Bohemian Christmas Foods & Czech Traditions

Ingredients

• 1 5 (five) pound bag of potatoes
• 6 eggs (hard boiled)
• 1 large can Veg-All (mixed vegetables)
• 8 oz. European ham or salami
• 6 large polish pickles
• 1 onion
• juice of 1 lemon
• 10 oz. (0,3L) mayonnaise (homemade or store bought)
• 2 ox. Dijon mustard
• Salt and pepper

Directions

Boil potatoes with the skins on.
Hard-boil the eggs  for approx. 10 minutes and then place eggs in cool water to cool before peeling.
Allow the potatoes, eggs, and vegetables to cool completely.
Peel the potatoes and eggs. Dice the potatoes and finely chop onion and pickles.
Chop the ham or salami into pieces.
Gently mix all ingredients together and gradually add the mayonnaise, mustard, lemon juice salt and pepper.
Refrigerate for a minimum of 3 hours. We recommend making the potato salad one day in advance to allow the flavors to settle. You may wish to double up the recipe so that you have plenty left over for topping your Chlebíčky.

Traditional serving for Christmas dinner is with fried fish. Dinner is served after sunset (traditionally, it should not be served until after the first star has come out) and consists of carp and potato salad, sometimes preceded by mushroom, sauerkraut or fish soup.

Czechs love their carp fish. Many buy them fresh a day or two before and allow it to love n their bathtub until the pre-dinner preparations. Carp is a dark fillet, fishy-scented and flavored fish. We prefer a Florida Grouper, Alaskan Halibut or Cod. The fish is first placed into flour, then an egg wash and finally into bread crumbs before frying.

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