Going one out of order because one of the elements for the Cyprus entry requires about ten days of preparation, so it’s in process in the background, and I’m forging ahead with the last of the Cs, Czechia (since 2016), or the Czech Republic. Formerly known as Bohemia, and, of course, combined with its neighbor of Slovakia, it was for much of my life known as Czechoslavakia. The two split in 1993, just 18 years ago. This is a relatively small landlocked country bordered by Germany, Austria, Poland, and Slovakia. Sticking with our West Virginia reference, which seems to pop up a lot for smaller countries, Czechia is about 20% larger, midway between the size of WV and South Carolina, though at nearly 11 million people, it has six times the population of WV. The capital, and largest city, is Prague, about the physical size of Tulsa, though with four times the population, at close to 1.4 million people.

The majority, around 2/3, are ethnically Czech, a word that traces back to an earlier version of the local language of the same name, meaning “kinsman”, or “member of our people”. The balance are a mix of various, mostly European, ethnicities. In surveys, the majority of the population, some 80%, has declined to identify themselves with any particular religion, the balance, only 11% identify as Christian, mostly Catholic.

The cuisine is fairly “Eastern European”, and is heavy on meat and potato dishes, along with a lot of cured meats, particularly sausages. Of note, Czechia has the highest per capita consumption of beer of any country in the world. Luckily for our little project, soups are popular in Czech cuisine, and there was a huge variety to choose from. The country is roughly divided into three major regions that do influence the cuisine, and it simply came down to picking something I found interesting, in this case from the southern Bohemian region, a soup called Kulajda, a creamy mushroom and potato soup. There were also numerous breads to choose from, and I picked a popular fried flatbread, Langoše, closely related to the Lángos of Hungarian cuisine, though differing in toppings. In Czechia, it’s typically topped with garlic, Edam cheese, and/or ketchup, while in Hungary it’s usually topped with sour cream. The Czech version also generally includes potato in the dough.

I’m making a half batch here of the recipe that I decided to work from, which will make three instead of six Langošes. I have 1½ cups of all purpose flour (about 200 gm), a half cup (120ml) of warm milk, 1½ tsp of instant yeast, a small boiled potato (actually half of a large one that would have gone into the full recipe), just shy of 2 Tb of vegetable oil, 1½ Tb of sugar (seemed like a lot, but it works), and a teaspoon of salt, plus a large garlic clove for the topping.

Mix the warm milk with the sugar and yeast and let sit for about ten minutes to start bubbling. Grate the potato into the flour, and mix with the salt and oil, then add in the yeast mixture and using a spatula or wooden spoon, mix it well until you’ve got a thick, soft dough.

Let it sit in a warm place for about an hour – it won’t quite double like a pure flour dough, but it will rise noticeably. Then divide into three equal parts and pat out into roughly 9″ rounds. Let sit for another 15 minutes to rise slightly.

And, fry in vegetable oil on both sides until golden brown.

Grate the garlic or press through a garlic press – you want it really fine here, rather than just chopped. Mix with a good pinch of salt and just enough water to make a suspension like this.

Drain the breads and put on a paper towel to absorb the excess oil. While still hot, slather the top with some of the garlic mixture.

 

On to our Kulajda, our soup of the day. We have a couple of potatoes, some dried mushrooms (or fresh, porcini or something similar are common in Czech cuisine, and a mix is fine, here I have some dried pine mushrooms from northern Argentina). Some cream, butter, flour, sugar, white vinegar, fresh dill, eggs, and beef stock (if you want to make this vegetarian, just use vegetable stock).

Put the eggs in a pot of water and hard-boil them, and put the dried mushrooms in another pot of water and simmer them until soft, about 15 minutes. Make a roux of the butter and flour and let it toast for a couple of minutes, though not to the point of browning.

Instead of milk or cream into the roux, we’re going to ladle in the beef stock, a ladle at a time, making sure that it incorporates as you go, this will help prevent lumps (also your stock should be hot). Finish by draining the liquid from cooking the mushrooms into the pot, and let the whole thing simmer for a couple of minutes together.

Add the mushrooms, and the peeled and diced potatoes, bring back to a simmer and cook, covered, for about 20 minutes, until the potatoes are cooked through.

Turn off the heat and add the cream, vinegar, sugar, and chopped dill. Let it sit for about ten minutes for the vinegar and sugar to sour and sweeten the cream. I’m not sure why most of the recipes I found do it this way instead of simply using sour cream and sugar – maybe there just wasn’t sour cream available back in the day, though you could certainly mix the vinegar into the cream in advance and sour it. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper, and done!

Serve up with a split hard-boiled egg and, if you like, decorate with a sprig of dill.

 

Absolutely delicious, really one of my favorites so far in this project. I’m not sure what it is, but it all just works – maybe because it’s been cold and rainy here and it just felt comforting. To me, both the bread and soup seemed to have too much sugar in the recipes, but it ends up balancing just right. The potato in the bread dough makes this sort of fluffy and delicate – there was a sense of it being like a big potato pancake. I will say that they really have to be eaten right away – sitting overnight they kind of collapse a bit and get more dense. Still tasty, but just not that light texture, even with reheating. I’d happily make either or both of these again!

Next time, I think, we’ll be on track to finish up the planned previous country, Cyprus, and then ready to move on to the Ds!