"You could tell when you walk in the door," he began, recounting the memory of this dish, "yknow, when you put your bag & your coat on the whadducallit? hook thing yknow - 'Hey! Faark you, man! Don't push!!' Everyone they wanna get in there, ay."
A funny look came over Vrati's face as he recalled his days back at school. This was a dish served in the school canteen when he was a kid, back in the Czech Republic. It was the only dish in fact, that was any good & if you wanted some, cos it was always gone first at lunch time, you had to be quick. No chance of it lasting long - chance of seconds? out of the question.
Back to the here & now, where the aromas from the pan have filled Vrati's kitchen, but his nose is as close to the sizzling meat & vegetables as it can be without burning, almost his whole upper half disappeared in the vapours over the stove. Emerging: "Heeey yknow, if we had lard, I'm cooking with lard ay". That look again.
It's a curious thing, since coming up with this idea of inviting other chefs to contribute their dishes to the blog, getting together & cooking it & hearing the stories that come along with the dish, one thing has struck me as hilarious: I mean, cooks are a pretty disfunctional lot, we work crazy hours, nights & weekends, goddam christmas day ain't even sacred, on our feet all day, we get burned & scorched, tempers flair, everyone's got a vice, or a record, anger management issues, sore backs, stress, foul language, cigarettes & coffee diets, we work out the back, in the cramped & hot basements & hidden away corners of whatever fancy place it happens to be, unnoticed & disregarded...I mean, it goes on & on! But here, in this zone where flavour is king, when it comes to food, the world outside stops. Be it the kitchen at home, at work, round the bbq at a mate's place, some kinda crazy weird gleam sneaks into their eye...like they're a keeper of a great secret, or you're like a sorcerer conjuring magic...people see it, they even recognise it, but only a cook knows this by heart, & a cook can see it in another cook, & ...oh & so on & so on it goes.
Vrati's muttering again...'hmmm...'(mixmixmix), "gotta make this nice, just like my dad's..." jumps from one pot to the next, stirring, tasting, '..mustard seeds, c'mon brothers!' in they go, the last of a jar from the back corner of the pantry. On Friday, for the dinnerboxes, a friend has made some sauerkraut & will be bringing it around, but here & now, finally, I'm allowed to taste our one, the supermarket version bought for our practice session, so it's required some serious tweaking.
"Yea, Vrat, very nice, bro"."I gotta stop cookin Czech dishes!" he replies, "I'm gettn homesick"
Anyway, three parts to this week's fridaynightdinnerbox dish, brought together on the plate. I made both types of dumpling, just because i wanted to, sliced bread dumpling in the bottom of the noodle box to soak up the juices, pork belly on top covered with gravy. potato dumplings served with parsley & watercress on the side, sauerkraut on the side as well.
Ingredients: bucek(pork)
pork belly, cut into cubes
caraway seeds
onions&garlic, sliced
olive oil or lard, water
method
*cut the belly into bite sized bits, massage with caraway seeds, stand 1/2 hr
*preheat the oven to a light/moderate heat, roughly about 180C is ok
*saute the onions&garlic in a warm pan with the oil/fat
*add the pork belly & let it get to know itself a bit
*add a little water, deglaze the pan, cover & put into the oven for about an hour
*remove from oven, remove pork from pan, thicken juices with a little cornflour
*when the gravy has thickened, return pork to the pan
pork belly, cut into cubes
caraway seeds
onions&garlic, sliced
olive oil or lard, water
method
*cut the belly into bite sized bits, massage with caraway seeds, stand 1/2 hr
*preheat the oven to a light/moderate heat, roughly about 180C is ok
*saute the onions&garlic in a warm pan with the oil/fat
*add the pork belly & let it get to know itself a bit
*add a little water, deglaze the pan, cover & put into the oven for about an hour
*remove from oven, remove pork from pan, thicken juices with a little cornflour
*when the gravy has thickened, return pork to the pan
floury potatoes, egg, flour, salt
olive oil
watercress & chopped parsley
method:
*boil then mash the potatoes
*add an egg & flour, work by hand to make a dough
*roll out & cut even portions, rolling & flattening each to form little dumplings
*poach in boiling water, in batches, & when they float they're ready
*remove & in a bowl coat with olive oil so they don't stick
*I tossed mine with chopped parsley & watercress
flour, stoneground&organic, if possible
yeast, milk, sugar, salt
stale bread croutons
water/stock
Method:
*mix the yeast & sugar in warm milk, stand for 5mins til frothy
*sift in flour, season with salt, add croutons, in a bowl
*make a well in flour, add yeast, knead to form a dough
*roll out into fat sausages & poach in boiling water (I used a mild stock)
*remove when cooked (they're pretty ugly looking suckers), cool then slice
Ingredients: the sauerkraut
sauerkraut(homemade if poss, bought if not - could be posting this recipe soon)
butter, flour,
pepper, mustard seeds
Method:
*strain the sauerkraut in a sieve, 86 the pickling juice you don't need it
*melt butter in a saucepan & add a good pinch or two of pepper (I used white&red)
*add sauerkraut & with a wooden spoon mix it all really well
*sprinkle some flour over the mix & keep stirring - you don't want gluggy sludge, but you do want to thicken it a little & take some of te sharpness from the flavour
sauerkraut(homemade if poss, bought if not - could be posting this recipe soon)
butter, flour,
pepper, mustard seeds
Method:
*strain the sauerkraut in a sieve, 86 the pickling juice you don't need it
*melt butter in a saucepan & add a good pinch or two of pepper (I used white&red)
*add sauerkraut & with a wooden spoon mix it all really well
*sprinkle some flour over the mix & keep stirring - you don't want gluggy sludge, but you do want to thicken it a little & take some of te sharpness from the flavour
I must admit, it's my first foray into Eastern European cooking &, as we practised the dish at his place thru the week, I did wonder how my regular dinnerbox customers would receive my dish of pork, cabbage & potatoes, cooked in lard...whatever, it smells fantastic & Vrati, whose cooking I trust, is clearly in his element.
Feedback from one dinnerboxer, that it's as close to a home cooked meal as he's tried so far, & it's true. Hard to make this kind of food look glam on the plate. It's not fancy food. What it is though, is amazingly good tasting food made from simple ingredients &, as another dinnerboxer commented, it's about time this kind of cooking came back into vogue.
Feedback from one dinnerboxer, that it's as close to a home cooked meal as he's tried so far, & it's true. Hard to make this kind of food look glam on the plate. It's not fancy food. What it is though, is amazingly good tasting food made from simple ingredients &, as another dinnerboxer commented, it's about time this kind of cooking came back into vogue.
This seemed like alot of work in this meal!
ReplyDeleteI liked this as it seemed like an honest meal as in home cooked and hearty- The dumplings were very filling- can see why you would want sauerkraut to cut through richness of pork- loved the pork- personally I would like a bit more tartness with the cabbage. I can imagine this as a meal served for the family and would see you through a winters night. Loved the different textures of the dumplings- after 2 or 3 of each started to get that full feeling- a cheap way to fill up a family!