Bohemian food love story - a Trip to Prague #1

This summer I went on a trip to the Czech capital Prague with a friend of mine. This post will be the start of a series about Prague.

When we went to Prague we of course wanted to taste authentic Czech food. When I was a child I grew up in a region near to the Czech Republic but I didn't realize that I ate a lot of czech & czech-influenced food when I was young. So the trip to Prague was like a food dreamland of my childhood. I remembered all my favourite dishes I used to eat as a child.

One of the most famous dish of Czech is goulash with dumpling. There are so many variations of this dish. The most famous one abroad is beef goulash with sliced bohemian bread dumpling. But you can also find goulash with pork or sometimes turkey breast with a light gravy.

Germans love to eat potatoes & Czech love to eat dumplings.

As you may know there are many, many sorts of dumplings. Some of them are bread dumplings, bacon dumplings, semolina dumplings, potatoe dumplings, ... And there are also sweet ones, like yeast dumplings filled with plums, apricots or blueberries - my favourite ones.

But Czech cuisine has much more to offer than goulash & dumplings. There are also many delicious deserts & healthy & light summer dishes. I think I'll introduce some oft them soon.

But let's talk about where to eat best in Prague.

When we were on our way to Prague Castle we discovered this small, very cute panncake-shop. (Can you say it like this in English?) It is called 'Creperie u Katjetána'. The pancakes we ate there were really good, althought in my opinion they were rather french crèpe than czech palačinka - czech pancakes. You also have to taste the home made limonade. This limonade ist not too sweet but really refreshing & the best decision on a hot summer afternoon.  In the back of this shop you can find a very lovely summer garden. Everything was furnished very lovingly & the waitress was very nice too. We didn't feel like we were in a typically tourists restaurant. It was really comfortable there & we stayed some time just to relax & to enjoy the wonderful summer day. I really advise you to go there when you're vistiting Prague. You can find the Creperie on the street called Nerudova - between the Curch St. Nicholas & the Prague Castle.

summer garden

pancake shop

pancake withe banana & nuts (left) pancake with cinnamon & sugar (right)

The 'U Dvóu Sester' is a restaurant that offers delicious & authentic Czech dishes. You can also have the good tasting Czech beer there. Because I can't stand eating goulash the entire 3 days we spent in Prague I had a fried potatoe patty with sauerkraut seasoned with caraway & Czech sausage. You should know that Czech sausages usually contain pieces of fat. Either you're used to it or you won't really like it. My friend had the typically Czech goulash with sliced bohemian dumplings as mentioned above. It was really tasty. Somehow I was a bit jealous on this goulash. I should had taken that, too. This restaurant is situated very close to the Old Town Square. The street is called Melantrichova. You can find it easily on google. If you want to eat real authentic Czech dishes you should go there.

I'm sorry for the poor quality of these pictures.

Goulash with sliced bread dumpings

Fried potatoe patty - not very notable, but very delicious

And this is how you can find both restaurants:

Way to 'Creperie u Katjetána'

Way to 'U Dvóu Sester'

In the end you should know that it is not easy to find real authentic Czech restaurants in Prague. You should consider that most of the restaurants just offer some variations of goulash with dumplings, because most tourist want to eat this dish but don't have any sense what authentic Czech food is. I really wanted to eat yeast dumplings filled with blueberries, but no restaurant offered them. Nor did any of them offer authentic Czech desserts. To taste real authentic Czech dish you have to leave the main attractions & go to regions or cities with less tourists. I advice going to Czech hiking areas for the nature is breath taking & the hiking trails are very interesting.









Here are some pictures of the delicious Czech food we ate during our trip. Everything tasted so good.

palačinka  filled with mascarpone & vanilla ice cream

apple strudel & cinnamon ice cream

bacon dumplings & goulash

Pasta

non-alcoholic cocktail with mint, lime & brown sugar

turkey breast filled with spinach

goulash soup in a loaf of bread

small pancakes in blueberry sauce

palačinka with fruits

I hope you'll like Czech food as I do ;-)

Avocado juice

Today I went to the supermarket to buy one or two things so that I don't have to starve during the weekend. But when I was there I saw these dark & ripe avocados. So I had to take them with me & I made one of the most delicious juices in the world - avocado juice.

It is a typical Moroccan beverage, but I don't think that Moroccans drink it very often. In Morocco I just had it one or two times when we went out for a juice - no in Morocco you usually don't go out for an alcoholic drink ;-). I never heard of an juice made up of avocado before until my husband made it for us. At first I was a bit sceptic, but when I first tried it I fell in love with it. It is so delicious.

And here is how you can make it:

For two big glasses you need
2 avocados - they have to be very ripe & soft (edit: 1 avocado is already sufficent)
500ml of milk
3-4 table spoons of sugar - if you don't like it very sweet just take 3 table spoons of sugar

At first cut the avocados into two peaces, spoon them out & put the pulp in a bowl. Then add the milk & the sugar & puree everything with an immersion blender. Pour the puree in glasses & put it in the fridge for about half an hour - it tastes best when it is cool. You can also decorate it with almonds & mint leaves.

That's all. It is very simple, isn't it? I hope you enjoy this beverage. Now I'm going to relax with a glass of avocado juice, which I just made.

The pancake with a thousand holes

Today is the start of Ramadan. Because of that today I made some special moroccan pancakes called Baghrir ( بغرير ). Althought the recipe seems to be very easy you need to get a feeling for the right amount of integredients. Baghrir are eaten throughout the whole year but especially at Ramadan.
Because I didn't really get a recipe of my husbands mother - just a peace of paper saying semolina, yeast & flour in arabic - I created  my very own recipe.
But I must admit, every Moroccan who tried my selfmade Baghrir said that they are very good ^^

And here is how to make them - about 10 Baghrir

Step 1 - you need:
250g flour
250g fine semolina
1/2 peace of yeast - that means yeast for about 250g - 500g flour
a pinch of salt - don't forget the salt, I always forget the salt

At first you put everything in a large bowl and mingle the ingedients. Afterwards you add about 500ml of warm water and mix the ingredients with a mixer. Now the mixture should be very liquid and blister. If the mixture is a bit viscous add some more water and add some yeast if it is not blistering. Let the mixture rest for about 5 minutes.
Meanwhile heat a non-sticky frying pan on medium heat. After 5 minutes stir the mixture again and pour some of it in the frying pan. Let the Baghrir fry until it got firm. It now should have got a lot of holes. You do not need to turn the pancake. The Baghrir is ready when it dissolves itself while moving the frying pan.
When the Baghrir are cooled off they become a little sticky. Therefore put them on a semolina sprinkled plate so they won't stick to it. Do the same with the rest of the mixture.

You can keep the Baghrir until the next day. To do so you should cover them with a clean cloth and keep them cool.

Flour, yeast & semolina	Mingle everything

Looks good, but add some more yeast	Looks pretty good

Shouldn't look like this	Some fails

Looks pretty good	You can watch it getting holes

Semolina sprinkeld traditional moroccan plate	Working in the kitchen :-)

Baghrir are ready

Step 2 - Baghrir are usually eaten with butter & honey

Heat a clean non-sticky frying pan on low heat. Add some butter and honey and heat them some seconds. Put one Baghrir with upside down in the frying pan let it heat and soak the butter & honey for a few seconds. Take them out of the pan and roll them up. For the next one put again some butter & honey in the pan and do the same with all Baghrir.

I guess it's also ok to heat butter & honey and pour them over the Baghrir but I prefer this way because the Baghrir soak more of honey & butter.

Previously prepared Baghrir, honey & butter	Getting ready for the final step

Put butter in the frying pan	Add honey

Put Baghrir upside down in the pan	Take Baghrir out of the pan after a few seconds

Roll the Baghrir up	Ready for eating

Don't worry if your first Baghrirs go wrong. The first time I made them it was horrible. They got cracks, didn't really have holes, they were to dry and they didn't even taste like Baghrir.

Baghrir are best served with moroccan mint tea - very delicious. I hope you'll like them too. Enjoy having a try on them ;-)

The magic of Ramadan

Soon the time of Ramadan starts. It's a very special time for the arabian world and those many muslims over the world.

In the western world it is usually said that Ramadan is just a fasting month, but for muslims it is much more than that. Althougt you are not allowed to eat or drink anything the wohle day - from sunrise to sunset - most of the muslims are looking forward to it. Usually every muslim has to fast, but old or ill people, children or pregnant women are allowed to eat and drink.

Like always during the day people are busy doing their everyday business but when the sun starts to set everyone is hurrying to get home for taking the first meal of the day together with the whole family. In morocco I learned that the first meal after sunset is called iftar ( إفطار ) which means fast breaking or futur ( فطور ) which mean s breakfast. Later in the evening a second meal is eaten and sometimes even a third meal that is taken late in the night - but moroccan people are used to it.


If you ever traveled to an arabian country you will know that usually there are always a lot of people out on the street especially in big cities. But in Ramadan on sunset you will hardly find anyone on the streets. Somehow it's macigal ... You're walking along a street so crowded and busy as ever and not even half an hour later ... you are alone, a place you never saw so deserted - as if they had disappeared from the face of the earth - you feel alone but comfortable.

Pic by Marina Oliphant

Especially women are very busy before and during this month sparing no efforts to prepare alle the special moroccan sweets, cakes and things usually eaten in Ramadan. A very special sweet that is normally just eaten during Ramadan in Morocco is called Sellou. The consistency is like sand and it also looks like ordinary sand you can find on a beach but no ... it's not sand. And like all moroccan sweets it's very delicious and very sweet. Sellou is mostly made of flour, roasted almonds and butter. If I make Sellou during Ramadan I will definetly post the recipe.


While Ramadan every evening the whole family comes together, eating a lot of delicious and energy-rich food, meeting friends and going out late.
One day you really should travel to an arabian country while Ramadan. Maybe you get an invitation to eat breakfast with someones family. Belive me, it is so special and wonderful.

I hope you'll enjoy the delicious recipes I will post during this year's Ramadan.

Moroccan mint tea

Hello,
this is my first blog entry, so I don't really expect many people to read this. However this entry is about one of the most delicious teas I'v ever drunken - moroccan mint tea.

Mint tea is one of the most essential things in the moroccan culture. Moroccan people have it for breakfast, when friends come around, after meals and so on. It can be said that they drink it all the time. In morocco aside from the well known moroccan hospitality mint tea is one of the most important things when you have guests at your home. So if you are invited to vistit a moroccan friend or his/her familiy you will probably be served very delicoius mint tea.

There is one astonishing fact about moroccan tea. Even when the weather is very hot after drinking this tea you will feel a bit refreshed. When drinking it the first time you will notice that it is very sweet. Moroccan pastries are very sweet too. They like it very sweet & they eat a lot of it :-) I'm not sure but but I think it's because of the warm weather. Sometimes I ask myself why they simply don't get diabetes or why they don't get fat. In fact I didn't see a lot of fat people when I was in morocco.

... whatever. So now you may be very exited how morrocan mint tea tastes like. Let me descibe it like this TOTALLY DELICOIUS! <3

Here is how to make it (with a teapot that holds about 1 liter) ;-)
At first you need to buy some integredients - mint & green tea granulates (small folded tealeafes). You also need sugar, a loooot of sugar & a special teapot. You can use any teapot, that you can put on the cooker & that has a special strainer.  On the right side there's a pickture how the strainer in the teapot should look like. Mint & green tea granulate can easily be bought at a moroccon or arabian supermarket.

At first you boil approximately 1 liter of water in a water boiler. Then you put about 1&1/2 teaspoon of green tea granulate in the teapot.

After that you pour some of the boiled water in the teapot so that the granulate is covered. Meanwhile you need to wash the mint of 3 stripes. Put the mint to the side. After appromiately 1 minute shake the teapot withe the granulate a few times left to right & right to left to wash the tealeaves properly (If you don't know what I mean, it's not that important) Now pour out the water in the teapot. It's absolutely normal if the poured out water looks a bit dark with some (tea)crumbs.


Now pour the rest of the boiled water in the teapot, but let about 1 or 2 centimeter space to the upper border of the teapot. Put the washed mint in the teapot and push it down properly. It is very important that all mintleaves are covered by water. Now you need a lot of sugar ;-) Usually I put about 8 - 9 teaspoons of sugar in approximately 1 litre of tea. (I don't like the tea to be too sweet, but if  you think the tea is not sweet enough you can put more sugar afterwards).

Then bring the tea to boil on a cooker with closed lid (but don't use too much heat) & take care that the mintleaves are always covered with water. If they are not the tea will taste a bit strange afterwards. When the tea is cooking use very less heat & stire the tea a 1-2 times, close the lid again. Now the tea needs to steep a few minutes but it shouldn't cook.

After about 5 minutes the tea is ready to be served.



I hope you like this tea. Some of my friends really love it. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask me ;-)