Svíčková
Czech braised beef in a blended root vegetable cream sauce, made for Allen’s 40th on a Wednesday.
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For Allen’s 40th birthday, I made one of his favorite Czech dishes on a Wednesday. While working. With groceries that showed up at 10 a.m. I don’t recommend the schedule. I absolutely recommend the dish.
Svíčková na smetaně is beef braised with root vegetables and finished in a cream sauce, and it isn’t an everyday dinner in the Czech Republic. It’s the Sunday dish, the wedding dish, the one somebody’s grandmother makes when the whole family is coming over. Done the traditional way, it takes two days, with the beef marinating overnight before it ever sees heat. The name points to the cut: svíčková is the Czech word for the tenderloin. Most home cooks use something more forgiving.
Here’s what makes it different from every other braise. The vegetables don’t get strained out. Carrots, parsnip, celery root, and onion cook down with the beef, and then the whole pot goes into the blender. What comes out is a smooth, pale orange sauce that tastes like it took a week. Cream rounds it out. Vinegar, mustard, and lemon keep it bright. A spoonful of sugar ties it together. It should taste creamy, a little sweet, and a little tangy in the same bite. If it doesn’t, keep adjusting until it does.
There’s no garlic. I checked. The depth comes from allspice, bay, black pepper, and thyme, which I tied into a little cheesecloth sachet so I wouldn’t be fishing peppercorns out of the pot before blending. Small move. Big relief.
Then come the toppings, which sound wrong until you taste them: whipped cream, cranberry sauce, and a slice of lemon, piled right on the beef. Sweet, tart, and rich on a savory plate. It works for the same reason cranberry works on turkey. The classic is lightly sweetened whipped cream. Allen usually has his with sour cream. Both are right, so put both on the table and let people choose.
Now the honest part. I used chuck roast, because chuck is forgiving and I was cooking between meetings. Six hours on high in the slow cooker later, it fell apart like pot roast. Allen loved dinner. He also told me, kindly, that the svíčková he’s used to has beef that holds together and slices. He’s right, and he’s the reason this recipe calls for bottom round. Braise it until it’s tender but still sliceable, then lay the slices in the sauce. That’s how it should land on the plate.
The sauce, on the other hand, he called great, and I’m taking that one to the bank.
You’ll want houskové knedlíky, the Czech bread dumplings, to go with it. They get their own recipe, because they deserve one, and because they’re the thing you’ll use to drag every last bit of sauce off the plate. A pile of dumpling slices and a pool of this sauce is the whole point.
A few things that make the day easier. The braise can go in the oven or the slow cooker. The finished beef holds beautifully in the sauce on low heat, which matters when you don’t know exactly when the birthday boy is walking in the door. And any leftover sauce makes a very good chicken dinner the next night.
It’s a project. It’s worth it. Happy birthday, Allen.
Recipe
Ingredients:
2½ to 3 lb beef bottom round (or top round), in one piece
2 tsp salt
½ tsp ground black pepper
2 tbsp butter
2 carrots, roughly chopped
1 parsnip, roughly chopped
1 cup celery root, peeled and roughly chopped (or 2 celery stalks)
1 large onion, roughly chopped
2 cups beef stock (1½ cups for the slow cooker)
2 tbsp white vinegar
2 bay leaves
6 allspice berries
10 black peppercorns
1 tsp dried thyme
1 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
To serve: lightly sweetened whipped cream or sour cream, cranberry sauce, lemon slices, and houskové knedlíky
Steps:
Sear the beef. Season the beef with the salt and pepper. Heat the butter in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat and brown the beef well on all sides, about 8 minutes. Move it to a plate.
Brown the vegetables. Add the carrots, parsnip, celery root, and onion to the pot and cook about 5 minutes, scraping up the browned bits.
Make the sachet. Tie the bay leaves, allspice, peppercorns, and thyme in a piece of cheesecloth.
Braise. Add the stock, vinegar, and sachet, and return the beef to the pot. Cover and braise at 300°F for 2½ to 3 hours, until the beef is tender but still holds together for slicing. For the slow cooker, cook on LOW for 7 to 8 hours. HIGH works in a pinch, but the beef will pull apart.
Skim and strain out the spices. Move the beef to a cutting board and tent it with foil. Remove the sachet and spoon off most of the fat from the surface.
Blend. Blend the vegetables and braising liquid until completely smooth.
Finish the sauce. Return the sauce to the pot and stir in the cream, mustard, sugar, and lemon juice. Simmer gently for 5 minutes without boiling. Taste and adjust until it’s creamy, a little sweet, and a little tangy. Thin with stock if needed.
Slice and serve. Slice the beef against the grain into ½-inch slices. Plate with dumpling slices and plenty of sauce, then top with whipped cream or sour cream, cranberry sauce, and a lemon slice. To hold, keep the slices in the sauce over the lowest heat.
At a Glance
Prep Time:
20 minutes
Inactive Time:
0 minutes
Cook Time:
3 hours 15 minutes (longer for slow cooker)
Serves:
4 to 6
Difficulty:
Medium
Czech
Weekend Project
Long Braise
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