Czech Easter stuffing: How to make it according to the chefs
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"Easter stuffing involves good bread rolls, smoked meat and young nettles, but there are plenty of variations. It has always been prepared differently in each home or village," says Pastacaffé chef Jiří Bergman, who hails from southern Bohemia. We also asked for recipe tips at Eska in Karlin, the Lokál pubs and U Kalendů. Let's make it delicious!
1. The biggest player in the stuffing is white bread! Tradition is best served by older rolls and buns, or bagels, baguettes and toasted bread. In Eska, they have the bakers bake a large cube of roll dough, in Pastacaffé they cut light Italian bread into cubes.
The chefs are mainly interested in the texture of the bread. First, it's browned in butter and chilled, ideally until the next day. The idea is to allow it to dry out sufficiently without hardening, as usually done when preparing breadcrumbs. The toasting brings out the flavour and firms the crust so that the buns do not get soggy when they come into contact with wet ingredients, and create a pleasing pattern when the stuffing is sliced.
2. An important step is soaking the bread. It should only be moistened or drizzled with milk, so that the stuffing doesn't become a uniform, sticky mass with no texture. At Eska, they sprinkle the rolls with cream and at Pastacaffé they recommend adding a little strong broth to the milk for a richer flavour.
Notes from the kitchen!
If too much milk or cream soaks into the bun, gently (!) squeeze out the excess liquid. Thickening the mixture with flour results in a stiff dumpling-like stuffing. The moist buns are added to the baking powder or fresh yeast, which helps the stuffing to rise nicely.
3. The stuffing needs enough fat, especially if it's not baked alongside meat, but on a baking sheet. Cooks therefore advise mix it with the egg yolks, which are whisked or beaten beforehand with softened butter. The emulsion coats each bun and perfectly combines all the ingredients, which are then seasoned with salt, pepper and grated nutmeg.
The old familiar nutmeg
The aroma and taste of nutmeg comes from a wide range of aromas contained in the essential oils. It is worth mentioning substances such as myristicin, safrole or elemicin, which have hallucinogenic effects, while the pungency of nutmeg is caused by gingerol. The latter is also found in turmeric and ginger.
There is an unwritten rule in kitchens: savoury dishes are flavoured with nutmeg, while sweet ones welcome the slightly more subtle nutmeg flower.
Nutmeg loses some of its aroma through heat, so it is best when grated on food just before serving. Use sparingly though, it's still strong in flavour! When cooked, it harmonises with cabbage and leafy greens, with spinach and leeks, Jerusalem artichokes, parsnips, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower and pumpkin.
It's a great spice for potatoes, especially mashed or gratin, and its fat-soluble aroma adds to cheese and cream dishes, cream soups and béchamel sauces. It can also flavour rice and pasta (with tomato sauce and seafood), eggs and fish, or beef and pork. The nut and flower are also traditionally found in recipes for all kinds of cold cuts, including sausages, liver pate, gothaj salami or dried meat.
Nutmeg flower adds an interesting flavour to fruit tarts and biscuits, and works well in fruit salads, marmalades, vanilla creams and puddings or in (hot) chocolate. Desserts with apples and carrots, pears or oranges (in conjunction with honey, cinnamon and cloves) benefit from a touch of intense spice, and it was formerly added to doughnut dough, too.
Nutmeg has been found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs, but was only tasted in Europe in the 11th century. Until about the 17th century, nutmeg was one of the most expensive spices along with pepper and cinnamon, and even colonial wars were fought over it. In addition to its use in the kitchen, nutmeg was attributed aphrodisiac properties and was commonly worn as an amulet.
4. Smoked meat intensifies the umami flavours of stuffing. Cooks choose Prague ham, beef fat and bacon or pork smoked flank, which they fry with onion beforehand. The flavoured meat then enhances the stuffing, as well as the fat that is released in the process. The chefs at Eska also add flavour with lard left over from the production of pork cracklings.
Courgette stuffing according to U Kalendů
At the U Kalendů restaurant, the family recipes of chef Honza Všetečka are prominent on the menu. And that includes his grandmother's succulent courgette stuffing.
For one batch you need:
- 4 eggs, separated
- 3 cups grated courgette
- 1 cup plain flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ cup finely chopped onion
- ¼ pound smoked meat, cut into smaller cubes
- ½ cup grated ripened cheese (edam or gouda)
- ¼ cup sunflower oil
- 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
- 1 teaspoon salt
- pinch of pepper
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 handfuls parsley
- butter to grease + breadcrumbs to sprinkle on the mould
The procedure is easy!
Whip the egg whites until stiff. Combine the other ingredients thoroughly in a bowl and finally gently fold in the egg whites. Layer the mixture in a buttered and breadcrumb-dusted baking tin and bake at 180 °C for about 35 minutes.
5. Stuffing always needs a handful of fresh herbs. The Easter version cannot do without young nettles, which are blanched and chopped finely, or briefly heated in a pan with roasted smoked meat. You can also pick parsley, lovage, basil and spinach or bear garlic and other wild herbs such as snakeweed, dandelion, cress, borage, dandelion, strawberry and violet leaves.
Did you know:
At Lokál Hamburk, they add almonds to the bread roll mixture, which crisp up nicely inside the soft stuffing. Almond stuffing for poultry is described in old cookbooks — Marie B. Svobodová advises to beat 70 g of butter with 4 eggs, and add 140 g of finely chopped peeled almonds, a little cream and grated breadcrumbs. Sugar, mace and salt will suffice for flavouring.
First Republic cookbooks devote separate chapters to stuffing, cooking it from liver and veal, crayfish, oysters, raisins or chestnuts. The liver stuffing is sautéed with mushrooms in butter with shallots and green parsley, while other stuffings are flavoured with grated or finely chopped lemon rind or even anchovies. Roast poultry was stuffed with also with truffles. They were peeled and stewed with shallots, parsley, mushrooms and bacon, with pepper, allspice, lemon zest and salt, covered with stock and white wine.
Easter stuffing has various names. It is often called "hlavička" ("header"), as original recipes included calf's heads. In the Podkrkonoší region the same name was given to thick, cooled semolina porridge into which eggs, boiled offal or meat of young goats, and herbs such as parsley, chives, nettles and 'kundrlátek' (ivy-leaved asparagus) were mixed.
6. For fluffy stuffing, you'll need stiffly whipped egg whites, which are gently incorporated into the mixture of egg yolks, herbs and smoked meat. Moisture is also a prerequisite for success — the stuffing must not dry out! Therefore, before baking, the mixture is topped with slices of cold (herb) butter, which is slowly absorbed into the buns whilst baking and helps to create a crisp crust. P.S.: Bake for a maximum of 30 to 40 minutes at a temperature of between 170 and 180 °C.
And what to serve with it?
Easter calls for a feast, at which stuffing is usually served alongside roast chicken - try this recipe from Café Savoy! The role of the side dish is left to roast or mashed potatoes, and sometimes even potato salad. On the festive table, Easter quiche with nettles by chef and wild herb collector Tomáš Reisinger also makes an impression.
Nettle stuffing from Eska
Ingredients:
- 8 bread rolls
- 200 ml whipping cream
- 8 eggs
- 100 g butter, softened + extra to grease the baking tray
- 400 g young nettles
- 500 g cooked smoked meat, cut into cubes
- 1 onion
- 4 cloves of garlic
- fresh marjoram, chives, chives
- 20 g baking powder
- salt
- nutmeg
- black pepper
Procedure:
- Cut the rolls into medium-sized cubes and moisten them with a little cream in a bowl. Crack the eggs and separate the yolks from the whites.
- Whisk the egg yolks with the butter and add to the rolls with the cream.
- Rinse the nettles thoroughly, scald them briefly and rinse immediately with cold water. Chop the drained leaves into smaller pieces and add to the other ingredients.
- Mix the prepared mixture with the smoked meat and finely chopped onion, grated garlic and chopped herbs. Add the baking powder and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
- Finally, whip the egg whites until stiff, and mix straight into the other ingredients.
- Spread the mixture in a greased tin and bake at 180 °C for about 40 minutes.
Tip: You can bake boiled egg in the filling - it looks beautiful when cut.
Source: Ambiente chefs, Marie B. Svobodová, Aroma (Thomas Vilgis)
