Traditional veggie dishes

Welcome to the ABC of Czech, Radio Prague special Czech language programme, this season dedicated to Czech food and cuisine. Having explained some of the vocabulary concerning fruit dishes last week, it is time today to look at vegetable meals.

Czechs like pickles. The most popular preserved vegetables are gherkins, kyselé okurky, literally sour cucumbers, traditionally produced in South Moravia. They are sometimes called nakládané okurky - pickled cucumbers, or simply nakládaèky. Those come in a jar, but at the start of the preserving season you can buy gherkins at open-air markets, straight from the barrel. Those are prepared to a different recipe - a quicker one - hence the name rychlokva¹ky - fast-brewed gherkins.

A typical vegetable that is not as popular anywhere else is the cauliflower - kvìták. It is too hard and bland to eat raw, but there are a number of simple recipes. Apart from the pickled variety, you can eat cauliflower, fried wiener-schnitzel-style - sma¾ený kvìták or finely chopped with eggs fried on butter kvìták jako mozeèek - cauliflower brain-style. It doesn't sound too appetising, I know...

Another typical summer vegetable dish is leèo which is a Hungarian word. It is a mix of stewed peppers, tomatoes, pieces of smoked sausage and eggs. Believe it or not, it tastes quite nice although it is quite heavy.

Of course, Czechs also love sauerkraut - kyselé zelí or kysané zelí - literally sour cabbage. It goes wonderfully with roast pork and dumplings. Vepøo-knedlo-zelo is considered as the most typical Czech dish and can go with either sauerkraut or cabbage.

To make things more difficult for themselves, Czechs also like to make kedlubnové zelí - that is grated kohlrabi cooked with all the ingredients as if it was cabbage. Again, it goes with pork and dumplings.

Zelí

A tasty seasoning for boiled beef is strouhaný køen - grated horseradish, sometimes mixed with apples. Some say the powerful taste of horseradish can only be washed down by beer.

Vegetable dishes may be healthy but they are not at all popular with children, a fact well-known to parents worldwide. But one meal which is accepted and even favoured by most Czech kids is rajská omáèka - tomato sauce. The dish consists of boiled beef and bread dumplings swimming in sweet sauce made of tomato puree. It may not sound appetising but believe me, children love it - maybe because it is so sweet and so red. That's all we have time for today, so till next time. Dobrou chu» - bon appetit.