu’s Menu though I changed it and added some fun ingredients. I had the last bit of lemon infused olive oil that worked really well here and worked beautifully with garlic salt and rosemary though there could have been a bit more rosemary and I might suggest sprinkling some on top as well and kneading into the dough.

Dog Bone Breadsticks

4 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups water, lukewarm
2 tsp sugar
10-15 grams fresh yeast
3 tbsp butter, melted
2 tbsp of dried rosemary
2 tbsp garlic salt
4 tbsp lemon infused extra virgin olive oil + more for brushing
1/2 tsp salt + extra (coarse) salt for sprinkling

Mix the water and sugar in a microwavable bowl and heat until just hot to the touch, add the yeast and set aside for 2-3 minutes. Put the flour and salt in to the bowl of a stand mixer and add the melted butter and yeast mixture, stir with a dough hook attachment. Mix on low adding the lemon infused olive oil then bring up to medium speed and knead for about 5 minutes, until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl, it will still be a little sticky.

Take the dough out of the mixer and cut in half. Knead each half separately adding rosemary to one half. Roll each half into a rectangle, try to make them the same size. Sprinkle the dough with olive oil, then add more rosemary to the one half and sprinkle the other half with garlic salt. Cover with a dry clean tea towel and let rise for about 2 hours.

Using a pizza cutter or sharp knife cut a narrow strip from each rectangle, twist them together and knot them at each end. Place them on a pan lined with parchment paper, brush with oil and sprinkle with coarse salt then bake at 290 degrees F until golden brown. You can eat these warm, they’ll be soft, if you can actually wait and allow them to cool they’ll be nice and crunchy. We like to eat them with a little butter.