Czech Meal :)

If I were to invite Mr. Tsuyuki over to my house for dinner, I would want to make something that strongly represents my culture. All of my family comes from Czechoslovakia or Czech Republic. The whole family is so strong in the Czech culture, many people in my family still speak it. In fact, I am only second generation to be born in America. I would make duck with sauerkraut and potato dumplings with kolaches for dessert.
It’s a fairly easy dish, if you know what you are doing. You have to start in the early in the day. Hopefully the men had gone out the day before and killed a fresh duck to start the meal of with. If you don’t like duck, because I know that it’s a controversial meat, pork works just as well.
To start, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Then you poke the raw meat all over with a fork and sprinkle it with salt and pepper. Then you place the duck in a large ovenproof dish. Then put in the oven for 2 hours. You have to check it every ½ hour to make sure its browning nicely. If not, don’t be afraid to turn up the heat. When it is brown and has rendered a lot of fat, pour almost all of the fat to a new pan with the duck. Transfer to stove. Cover the duck with sauerkraut, then sprinkle with paprika and white wine. Let it simmer for 20 minutes, and then that part of it is done.
To make the dumplings, you mix mashed potatoes, egg yolks, flour, salt, and pepper in a bowl together. Put them into salted boiling water until they float. Which means they are done.
The kolaches are my favorite part of the meal, and fairly simple to make. They consist of a sweet dough pocket with different pie fillings on the inside. Then glazed on top. There are cream cheese, cherry, prune, poppy seed, apricot, and pretty much any other fillings you could think of. The cream cheese kolaches are my favorite.
This meal is so important to me because it represents my culture and it reminds me of my childhood. I know sauerkraut is an acquired taste, but I think that’s what makes it so special.