Today we’re trying our hand at making traditional Svíčková.
We had this in Prague about 3 years ago, and we still talk about it!
If you claim you can cook in Czech, someone might ask you ‘but can you cook Svíčková?’ Is not complicated, just time consuming but warming… hearty… and good!
Its basically braised beef with a root vegetable sauce served with dumplings (yum!) and cranberry sauce.
You can watch our attempt at making this on YouTube below.
So here’s a proper recipe… we didn’t follow it to the letter though… don’t do that! Haha! FOLLOW THE RECIPE!!!
Ingredients – Sauce and meat
2 cups shredded parsnips (about 4 large parsnips)
2 cups shredded carrots (about 4 large carrots)
2 cups shredded celeriac (1 medium bulb) 200g
1 large onion chopped
6 bay leaves
1 tbsp vinegar
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp ground allspice (or 6 all-spice berries)
½ pint heavy cream
½ cup milk
1 tsp salt
Juice from ½ lemon
620g Beef sirloin or rump
5 slices of thick bacon or salted pork fat
4 tbsp cooking oil
1 cup vegetable stock
svíčková Method – sauce and meat
Peel and chop the parsnips, carrots and celeriac
Prick the meat with a knife and insert bacon slices into each hole
Rub the meat with salt and pepper and seer the meat in a pan in the oil
Remove the meat and cover with foil
Into the same pan add carrots, parsnips, celeriac, bay leaves, allspice and ¼ of the stock. Stir well. Turn the heat to medium, cover with a lid and simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the onion, vinegar and the rest of the stock
Place the beef back into the pan with the vegetables. Cover the roast with the vegetables to prevent it from drying out.
Heat the oven to 160°C or 320°F. Cover the pan with a lid and place in oven for 2.5-3 hours or until the meat is soft.
Meanwhile, make the dumplings (see below for details)
Take the pot out of the oven and remove the meat. Place on a plate and cover with foil
Remove the bay leaves from the veg
Blend the vegetables to make a smooth sauce
Add the cream, milk, lemon juice and a pinch of salt. Boil for 5 minutes. If the sauce isn’t thick enough, you can add flour.
Cut the sirloin into slices. Spoon sauce onto a plate, place meat on top. Serve with dumplings and cranberry sauce. You can also add whipped cream if you want extra sweetness.
Ingredients – Dumplings
2 pinches of salt
½ tsp ground mace (and a bit of turmeric if you want to have a tasty looking yellow tint to the dumplings, the flavour is good too!)
2 cups (475g) course flour (hruba mouka). You can mix all purpose flour with semolina at a 1:1 ratio if you can’t find course flour.
Approximately 1 cup (235ml) lukewarm milk (use more if the dough is dry)
2 tsp sugar
2-3 rolls or buns (the traditional sized ones, they’re about 70g each)
1 egg
1 cube fresh yeast (or the dried yeast equivalent)
Alternative recipe:
1 cup lukewarm milk
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp active dry yeast
4 cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup warm water
2 tsp salt
2 eggs
4 cups white bread (French bread, bagels, heavier sandwich bread) cut into cubes
Method – Dumplings
Mix flour, salt and spices
Add in the egg followed by gradually adding the milk
Knead for several minutes, then add the cubed bread rolls
Form the final mixture into long rolls which fit into your pan and leave to prove for 45 minutes
Gently lower the dumplings into a pot of boiling water for 20 minutes. Turn over after 10 minutes. Keep the pot covered but with a crack to let the steam escape.
Immediately after removing, pierce the rolls with a fork several times to prevent them from collapsing. Set aside to cool.
To serve, cut the dumplings with wire or cotton into slices about 1.5-2cm thick.
And that's it! All done... now to contruct it!
Place 1 large spoon of sauce onto a plate. Add the sliced meat and dumplings. Add a teaspoon of cranberry sauce (as much as desired!) and cream for sweetness. Tuck in!!
We didn't do this dish justice. To be fair, it was our first time! Next time though... less white veggies for a richer, darker sauce colour. Cook the beef for much less time (or have a bigger chunk!). Try and find actual pork fat rather than pancetta, and place more of that into the meat. Make smaller dumplings! (no more raw dough!)
Other than that, I think we did pretty well! What do you think? Do you have some hot tips for when we make this again? If you are one of those super cooks who makes this with ease, please send us your pics, we'd love to hear from you!
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