Salads, Sides and Bread Recipes

Potato Pancakes (Zemiakové Placky)

Ingredients: 3 large potatoes, one egg, salt, marjoram, black pepper, half a small onion, 1-2 cloves of garlic, 1 spoon of flour, oil Prep Time: 30 minutes Fried potato pancakes (vyprážané zemiakové placky, also called haruľa) are quite popular in Slovakia. They are made out of potato dough just like lokshe, but are made out of uncooked potatoes and are fried in oil. Potato pancakes are usually eaten as a snack, but you can serve them as a side with soups and some meals. They are very similar to Jewish latkes, but they have few additional spices. Potato pancakes are Read the Rest…

Toast (Hrianka)

Ingredients: good hearty bread, clove of garlic, salt Prep Time: 5 minutes I don’t know if this is how toast is served everywhere in Slovakia, but I grew up eating toasted bread with garlic scraped on it. We called it “hrianka”. It’s really tasty. The garlic gives the bread creamy, buttery taste. No butter needed. It’s really easy to prepare. Simply toast few slices of hearty bread, until they are nicely brown and crunchy on the outside. Then take a clove of garlic and scrape it on one side. Or on both sides, if you are brave and have no Read the Rest…

Apple Carrot Salad (Jablkovo-mrkvový Šalát)

Ingredients: one apple, about 3 carrot sticks Prep Time: 5 minutes My mom used to prepare this refreshing salad quite often when I was a kid. I figured I’ll post it here. It consists of approximately equal parts of apples and carrots. The resulting mixture has a very nice sweet taste (from the apple), and is also quite juicy. Take an apple (jablko) and few carrots (mrkva, pl. mrkvy). Sweet and juicy apples work the best. I believe I used the McIntosh variety here. Remove the stem and peel the carrots. You can also peel the apple but from my Read the Rest…

Steamed Dumpling (Parená Knedľa)

Ingredients: 500g of flour (whole wheat or all-purpose), 0.25L of milk, 1 egg, packet of yeast, 1 teaspoon of sugar, few teaspoons of salt, few days old French bread Prep time: 3 hours (includes about 2 hours to let the dough rise) One of the unique staples of Slovak and Czech kitchens is not a dish, but a side. There are several dishes that are traditionally served not with the standard helping of rice or potatoes, but with a dumpling. Now, this isn’t your typical dumpling. It isn’t a round ball filled with some meats or vegetables. Instead, it is Read the Rest…

Potato Salad (Zemiakový Šalát)

Ingredients: 4 potatoes, about half an onion, 15oz can of sweet peas, 3 carrots, 2 dill pickles, 2 eggs, 6 tablespoons of mayonnaise, salt, black pepper, paprika Prep Time: 1 hour, plus few hours to sit in the fridge Yesterday my mom stopped here in Washington, D.C. on her way to San Francisco. I figured this was a golden opportunity to learn how she makes her really good potato salad. Here is the recipe for the Slovak potato salad, ala my mom. Start by boiling unpeeled potatoes and 3 carrots, peeled, in salted water. At some point also hard boil Read the Rest…