Czech & Slovak Fried Cheese: Smažený Sýr/Vyprážaný Syr

In Czech it's "Smažený Sýr," pronounced kind of like "shmah-zhawny seer," and in Slovak as "Vyprážaný Syr," pronounced like "vee-prah-zhawny seer," they both simply mean "fried cheese." Typically they use Edam cheese in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia. Edam cheese is a round-shaped, off white colored Dutch cheese, encased in red wax, but Edam is also made outside of the Netherlands. If you can't find Edam, you can use gouda, another cheese originally from the Netherlands, but also produced elsewhere, or in the U.S. you can even try Monterey Jack, an American cheese that is pretty much available in any supermarket. The thing is, these cheeses all have relatively low moisture, which is what you want. I hadn't bought Edam cheese for many years. It's not that I don't like it, but for whatever reason, it just wasn't on my mind, but when I went to buy it recently, I couldn't find it at cheese shops or at the supermarket. I don't know if this is because of the pandemic, which disrupted the suppy of some items, especially from outside the country, or if Edam has fallen in popularity (of course, it's possible that your local store will have it). Anyhow, I ended up buying it online. Gouda is readily available in cheese shops and supermarkets, and I actually bought some of it too, just to have it.    

Serve with french fries, Czech tartar sauce and don't forget a nice cold glass of beer. The Czechs have a good reputation for pilsner beer.

Ingredients (2 to 4 servings):

 

4 pieces of Edam, gouda or Monterey Jack cheese, cut into slices about 1/2 inch thick, 2 inches wide and 2 1/2 inches long

2/3 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs, beaten

2/3 cup breadcrumbs (fine type)

oil for frying

 

Add enough neutral flavor oil to provide a quarter inch of oil in a skillet, then heat the oil over medium high heat (NOT just medium heat). Spread the flour out onto a plate, then beat the eggs in a separate shallow bowl/plate, then spread the breadcrumbs out onto another separate place. Roll a cheese slice in the flour to coat it, shake off excess, then dip the cheese slice into the beaten egg to coat it, then roll the cheese in the breadcrumbs to coat. I dip my cheese slices back into the egg and then back into the breadcrumbs to make sure they are well coated (no need for another dose of flour). Do the same with each cheese slice. Fry the cheese quickly over medium high heat, turning the cheese pieces to brown them on both sides. Frying the cheese quickly helps to prevent the cheese from running out (the double breadcrumb coating naturally helps too). Stay alert, because the frying does not take long, and if you blink twice, the breadcrumb coating may become too dark, or even burn. Not that I know anything about that ... Actually, the first time I fixed this recipe, I turned around to simply rinse a dish off in the sink, and when I turned back to the stove, the breadcrumbs were so dark and burned, they looked like I had doused them in soy sauce, which gave me an idea, but that's another story. 

 

For the Czech tartar sauce:

 

1 cup mayonnaise

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/4 teaspoon vinegar

1/4 cup sweet gherkins, finely chopped (you can use somewhat less, to your own preference)

1/4 cup onion, finely chopped or grated

1/4 teaspoon chopped dill

1/3 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt

In a bowl, add all of the ingredients and stir well to mix. Cover and refrigerate for a minimum of one hour, but preferably for several hours. Stir the sauce before serving it.  

 

Fried cheese with fries, Czech tartar sauce and a glass of beer ...

WORD HISTORY:

Howitzer-This word is related to "heap" (both noun and verb), which are from the Germanic roots of English. "Howitzer" goes back to Indo European "k(h)oup," which had the notion of "raised surface;" thus, "hill." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "houpaz/haupaz," which "seems" to have reduced the meaning from "hill" to the lesser "pile or stack of something," although the reduced meaning may have first come in the West Germanic branch of Germanic. This gave Old High German "hufo" (heap), which then became "hufe (heap) (this also was used in the sense "group/band/crowd"). This was borrowed by Czech (often called "Old Czech" for the time period until the early 1500s) as "houf," which meant "heap, crowd, flock," and this gave Czech the noun "houfnice," initially a "catapult," seemingly from the trajectory (an arc) of the objects hurled by the device. German borrowed the word from Czech during the Hussite Wars (wars within Christianity in Bohemia, but before Christian "protesters against the Church" took the name "Protestants") for a "catapult" in the 1400s, apparently initially in German as "huffnitze," but also as an occasional name for some small Czech cannons. As artillery became more common, the name shifted to the shell-firing mortar-type gun that can be used to fire indirectly upon targets; that is, upon targets that cannot be seen by the gunners, as the shells are fired over all types of visual obstructions, and in German the term became "Haubitze," which was then borrowed by Dutch as "houwitser," and this was borrowed by English, initially as "hauwitser," in the latter part of the 1600s.   

Austro-German Fried Celery Root (Celeriac)

While my recipe below varies a little from the recipe in this book, it was this book, which I've owned for quite a number of years, that gave me the idea to try a recipe for fried celery root, with such recipes not being uncommon in Germany and Austria (maybe Switzerland?). I'm not sure if the book is even available anymore, either in English or in the original German, but if you get a copy, be sure to eat first; otherwise, you'll want to fix every recipe in the book just from seeing the wonderful photographs. "Austria, a culinary tour," by Gerda Rob, translated from German to English by Guthrie Thomson, with photos by Hans Joachim Döbbelin. Sigloch Edition 1994, printed in Immenstadt, Germany, bookbinding in Künzelsau, Germany.

In German, there is no one name for fried celery root. German for celery root/celeriac is properly "Knollensellerie," but in certain contexts you might just see "Sellerie," or other forms like "Zeller," "Wurzelsellerie," or even "Sellerieknolle" (see Word History, below).

Serve with tartar sauce*or ranch dressing,** along with ham, sausages or smoked pork shoulder; that is, cottage ham, and in German "Geräucherte Schweineschulter." ***

Ingredients:

2 celery roots (baseball size), peeled and sliced into about 1/2 inch thick slices
3 tablespoons lemon juice 
1 to 1 1/4 cup flour (divided use)
1/4 cup bread crumbs (I prefer fine breadcrumbs with this, not panko)
2 eggs
1/3 to 2/3 cup white wine
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper 
1/2 teaspoon salt
olive oil for frying

After peeling and slicing the celery root, sprinkle the slices with the lemon juice. Heat enough water in a pan/pot to cover the celery root slices (be sure to pour in the lemon juice from the slices too). Add about a tablespoon of salt and and bring the water to a boil. Simmer the celery root slices until just tender, drain them. Dust the slices on both sides with a little flour. Mix together 3/4 cup flour, breadcrumbs, eggs, pepper, salt, and 1/3 cup white wine to make a batter (if too thick, add a little more white wine). Dip the flour dusted celery root slices into the batter. Fry the slices in preheated regular olive oil until golden brown. I use a skillet, but if you have a deep fryer, great! Drain the fried slices on paper towels and sprinkle with salt to taste. 

* To make your own tartar sauce, here is the link to the recipe:
https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2016/09/homemade-tartar-sauce.html

** To make your own ranch dressing, here is the link to the recipe:
https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2016/06/homemade-ranch-dressing.html 

*** The German word and food product "Katenschinken" is literally the equivalent to English "Cottage Ham," with "Katen" the close relative of English "cott," and "Schinken" the close relative of English "shank;" thus "ham." Cottage hams come from the pork shoulder of the front leg of the pig, while German Katenschinken are from the rear leg of the pig. Katenschinken are a specialty ham product of Holstein in northern Germany, where the small smokehouses were dubbed "Katen" (pronounced much like English "cotton"); the true meaning of which is, like its English cousin, "a small house in the countryside."
 
In this case, I had the Fried Celery Root with ranch dressing and knockwurst ...

WORD HISTORY:
Knoll-This word is related to  "knot," a word from the Germanic roots of English, and to "gnocchi," a word borrowed by English from Italian, which had gotten it from Lombardic, a Germanic dialect/language. It goes back to an Indo European form of, "gn/kn/gen/ken," which had the notion of "press, pinch into a compressed form or a ball." This gave Germanic a form of (perhaps?) "knuðla" (=knuthla), meaning, "clump, clod, lump." This gave Old English "cnoll," meaning "a hilltop, a mound." The spelling then changed to "knoll." Its German relative is "Knolle," and interestingly, while English speakers saw the "clump, lump" as being on top of the Earth's surface, German speakers saw it as being being below the Earth's surface; that is, "bulbous plant root, tuber." Low German has both "Knüll" (small hill) and "Knoll" (plant root, tuber), Dutch has "knol" (tuber), Old Norse had "knollr" (mountain top, hilltop), but it's unclear to me how, or even if, the word continued into the modern North Germanic languages from Old Norse or was borrowed from other Germanic languages; for instance, Danish uses "knold" for "tuber," and indeed, "knoldselleri" means "celery root," and Swedish has "knöl" (tuber, lump, knob). In American English especially, "knoll" has featured prominently and controversially in the investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November 1963 in Dallas, Texas, as an area called "the grassy knoll" was a possible site of a shot or shots fired at the president.

Breaded Asparagus With Tartar Sauce

This is great as an appetizer or just as a snack. Asparagus is a common vegetable in the German speaking regions of Europe, where this dish is usually called, "Gebackener Spargel." 

1 pound asparagus
1/3 cup flour
2 beaten eggs
3/4 cup breadcrumbs (Panko style, if you like really crunchy)
1/3 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese 
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3/4 teaspoon sweet Hungarian paprika 
1/2 teaspoon salt (the cheese will have plenty of salt)

Tartar Sauce*

Cut or break off the tough ends of the asparagus stalks. Put the flour on a plate, mix in the pepper and salt. In a shallow dish, beat the eggs. On another plate, mix the breadcrumbs, the Pecorino Romano and the paprika. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Heat the oven to 400 F. Rinse the asparagus and leave the stalks a bit damp. Roll each piece of asparagus in the seasoned flour. Then dip each piece into the beaten egg and then roll them in the breadcrumbs. Place the breaded asparagus spears on the baking sheet and bake for about 15 to 17 minutes. Serve the asparagus with tartar sauce.

* This is the link to my recipe for homemade tartar sauce: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2016/09/homemade-tartar-sauce.html

WORD HISTORY: 
Asparagus-This word for the plant used as a vegetable goes back to Indo European "speregh," which had the notion, "move or hasten upwards." It is related to "spring" (move upward). This gave Greek "aspáragos" for the name of the plant, from the idea, "shoots of the plant moving upward so prominently from the ground." This was borrowed by Latin as "asparagus," but often rendered also in the clipped form, "sparagus." This was borrowed into the latter period of Old English as "sparage," which then became "sparagi." Close English relative, German, also borrowed the clipped form, which has carried into modern times as "Spargel." The English form was altered to "asparagus" from the proper Latin form in the second half of the 1300s.

Homemade Tartar Sauce

From what I've read over the years, tartar sauce is a French sauce developed from an eastern Mediterranean sauce based upon "tahini," a sauce or paste made from ground sesame seeds and oil. Tartar sauce is a common accompaniment to seafood, but it is also used as a dip for vegetables and French fries, or as a spread for sandwiches. 

Ingredients

1 cup mayonnaise (reduced fat is fine)
3 teaspoons finely chopped sweet gherkins
1 tablespoon finely chopped mild dill pickle
2 tablespoons onion, finely chopped (red or white)
1 tablespoon chopped capers
juice of half a lemon
1 tablespoon grainy brown mustard
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon ground white or black pepper
1 tablespoon sugar (more if still too tart)
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Mix the sugar with the Worcestershire sauce and lemon juice to dissolve it. Mix all ingredients in a bowl, cover and chill for at least an hour. 

WORD HISTORY:
Curry-English has other words of this spelling, but this is the one meaning, "spice mixture." It was borrowed into English in the late 1600s from the Tamil language of southern India and its word "kari." The word is also used as a verb to mean, "prepare food with a curry sauce," although it is more commonly used to describe a dish made with sauce using curry powder, and then referred to as, "curried," as in "curried lamb" or "curried vegetables." Tamil is one of the languages of the Dravidian family of languages, a separate language family from Indo European, the family to which English belongs.