Books Bygone

Thursday, December 29, 2011

More Czech Food!

Mr. Big Food is cooking up a bouře! [Czech speaking relatives-- this is what an on-line translator told me "storm" was in Czech. Is this correct? I highly doubt it.] 
Fifty bread dumplings in the works


Steamed bread dumplings
Ready to eat bread dumplings

It never ceases to amaze me just how frugal those old folks were. Nothing went to waste, especially stale bread.

When I post the recipe-- which I will after I have some photos of them doing what God intended them to do-- I'll include the correct name. For now, I just want to remark that, while a bit time consuming, these are easy to make. Fry up some bacon, fry up some cubed stale bead slices in the bacon fat. Crumble the bacon and combine the two. Put some yeast in warm water and heat up some milk. Put those together, add a couple beaten eggs. Start adding flour. Then add the bacon mixture. Shape into golf ball sized balls. Let rise. Pop them in a steamer on top of boiling water. 

Bazinga!! 

They freeze well, too.

6 comments:

  1. In our house, stale bread = Chocolate chip pudding!

    Grease a baking dish. Fill with cubed/broken dried bread(including crusts). Then you need a bit of guess work...quantity of milk is determined by quantity of bread, so it's a bit of by guess and by gory...but using one cup of milk plus one egg(beaten into the milk), plus 2 Tbsp of sugar and I guess about 1/2 tsp vanilla, pour over the bread. The liquid should come up at least half way up on the bread. Repeat the milk combo till it does. After the first couple of times, you know the size of the baking dish, and how many cups of milk you need - then it's an easy one step thing. When the liquid is in, pour chocolate chips on top and mix in. How many? That's sort of up to you and availability. the pan I used needed a quart of milk, and I used a 12 oz bag of chips. Obviously, this is very adjustable. Mix the chips in, let it set an hour or more for the bread to absorb the liquid. Bake at 350* for about an hour - again, size of pan and depth will determine time, but you do the standard test with a knife to see if the middle is done. It should come out clean. (well, maybe chocolate on the knife, but no custard) It takes a while to cool for some reason. Can be served plain, with cream or with ice cream. Good cold, but better warm.

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  2. Ummm...

    50 dumplings?

    Big happenings over the week-end? Freeze? That's a _bunch_ of dumplings, no matter how good they are!

    "They freeze well, too."

    Just defrost and serve, or heat in the microwave? or ???

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  3. Freeze. Microwave if in a hurry. For a quick breakfast, defrost in the microwave, slice and fry up in some bacon fat (or olive oil). Come to think of it, if sliced thinly, and sauteed in olive oil, they'd make a nice vehicle for some appetizer.

    Otherwise, defrost on the counter top and use as a starch with some soup or stew.

    They are very versatile.

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  4. You are right...boure means storm, thunder storm, tempest, snow storm, blizzard,roar of laughter or riot...It's not a word I was familiar with but I looked it up in the Czech dictionary...Kapesni Slovnik...

    Mr. Big Food's Mom

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  5. Thank you! We really should have a Czech dictionary of our own. But meanwhile, I hope you don't mind if I relay on you to keep us straight on such things!!

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  6. >>Come to think of it, if sliced thinly, and sauteed in olive oil, they'd make a nice vehicle for some appetizer.>>

    Cheese. Some kind of cheese sliced thin, put on top and set under the broiler for about 30 seconds to melt the cheese. Mmmmmmmmm. Or maybe put the cheese on before you're sauteing them - or maybe after you turn them in the saute pan - and put a lid on...that might melt the cheese as well.

    Talk about calorie overload!!!

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