Original Origami Garnish

Square or rectangular mandu, wonton, or eggroll wrappers
Oil
Salt

1. If you have rectangular wrappers; form a triangle by folding one side to an adjacent side so that the fold forms a 45 degree angle, cut away the part of the wrapper outside of the triangle, and open the triangle to form a square. (If you have square wrappers skip to step 2.)

2. Fold the squares into any flat design as one would a scrap of paper.

3. Fry the folded wrappers flipping occasionally until they reach a golden-brown color.

4. Remove them from the oil and place them over papertowel. Salt immediately. Remove from the papertowel when they have cooled.

Original origami garnish is perfect as an edible garnish to accompany a main course or a dessert.

I chose to use the duck pattern found at the Origami Shrine, because it is relatively flat and either side of each duck can be displayed.

I recommend folding the orirgami design first with paper.

Rajská OmáčkaTomato Gravy

1 C Water
1 Chopped onion
6 Allspice berries
1/2 tsp Salt
3 T Butter
4 Tomatoes
2 Bay leaves
3 T Sugar
3 T Flour
1 C Broth

Dice tomatoes. Boil them with water, onions, bay leaves, allspice, sugar, and salt. Boil for 15 minutes. Strain tomato mixture, pressing the tomato solids against the seive. Save the strained liquid and discard the remaining solids. Make a roux with flour and butter frying until lightly browned. Add tomato mixture and broth to the roux. Bring to a boil and serve.

This gravy is delicious over dumplings or a roast.

This recipe is modified from a recipe in an American Czech cookbook.

Note:

Rajská omáčka simply means tomato sauce or gravy in Czech, so one can find recipes for vary different kinds of rajské omáčky, e.g. pikantní rajská omáčka na pizzu, picant tomato sauce on pizza, and vegetariánská rajská omáčka, vegetarian tomato sauce.

The marks over the vowels do not incicate the accent, which is on the first syllable, but that the vowels are long.

This recipe comes from a recipe in Czech Cooking and Collected Recipes by Helen Fiala. Slight modifications have been made.

Chlebové knedlíkyNever-fail Bread Dumplings

2 C Flour
2 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Salt
2 Eggs
1/2 C Milk
2 Slices bread, cubed

Slightly toast cubed bread in butter. Combine all ingredients except bread. Add cubed bread and mix into dough. Cover and let rest about 30 minutes.

Make two (2) oblong dumpings and drop into boiling water in a pot large enough that they can swim. Boil 20 minutes. Take out and slice with string or knife. Serve with gravy or butter.

This recipe comes from a recipe in Czech Cooking and Collected Recipes by Helen Fiala.