Jednoduchý špenát se smetanou a bramborami
A2 Czech listening practice · Czech · Curated for beginners
What is “jíška” in Czech cooking?
Watch this creamy spinach dish come together and you’ll meet the engine of Czech home cooking: jíška. The cook stirs flour into butter to make a máslová jíška (butter roux), then pours in cream so it thickens into a sauce. A jíška is simply flour cooked in fat, but it’s the backbone of countless Czech omáčky (sauces) and creamed vegetable dishes.
If you’ve eaten svíčková or thick Czech soups, you’ve tasted jíška at work. The clip pairs the creamed špenát (spinach) with brambory (potatoes), and note the affectionate diminutive bramborek for “little potatoes,” the kind of tender word Czech sprinkles everywhere. Master jíška and you can follow almost any Czech recipe.
Vocabulary frequency
How common is the vocabulary in this A2 Czech listening practice listening practice?
General Czech frequency
Spoken Czech frequency
Words above this video’s level
Quick glosses for vocabulary that goes beyond this video’s A2 level.
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · OpenSubtitles 2018 (HermitDave) (spoken). Buckets approximate; exact ranks not stored.
- ▸On Czech cooking channels and recipe sites like Toprecepty and Recepty.cz
- ▸In Czech home kitchens making omáčky (sauces) for svíčková or rajská
- ▸In Czech cookbooks teaching the basics of zahuštění (thickening)
- ▸When a Czech parent explains comfort food like creamed špenát
- ▸Any time a Czech dish needs to go from watery to velvety