Crushed potatoes (coarsely mashed) are in the Czech Republic always a valid and good choice. We call them "štouchané brambory" and this recipe for them absolutely deserves a try!
Potatoes are favorite Czech ingredients for making side dishes. Whether boiled, mashed potato puree, baked in the oven, or even fries, there's a lot of ways to prepare them.
Štouchané brambory, complemented by scallion and fried bacon, work incredibly well with every fried food or slow-cooked meat.
My tip: Take a look at these Oven baked potato wedges, too! My mom calls them "brambory v troubě".
How to make Czech šťouchané brambory
- Clean the potatoes, peel them and cut into smaller pieces.
- Cook them in salted water until soft.
- Fry diced bacon and chopped scallions in a pan, where you heated up butter before.
- Crush drained potatoes with a masher, put in the fried bacon with scallions, and mix together.
- Season with freshly ground pepper and salt, serve as a side dish or as a warm snack.
Which Kind of Potatoes to Use for This Recipe
Medium-starch potatoes are the best for this dish.
Potatoes are labeled and sold as categories A, B, and C in the Czech Republic. The letter indicates the starch percentage in the potatoes. A-label potatoes are the least starchy, while C-label potatoes are the most starchy.
Scallion and bacon are typical ingredients in the Czech republic. They give a huge flavor boost to the crushed potatoes.
Recipe
Šťouchané Brambory - Czech Crushed Potatoes
Ingredients
- 2 and ¼ lbs (1 kg) potatoes
- 5 oz (140 g) bacon
- 4 scallions (spring onion with green parts)
- ½ stick (55 g) butter
- 4 Tbsp whole milk
- salt
Instructions
- Wash and dry the scallion. Cut out the roots and the upper third of the green portion. Cut the scallion including the green parts into pieces about ¼ inch in size.
- Dice the bacon into pieces about ¼ inch in size.
- Peel the potatoes and boil them in a pot with salt water for about 15-20 minutes until they're tender. Drain the boiled potatoes in a colander.
- Heat the butter in a pan on medium.
- Add bacon and scallion and mix for two minutes.
- Pour the contents of the pan together with the hot boiled potatoes.
- Add some milk and crush the mixture with the masher or the back of the fork.
- Salt to taste and serve warm as a side dish.
Notes
DISCLAIMER: Because I come from Central Europe, my recipes are based on metric units such as grams or milliliters. Check out how I convert metric units to the U.S. system:
Conversion chartTIP: Serve štouchané brambory with Czech breaded fried cheese, famous smažený sýr!
John Stapleton
These are very tasty, I made them for my Czech Girlfriend and she loved them!