Mushrooms in Czech cuisine

Welcome to the ABC of Czech, our special language course, in which we look at words connected with food and cuisine. This week it's the turn of an ingredient that has a very special place in Czech cuisine: mushrooms - houby.

By those we don't mean the kind you can buy in a supermarket, that is field mushrooms, or champignons, but mainly several kinds of edible fungi, of the kind known as boletus - høib. Czechs are passionate mushroom pickers and many recognise dozens of edible mushrooms from which they can prepare all sorts of tasty meals.

Let's start with houbová sma¾enice - a mushroom stir fry, a typical summer weekend supper that people cook right after they've come back from the forest. You peel the mushrooms, slice them and fry in butter, with salt, pepper and caraway seeds. Many people also add eggs into the mix.

Houbová polévka

Another favourite summer dish is houbová polévka - mushroom soup. It is a filling thick soup, with sliced mushrooms, potatoes, onions, celery, carrots and cubes of bacon swimming in it. Another type of mushroom soup, made traditionally in the Krkonose Mountains, is houbové kyselo - sour mushroom soup. It is a thick cream soup seasoned with vinegar, with boiled mushrooms, potatoes, onions and whole eggs.

Mushroom sauce - houbová omáèka is not just a type of sauce but it is the name of a whole meal. It consists of boiled beef and bread dumplings swimming in a cream sauce with slices of mushrooms and seasoned with vinegar.

Another mushroom dish that used to be made mainly in the mountains where mushrooms are plentiful is houbový kuba. In some families it is made on Christmas Eve and eaten for lunch which is supposed to be meatless. You boil peeled barley, fry mushrooms in oil, mix those together, add plenty of garlic and bake in an oven. It's so heavy that you will barely get hungry for the carp and potato salad dinner.

Mushrooms only grow when it is warm outside so it's necessary to preserve them for the winter. Nowadays, many people simply freeze them but many still like to pickle small mushrooms in vinegar, with slices of onions, dill, mustard seeds and other seasoning. They are very nice with smoked meat and bread on a winter evening.

And of course you can dry the mushrooms. Su¹ené houby - dried mushrooms can be used almost like fresh mushrooms, you only have to soak them in water first.

The main mushroom season is still a few months away but connoisseurs are already scouring forests for rare delicacies.

And that's all we have time for today, till next week dobrou chu» - bon appetit!