Easter holidays are associated with a number of typical dishes, on Spy (Holy) Wednesday Czechs would traditionally eat a special fluffy shredded pancake (“Trhanec”) because the food was meant to look ugly, on Maundy Thursday (in Czech called Green Thursday) they would include something green (generally cooked with parsley, spinach or young stingy nettles) and on Good Friday, a fasting day, fish and thick broth. Holy Saturday was reserved for the Easter stuffing and sweet Easter bread. The Sunday feast on the Resurrection Sunday then apart from sweet filled rolls, Easter bread and plaited sweet rolls also included meat-based stock and various roast. As many families could not afford a roasted lamb, this was gradually replaced by a lamb-shaped sponge cake.
Easter Monday brought with it mainly egg-based dishes, with eggs being a symbol of resurrection. From the various stuffing recipes, the most traditional one includes smoked meat (mostly pork) and young herb and you can try it yourselves by following the recipe below.
Ingredients:
800g smoked meat (mostly pork)
8 white bread rolls
8 eggs
250ml milk
salt and black pepper
nutmeg
various herbs to suit your taste - young stingy nettles, parsley, chives, ...
lard and fine breadcrumbs/semolina to grease the baking tray
Procedure:
Boil the smoked meat and allow it to cool down, then dice.
Dice the bread rolls and put in a large bowl. Whisk the egg yolks with milk and season with salt, pepper and a pinch of freshly ground nutmeg. Pour the mixture over the bread rolls and allow to soak. Add the diced meat. Chopped the herbs, add to the bowl and mix. Whisk the egg whites until firm and add to the mixture.
Pre-heat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas mark 6. Grease a baking tray with lard, dust with the breadcrumbs/semolina and pour the stuffing mix into the tray. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 35-40 minutes until golden.
Ingredients:
800g smoked meat (mostly pork)
8 white bread rolls
8 eggs
250ml milk
salt and black pepper
nutmeg
various herbs to suit your taste - young stingy nettles, parsley, chives, ...
lard and fine breadcrumbs/semolina to grease the baking tray
Procedure:
Boil the smoked meat and allow it to cool down, then dice.
Dice the bread rolls and put in a large bowl. Whisk the egg yolks with milk and season with salt, pepper and a pinch of freshly ground nutmeg. Pour the mixture over the bread rolls and allow to soak. Add the diced meat. Chopped the herbs, add to the bowl and mix. Whisk the egg whites until firm and add to the mixture.
Pre-heat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas mark 6. Grease a baking tray with lard, dust with the breadcrumbs/semolina and pour the stuffing mix into the tray. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 35-40 minutes until golden.