Ingredients: whole trouts, butter, sides (such as potato and vegetables)
Prep Time: 40 minutes

Preheat the oven to 400F. Rinse the trout (pstruh), pat dry, and place on a baking pan along with about half a stick of butter (maslo). Bake for about 30 minutes. In the mean time, prepare your side dishes. I used boiled potatoes (varené zemiaky), but mashed potatoes or fries are also popular. I also steamed some green beans (zelená fazuľa).

About 20 minutes into baking I opened the oven and spooned the melted butter over the fish (ryba). Continue baking until it is flaky.

And that’s it. Another popular side is canned fruit (or fruit compote, kompót). Enjoy! As a little aside, this trout was almost completely bones-free (the spine was removed at the store). Since we now have seedless melons and grapes, I guess we can also have boneless fish…

Speaking of green beans, you can use them to make a delicious green beans soup.

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Ingredients: one whole chicken, 1 onion, 1 tablespoon paprika, one bay leaf, 1 pint heavy cream, flour, salt, oil, pasta (shells or macaroni)
Prep Time: about one hour

Here are the ingredients you will need. Besides the chicken and cream, you will also need an onion, spices and some pasta for the side.

Chop up the onion pretty fine and stir on a medium-hot oil until it turns golden and transparent. In the mean time, wash the chicken and cut it into major pieces, such as legs, wings, and few cuts of the breast meat. Add to the pot. Also add one teaspoon of paprika, salt, and one bay leaf. Cover with water. I used approximately 12 oz.

Stir and mix well and then cover. Reduce heat once the water comes to a boil. Continue stewing for about 45 minutes. In the mean time, I used the leftover bones and the giblets to make a delicious chicken soup. I also fried few pieces of the chicken skin for a tasty snack.

When the chicken is ready (after about 45 minutes), boil salted water and cook the noodles. Then remove the meat and set aside. This is optional, but if you have a blender, carefully blend the hot liquid for a smoother sauce. Then dissolve a heaping tablespoon of flour into the cream. Stir into the sauce.

Bring the sauce back to a boil and then add the chicken back to warm it up. If the sauce is too thin, you can thicken it by adding more flour or Wondra. And if it is too thick, you can thin the sauce by adding milk. Serve over pasta. Enjoy!

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Ingredients: 10 cloves of garlic, butter, 4 potatoes, 8 cups of water, 2 tsp paprika, 1 tsp caraway, salt, toast, cheese
Prep Time: Fast, 20 minutes

Peel the cloves of garlic (cesnak) and crush them using a garlic press. Alternatively you can chop them using a grater, or just slice them fine with a knife (this is what I did). Melt two tablespoons of butter (maslo) in a pot and add the garlic. Fry for few seconds.

Next add some eight cups of water (voda), 2 heaping teaspoons of paprika (mletá červená paprika), another teaspoon of caraway (rasca), and salt (soľ) to taste. Then peel the potatoes, cut them into small cubes, and add to the pot.

Boil for about 15 minutes until the potatoes get soft. In the meantime, toast a slice of bread (chlieb). I toasted mine on butter in a frying pan but you could just use a toaster. Cut the toast into squares and put them in a bowl. Then scoop the finished soup over the bread.

Finally, grate some cheese into the soup (I used Swiss) and also decorate with some garnish, such as parsley (petržlenová vnať). Enjoy!

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Ingredients: one head of cabbage, 2 tbsp of oil or lard, 1 onion, 3 tsp flour, 1 small container of sour cream, paprika
Filling: 0.5lb ground beef, 1tsp oil, rice (half a cup to a cup), water (twice as much as rice), 1 small onion, 1 egg, black pepper, one clove of garlic
Prep Time: 40 minutes

Make the filling and prepare the leaves

Start by cutting out the core from the cabbage (kapusta). Also take an onion (cibuľa), and grate it using a hand grater or a food processor. You will need two onions, one for the filling, and one for the sauce.

Stir the onion on a bit of oil until it foams. Add the rice (ryža). Next add water (twice as much as rice), cover, and cook until the rice is almost done. The recipe called for 1 cup of rice for the half pound of meat, but this made for a mixture bit heavy on the rice. Use less rice if you prefer more meat.

In the meantime, put the cabbage in a pot of hot water and bring to a slow boil. The leaves will start to fall off. Carefully remove the leaves as they come off with a knife. Next cut off the bottom stiffer part so you get a flexible leave that can be rolled. Save all pieces.

Chop the stiffer cut-off pieces into small strips. Fry for few seconds on oil along with a grated onion and paprika. Cover with water and bring to a boil.

Stir in 3 teaspoons of flour (I used Wondra) into the sour cream. Take a small amount of the liquid from the sauce pan, and stir into the sour cream mixture to dilute it. This is better than directly putting the cream in the sauce, as it will keep the cream from lumping up. Stir the diluted cream into the sauce.

Mix the meat, the egg, ground black pepper, salt, and a crushed clove of garlic. Add the cooked rice, and mix together.

Filling cabbage leaves

Start filling the cabbage leaves. Take about a teaspoon of the filling and place it to one side of the leaf. Flip one side over. Ideally, do this diagonally, as if you were making a funnel. This is not shown too well in this set of pictures.

Complete the roll, and finally tuck the end pieces in.

Cook the Holubky

Place the holubky in the sauce and cover with a lid to keep them from coming apart. This may not be really required, since I cooked some separately and they stayed together.

Cook until done, the best way to check is to take one and try it. It cooked mine for about 30 minutes, until the cabbage leaves were nice and soft. By the way, you can also cook the holubky separately. This will give them a cleaner appearance. Enjoy!

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Dough: 220g (1 3/4 cups) all purpose flour, 120g (one stick) butter, 100g (0.8 cups) powdered sugar, 1 egg, 2 yolks, 4 tsp baking powder, 2 heaping tbsp cocoa
Custard: 500g (1.5 cups) farmers cheese, 4 tbsp corn starch, 1 egg, 3 yolks, 4dl (1 2/3 cups) milk, 1dl (~1/3 cup) oil, 100g (0.8 cups) powdered sugar, 1 packet of vanilla sugar, fruit or berries (optional)
Meringue: 5 egg whites, 5 tbsp powdered sugar
Prep Time: About 30 minutes, and then 30+15 minutes for baking at 390F

The ingredients you will need to make this cake. In addition, you will also need corn starch and vanilla sugar, which I forgot to include in this line up.

Make the Dough

First, get your stove going by preheating it to 390F. Then combine all the ingredients to make the dough. I weighed the ingredients on a kitchen scale. This will give you a more precise measurement than going by volume alone, since the density of powdery substances like flour or powdered sugar can vary quite a bit. I also sifted the flour; this should make it less lumpy and help it blend better.

You will need several egg yolks for this recipe. Don’t forget to save the whites, you will need them later. To separate the yolk from the white, crack the egg in the middle so you get two shell cups. Then gently toss the yolk from one half to the other. The yolk will stay in the cup, but the white will drip down to the bowl. Mix the ingredients together by hand until you get a smooth mixture with the consistency of play dough. Place the dough in the fridge while you go about making the custard.

Make the Custard

Combine the ingredients to make the cheese custard filling. The original recipe called for one packet of Zlatý Klas (Golden Corn Ear). I believe this is the same as corn starch so that’s what I used. I didn’t know how big the standard package of Zlatý Klas is so I used 4 tablespoons of starch. The resulting mixture was a bit thin, sort of like a pancake batter. The original recipe specifically called this out, saying that you shouldn’t worry about it being too thin. Well – the filling in the center of the cake was still liquid when the cake was done baking! But it subsequently solidified in the fridge so I am not quite sure if I did this step correctly. In other words, feel free to experiment. Whisk the custard until you start seeing bubbles. You will also need a packet of vanilla sugar. You can usually find these in European grocery stores, or you can make your own.

Fill and Bake the Cake

Next dust a board with flour and roll the cake out to the size of you baking pan. I used the 9×13 one, but a slightly smaller one would probably be even better. I rolled the dough out directly on the granite counter top in my new apartment, it’s awesome! Brush oil over the pan and dust it with flour. Then, roll the dough onto the rolling pin, and transfer it like this to the pan. Make sure it nicely fills the bottom by spreading it with your fingers if needed.

Then pour the filling over the dough. Add berries or other fruit if you like. Stick the cake in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.

Prepare Egg Whites “Snow”

While the cake is baking, prepare the meringue, which in Slovak is called snow (sneh). Add 5 tablespoons of powdered sugar to the 5 egg whites you should have lying around. Beat or use a blender until you get stiff peaks. Try not to each much along the way – this stuff is really delicious!

Finish Baking

Take the cake out after about 30 minutes and top with the egg white “snow”. I ended up with a fairly thin layer so it’s possible that the original recipe poster used a smaller baking pan. Bake for additional 15 minutes until the top turns brown.

Take out of the oven and let cool off completely. Then cut the cake with a wet knife. Top with powdered sugar. Enjoy! By the way, this cake tasted MUCH better the next day after sitting in the fridge overnight.

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