Roasted pork (veprova pecene) with sauerkraut (zeli) and fluffy dumplings (knedliky) is one of the national iconic meal, you will find in Czech cuisine. For those who loves comforting meals with a splash of beer (Pilsner), this is the green card.
INTRODUCTION TO CZECH ROAST PORK
For those, who had been following my blog for long enough, knows, that I originate from the Czech Republic. The recipes from my mom’s kitchen are very dear to my heart. And this time I am going to share with you, one of the most popular dish of the Czech Republic. I will walk you through this homemade recipe with all the little details and tricks, it will be like a walk in the park.
Pork meat is one of the most flavorful meats on the Earth. No wonder, that many of us loves “the bacon”. The ideal cut for this dish is boneless pork shoulder roast cut. For the roast to be enough flavorful, we need little of fat on it, thus we choose this cut. Do not worry about that fat, we will be roasting it slowly, so all this fat will transform in juices or will become nicely crunchy, like the bacon.
Roasting the pork is the simplest task from this whole recipe. Simply start preparing the roast, by washing it and drying it with paper towel. Use pair knife to make 9 holes on the top of the roast and place 9 small garlic cloves inside. If the garlic cloves are too large, cut them in half and use only half amount of garlic cloves. Season it with salt and pepper, on both sides. In a dutch oven or any other cast iron pot reheat vegetable oil and sear 1 large chopped onion for 2 – 3 minutes. Push the onion on the side of the dutch oven and add more oil. Sear the roast on both side, for about 1 minute each side.
Leave the roast in the dutch oven and add 1 large bay leaf, caraway seeds and 5 balls of allspice. Add 2 cup of water and place it in the preheated oven 350 F / 180 C for 30 minutes, uncovered. After 30 minutes of roasting, reduce the heat for 325 F/ 160 C and continue roasting for another 1 hour, covered. After one hour of roasting, uncover and roast for another and final 30 minutes.
“This post may contain affiliate links. Please see disclosure page for more information.”
Use the juices to brush it over the roast time to time. Let sit the roast in the dutch oven (covered) for 20 minutes, before you will slice it. The roast needs to rest, so the juices stays well in the meat and it will be easier to slice the meat. If the water evaporates quickly, add more water, make sure that 1/3 of roast is always covered with juices.
You might be interested in other Czech traditional recipes:
CZECH ROASTED DUCK WITH RED CABBAGE & DUMPLINGS
CZECH ROASTED BEEF WITH CREAM VEGETABLE SAUCE & DUMPLINGS (SVICKOVA)
CZECH SWEET DUMPLINGS FILLED WITH STRAWBERRIES (JAHODOVE KNEDLIKY)
HOMEMADE CZECH SWEET PASTRY FRGALE (KOLAC)
CZECH PRESSED COTTAGE CHEESE CHEESECAKE (TVAROHOVA BUCHTA)
THE BEST CZECH APPLE STRUDEL (JABLECNY STRUDL)
TRADITIONAL CZECH GOULASH (HOVEZI GULAS)
These dumplings are the fluffiest of all dumplings I have ever made. You can’t go wrong with this recipe, it always comes out so perfect. These dumplings are steamed, thus all the fluffiness. I would suggest to actually start preparing the dumpling even before roasting the pork. These dumplings are not hard to make, it’s just more time-consuming, because of the double rising of the dough.
Start making the starter from instant yeast. I have always trouble finding here in Canada fresh yeast, so I got used to of the instant yeast. But even, if instant yeast is great to just toss in the flour for bread making, it’s not ideal dumpling dough. In this case, we need to let rise the instant yeast to achieve the fluffiness of dumplings. Place instant yeast in small bowl and add warm milk, sugar and mix it well with spoon to obtain creamy texture. Cover with plastic food wrap and let stand in warm place for 10 minutes. (preferably on the stove, where your oven gets reheated for the roast). The starter should double in size.
In bowl of a stand mixer, add flour, egg, salt and yeast starter and mix low speed. Add slowly warm milk until the dough gets well combined. If it looks too dry and doesn’t want to come together, add spoon by spoon extra warm milk. Knead the dough with hook attachment on low speed, for 10 minutes. Remove it from thestand mixer and place the dough on lightly floured surface. Shape a ball from the dough and place it back to the bowl and cover with plastic food wrap. Let rise for 40 minutes in warm place. If you don’t have a stand mixer, knead the dough with your hands for 10 minutes.
The dough must double in size. After first rise, punch the dough in the bowl, it will slightly deflate. Cut the dough in 4 equal pieces and shape 4 dumpling logs. Place them on baking sheet covered with food wrap or parchment paper. Cover those 4 dumpling logs with clean cotton kitchen towel and let rise for another 20 minutes in warm place.
In a large casserole, bring water to boil and place steam basketin it. Place 2 logs of dumplings in one casserole. Cover and lower the heat on medium-low and steam for 20-25 minutes. Remove the dumpling logs out of the casserole and poke them with toot pick at least on 10 spots, so the extra steam can escape. Otherwise, the dumplings will shrink. Cut the dumplings with sawing thread. Yes this one might sound funny, but even non-scented dental floss will be perfect for cutting the dumplings. The reason why, is that the dumplings are so fluffy, simple knife would ruin the shape of the dumpling (simply the dumpling would get squished).
I hope you are not too discouraged, it might sound difficult to make this delicious dish, but I promise you, this is the last step and it’s all worth this work. Wait, when you will be sitting at the table, cheering with a Czech beer, saying, there you go, I did it!
Sauerkraut is the simplest to make. Little of vegetable oil on reheated pan, fry medium onion until slightly brown (about 5 minutes on medium high heat). Add sauerkraut and season with salt and pepper. Pour over cup and half of water, cover and simmer for 20 minutes on low heat. At the end add 1 tsp of sugar and 1 tsp of flour, mix until smooth and cook for another minute. Serve the roasted pork with dumplings and sauerkraut. Drizzle all with roasted pork juices including the roasted onion.
If you don’t have dutch oven, you can use any roast pan and sear the onion and roast pork on the side on skillet and then place it in the roast pan.
If you love sweet roasted onions, use 2 large onions for the roast pork. Onion brings lots of flavours in pork roast recipes.
The dough for dumplings needs to double in size, make sure you rise the dough in enough warm place. I always use my window in sunny days or if you are reheating oven, then the stove is perfect place to rise the dough.
If you don’t have large steaming basket & casserol, use the one you have at home. But make sure your dumplig logs will double in size in the steamer, so divide the dough accordingly. My casserol’s size is 10 inch and I used collapsible steamer basket.
Sauerkraut is sold mostly in jars with fermented water and sometimes this water is very sour or acid. This is why I am using sugar to sweeten it up. Strain the sauerkraut in this case and don’t use the fermented water. Even though this water has a lot of vitamine C and probiotics, it’s taste is way too strong, so discart it.
ROASTED PORK WITH SAUERKRAUT AND DUMPLINGS
Preparation time total: 1.5 hours ⭐cooking time total: 3 hours⭐ servings: 4-6 persones
1 6- pound ( 2.7 kg) boneless pork shoulder roast
2 tbsp + 1 tbsp vegetable oil; divided
5 balls of allspice (Jamaican pepper)
500 ml warm milk +100 ml for the yeast starter
1/2 tsp sugar, granulated
Take room temperature boneless pork shoulder roast and make 9 small holes on the top of the roast. Place 9 small garlic cloves inside.
Season with salt and pepper. Let aside.
Preheat oven 350 F / 180 C.
In a dutch oven or any other cast iron pot reheat vegetable oil on medium high and sear 1 large chopped onion for 2 – 3 minutes. Push the onion on the side of the dutch oven and add 1 more tbsp of vegetable oil. Sear the roast on both side, for about 1 minute.
Remove the dutch oven from the heat and leave the roast inside. Add large bay leaf, caraway seeds and balls of allspice. Add 1 & 1/2 cup of water and place it in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, uncovered. After 30 minutes of roasting reduce the heat to 325 F/ 160 C and continue roasting for another 1 hour, covered.
After one hour of roasting, uncover and roast for another and final 30 minutes. The roast must reach internal temperature 160 F/ 75 C. Use the juices to brush over the roast time to time.
Let the roast sit in the dutch oven (covered) for 20 minutes, before you will slice it. Serve with dumplings, sauerkraut and drizzle with juices from the roasted pork.
Place instant yeast in a small bowl and add warm milk, sugar. Mix it well with spoon to get creamy texture. Let it stand in warm place for 10 minutes. The started should double in size.
In a bowl of stand mixer with hook attachment; add flour, egg, salt and yeast starter and mix on low speed. Add warm milk slowly, until the dough gets well combined. Knead the dough with hook attachment on low speed for 10 minutes. If you don’t have a stand mixer, knead the dough with your hands for 10 minutes.
Shape the dough in ball and place it back to the bowl and cover with plastic food wrap. Let the dough rise for 40 minutes in warm place. The dough must double in size.
After first rise, punch the dough in the bowl, it will slightly deflate. Place the dough on lightly floured surface and cut the dough on 4 equal pieces. Shape 4 dumpling logs and place them on baking sheet covered by food wrap or parchment paper. Cover those 4 logs of dumplings with clean cotton kitchen towel and let rise for another 20 minutes in warm place.
In the meanwhile, in large casserole with steam basket bring water to a boil. Place 2 logs of dumplings in one casserole. Cover and lower the heat on medium-low. Steam the dumpling logs for 20-25 minutes.
Remove the dumpling logs out of the casseroleand poke them with toot pick. Cut the dumplings with sawing thread or unscented dental floss. Serve!
In a large skillet, reheat vegetable oil and sear chopped onion for about 5 minutes or until slightly brown.
Add sauerkraut and water.
Season with salt and pepper.
Cook covered, for 15 -20 minutes or until the water will slightly evaporate.
Add 1 tsp of sugar and flour and cook for another 1 minute uncovered. Serve!
Disclosure: Please bear in mind that some links in this post are affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a small commission, to support this blog. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether you decide to buy something is completely up to you.”
CZECH ROAST PORK WITH SAUERKRAUT & DUMPLINGS Roasted pork (veprova pecene) with sauerkraut (zeli) and fluffy dumplings (knedliky) is one of the national iconic meal, you will find in Czech cuisine.
