A Czech classic: Beef with horseradish sauce

Where Czech meat comes first

At Čestr, entire cuts of pork and beef from Přeštice Black-Pied pigs and Czech Fleckvieh cattle are baked in a low-temperature sauna, a process which took over half a year to develop. We also braise, boil, or grill over charcoal. For us, it's not enough to just buy from wherever – we select specific animals from trusted suppliers, paying attention to how they are treated and fed. Then, we process the meat ourselves, and leave it to cure.

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The best dishes are often the simplest! The condition for success is the honest work of the farmer and the experience of the chef, who knows how to recognise good quality horseradish, what the role of butter roux is, and most importantly what Czech horseradish should taste like. This allows him to set aside the original recipe and follow tradition in his own way. Just like they do in Čestr!

Horseradish, broth and spelt

Horseradish sauce from Čestr is based on velouté (a sauce made from light roux and stock), but above all on cooperation with suppliers, whether it's horseradish from Úlovice Farm, organic cream and butter from Struhy Farm, or four-year-old apple cider vinegar from the White Carpathians.

"The longer I cook, the more I realise how it's important for a chef to get out of the kitchen and to look for great producers. And he could stand behind each dish with a clear conscience, because he did his best for them not only at the stove, but also in selecting the best ingredients," says chef Pavel Brichzin, who joined the Get to know your farmer project, and cooked with regional food at the farmer's festival.

At Čestr, fresh horseradish has been removed from the sauce recipe, replaced with juice that they press in a slow juicer. Horseradish juice has the advantage that it doesn't turn bitter, even after being preserved in a sauce. It gets a deeper flavour from added beef broth , while the pungency of the horseradish is accentuated by the apple cider vinegar.

'The sauce needs to be flavoured well. If it accidentally curdles, you can save it with a stick blender," says Pavel and goes straight to the service. It's traditionally served with beef, and I think it's best served with dumplings. We have recently perfected a recipe for bacon dumplings made with our brioche. We bake it with spelt flour from Úlovice which we also use in the roux."

Horseradish sauce step by step

For 4 servings:

• 500 ml velouté
• 500 ml whipping cream
• 100 ml horseradish juice (from one smaller horseradish)
• 30 g semolina sugar
• 12 g salt
• 20 ml apple cider vinegar

For the velouté:

• 25 g butter
• 25 g spelt flour
• 750 ml beef stock
• 2,5 g salt

1. First, start with the velouté, and the butter roux. Heat the butter in a saucepan, add the spelt flour and cook over a medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is nicely golden.
2. Pour in the stock and reduce down to about half a litre, or about a third. Season with salt at the end.
3. Meanwhile, drain the horseradish. The remaining pulp cannot be used, it will lose all flavour when pressed.
4. Add the cream to the velouté, boil briefly and finally stir in the horseradish juice.
5. Season the sauce with sugar, salt and vinegar and cook gently for a few minutes.
6. Serve with boiled beef and bun dumplings or bacon dumplings.

For the bacon dumpling:

• 225 g bacon, diced
• 600 g brioche, diced
• 10 eggs (7 whites and 10 yolks)
• 100 ml cream
• a pinch of salt
• 15 g parsley, chopped
• 2,5 g grated nutmeg

1. In a frying pan, cook the bacon. Save the crackling for later.
2. Fry the sliced brioche in the rendered lard.
3. Separate the egg whites from the yolks. Whip the seven egg whites into a stiff snow, the cream into a thinner whipped cream.
4. Transfer the toasted brioche to a bowl. Stir in the crackling, egg yolks and whipped cream. Season with salt and stir in both parsley and nutmeg. Finally, gently fold in the egg white snow.
5. Gently mix the mixture, divide in half and wrap in cling film.
6. Remove the dumplings from the foil and steam them for 30 minutes.

Horseradish according to Lokál

In Lokál, they pay attention to the local origin of the horseradish and follow a practice that has been around in Czech households for centuries.

For 4 servings you need:

• 4 l of water
• 4 balls of allspice
• 4 peppercorns
• 1 bay leaf
• 400 g beef neck
• 100 g fresh horseradish
• 20 g salt
• 125 g butter125 g plain flour
• 200 ml whole milk
• 100 g semolina sugar
• 100 ml cooking cream (12%)

1. Pour the water into the pot and add the allspice, pepper and bay leaf. Bring to the boil.
2. Before the water boils, discard the excess tallow and sinew from the meat. Clean, peel and wash the horseradish. Wrap it in a wet cloth and store it in the fridge.
3. Salt the boiling water and put the meat in it. Cook over a low heat until tender - this takes about 2½-3 hours.
4. In the meantime, prepare the stock. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the flour and cook over a medium heat until golden. When the roux is golden, set it aside to cool.
5. Remove the softened beef from the pot. Add the milk to the remaining stock and bring to the boil. Then gradually stir in the butter stock - the sauce will gradually thicken.
6. Taste and season with salt if necessary. Add the sugar and leave to bubble for about 10 minutes.
7. Finely grate the cleaned horseradish.
8. Stir the cream into the cooked sauce to soften it and stir in the grated horseradish. Immediately set the sauce aside and strain it through a fine sieve after about 5 minutes. Squeeze the horseradish lightly into the sauce and then discard it and the spices.
9. Slice the meat and return it to the sauce for a while to warm it up. As an accompaniment, you can choose from dumplings or boiled potatoes.