It is said that the soup is the sign of good and warm home. And for the good garlic soup it means double of that! I have arrived to Czech Republic and really miserable weather has welcomed us here… Little Canito is fighting with constantly full nose and me just with windy, wet and cold weather. Sooo… why not to have the real old Bohemian garlic soup 🙂
For us, the best garlic soup is based on the well-chosen garlic. If you want to have the right “spicy” taste, read carefully the labels in the store and look for the country of origin. In case you come across “Czech Republic”, do not hesitate and just go after it. Czech garlic, unlike the Chinese, has a much more stronger and better taste. You will also know it according to the number of cloves. While the Chinese garlic is composed of 16 cloves, the Czech one will have around ten. I do not hesitate to say, that you can find thousands of recipes for the good garlic soup so I am going to introduce you the one which we have at home.
What do you need:
10 garlic cloves
100 grams of cheese
1 tablespoon of marjoram
a slice of smoked meat (or ham… simply whatever you like)
2 tablespoons of lard
2 slices of bread
1 onion
2 potatoes
1 liter of chicken or beef broth (how to prepare good one can be found here)
salt and pepper
Cut finely the onion, peel the garlic and remove the green part which causes the famous odor of your mouth. Crush the garlic cloves. When ready, take a big pot, add lard and cut smoked meat. Fry all briefly. When the onion is glassy, pour the chicken broth and add crushed garlic. If you do not have a fresh broth at hand and would like to avoid a stock, you can find in stores a liquid broth as well. Peel the potatoes, cut them into small cubes and add to the boil broth. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes until potatoes are soft. Just before finishing the soup, add a little bit of freshly crushed garlic and it will give the right “spicy” taste to the soup. Then just add marjoram, pepper and salt according to your taste. While cooking the soup, grate or cut the cheese and you can fry cut bread in other pan. However this time, I prefered fresh Czech bread (as I miss it abroad a lot 🙂 ).
Put fried bread and cheese on the plate and pour boiled soup. Whoever wants to add egg, it is possible, just add it to the plate as well. Now it is done and you can enjoy it! This soup is quick and delicious during miserable weather while cold is trying to catch you! 🙂 Or… as a soup after “difficult” night!
Enjoy!
Vero and little Canito
