Svíčková na smetaně
The Czech Republic's most beloved plate is braised beef in a pale root-vegetable cream sauce, finished at the table with a slice of lemon, cranberry jam, and an actual dollop of sweetened whipped cream.
The sauce is mostly carrot, celeriac and parsley root blended with cream, so it tastes naturally sweet and earthy rather than heavy. Caramelized sugar and a shot of vinegar build in a sweet-sour backbone, and the cold cranberry and whipped cream act like condiments, cutting through each rich bite.
Svíčková means tenderloin, but almost nobody uses tenderloin: the everyday version, sometimes called falešná svíčková or false tenderloin, is made from top round, blade or rump, larded with bacon to keep it moist through a long braise. The sauce of browned root vegetables blended with cream is often called the queen of Czech sauces, and it is the dish by which Czech cooks, restaurants and grandmothers are judged.
It appears at Sunday lunches, weddings, birthdays and every pub with a lunch menu, always over houskové knedlíky, the sliced bread dumplings whose whole purpose is to mop up sauce. The garnish trio of lemon, cranberries and whipped cream is not optional decoration in Czech eyes, it is part of the recipe.
Ingredients
- 1.2 kg (about 2.5 lb) beef top round, blade or rump, in one piece
- 100 g (3.5 oz) smoked bacon, cut into thin stripsfor larding; optional but traditional
- 2 tbsp lard or neutral oil
- 60 g (4 tbsp) butter
- 2 carrots, diced
- 1 parsley root, dicedor a small parsnip
- 200 g (7 oz) celeriac, diced
- 2 onions, chopped
- 1 small tart apple, quarteredoptional, adds fruit depth
- 2 tbsp sugarsome families use double; taste at the end
- 80 ml (1/3 cup) white wine vinegar, 5% acidity
- 4 bay leaves
- 8 allspice berries
- 10 black peppercorns
- 500 ml (2 cups) water or beef stock
- 2 tbsp plain flour
- 250 ml (1 cup) heavy cream, at least 30% fat
- 1-2 tsp lemon juice
- to serve bread dumplings, cranberry jam, whipped cream, lemon slicesthe garnishes are part of the dish
Method
- Pierce the beef along the grain with a thin knife and push the bacon strips into the holes, then season the meat all over with salt and pepper.
- Brown the beef on all sides in the lard in a heavy lidded pot over medium-high heat, then set it aside.
- Add the butter and the diced carrot, parsley root and celeriac to the pot and brown for 8 to 10 minutes.
- Add the onions and apple and cook 3 to 4 minutes more.
- Sprinkle the sugar over the vegetables and let it caramelize to a light amber without stirring too much.
- Pour in the vinegar and let it bubble until almost fully evaporated.
- Tie the bay leaves, allspice and peppercorns in muslin or a tea ball, return the beef to the pot, and add the water or stock and the spice sachet.
- Cover and braise at the gentlest simmer, or in a 160 C (325 F) oven, for about 2.5 hours, turning the meat once or twice, until fork tender.
- Move the beef to a board, tent with foil, and remove the spice sachet from the pot.
- Blend the vegetables and braising liquid until completely smooth, then push the sauce through a sieve back into the pot.
- Whisk the flour into the cream, stir it into the sauce, and simmer gently for about 10 minutes until it coats a spoon.
- Season with salt, lemon juice, and more sugar if needed: the sauce should taste gently sweet with a tart edge.
- Slice the beef across the grain, rewarm it in the sauce, and serve over bread dumplings with cranberry jam, a small cap of whipped cream, and a lemon slice on each plate.
Cooked it? Say how it went. Tweaks, substitutions, honest verdicts, all welcome.
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