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Czech cuisine is full of meat, knedliky, delicious soups and beer snacks. Today I have a dish for you, which you will find in a huge number of Czech restaurants – Svíčková na smetaně. It is sometimes seen as meat with jam and whipped cream, but it is much more!
This is a dish you will find in many regions of the Czech Republic. It usually tastes slightly different. Sometimes the sauce is sweeter, and sometimes more acidic. They have one thing in common – it can be really tasty!
Ingredients
- beef tenderloin (or thigh) – about a kilo
- backfat – 50-70 g
- carrot – 2 pieces
- parsley – 1 piece
- celery – 1 small
- onion – 1 piece
- butter – 150 g
- lemon juice (from one fruit)
- water – 250 ml
- mustard – 50 g
- Cake flour – 2 tbsp
- sugar – 1 tsp
- 30% cream – 250 ml
- salt pepper
- granular pepper – a few grains
- allspice – 3-4 balls
- bay leaves – 3-4 pieces
- lemon – 5-6 slices
- blueberries for meat (or cranberry) – 5-6 tsp
Recipe
We start by cleaning the meat of membranes. I had a beef leg on hand, but originally the recipe mentions sirloin. After cleaning the meat, salt and pepper it. Before we do that, however, we cut the fat into thin strips and stuff them into the meat. In the meantime, peel the vegetables and grate them on a thick grater, and chop the onions finely. Pour vegetables onto the bottom of the baking dish and put the meat on them. Pour melted butter and lemon juice, and then put it in the fridge overnight so that the flavors can connect.
Add water to the prepared dish and put in the oven. If you have a dish with a lid, be sure to use it, or put it all in the baking sleeve, just as I did. I baked an hour and a half at 180 degrees. You have to check if your meat is soft because it is the most important thing.
We have the meat ready. It’s time to prepare the sauce. Let’s start by removing bay leaves and allspice from it. Put the sauce (what remains after roasting meat with vegetables) on gas and cook slowly. We add two tablespoons of flour mixed in a small amount of water and cream (about 100 ml). Depending on the school, we can do different things at this time. We can wipe the vegetables through a strainer, and we can also blend everything. We decided to wipe it. The sauce came out a bit thick, so we added a little milk to thin it. At this stage you should definitely taste the sauce, if you find it to be sour, then use a little sugar, or otherwise – a little lemon juice.
Cut the meat into slices, put it on the sauce or pour it over it. Whip the remaining cream and put on a plate, add a slice of lemon and a teaspoon of berries!
We serve this dish with bread dumplings. You can buy ready-made in the store (they appear more often in Poland) or make it by yourself because the recipe is really simple.
Czech classic
Svíčková na smetaně is a Czech classic! In addition to it, it’s worth trying other dishes from our neighbors. Fried cheese with tartare, garlic soup, or beer ideally suited hermelin.
Svíčková – worth to try?
This question is completely out of place for this dish! It is definitely worth trying to prepare this dish at home and a must try when visiting our neighbors!
