Celebrate Gramma's cooking and help share your traditions with CBC's Gramma's Kitchen

As a mom, one of my great joys is seeing my mom sharing recipes and traditions with my two young daughters.

The idea for Gramma's Kitchen is just that: to document the sharing of traditional family food and family traditions with children.

I'll start by sharing my family's special traditions. And from here on, we'd love to share yours!

I was four years old when my family defected from communist Czechoslovakia in the early 1980s.

My parents packed a car with a few suitcases of clothing and blankets, along with me and my two-year-old little brother, and headed off on a faux vacation, not intending to return.

A series of events as we travelled west through Europe stranded us in France for a year, and in 1981, we arrived in Winnipeg. 

My childhood was a typical immigrant experience.

In school life, I was firmly planted in my new world, quickly learning English and making friends.

But my home life was deeply rooted in the old country. My parents were welcomed in Winnipeg's small but vibrant Czech and Slovak ex-pat community, and my childhood was richly coloured by hearty Czech food my parents made at home.  

Today, as an adult, those stews and soups are the heart of my childhood memories. 

Gramma's Kitchen is rooted in the idea that nuances and traditions live in the hearts and minds of incredible women from older generations that can't quite be captured in a Google recipe search. 

In the first edition of Gramma's Kitchen, my mom, Mila Klimes, teaches her granddaughters (my daughters), Sadie and Danica Pusiewich, to make kuře na paprice (chicken paprikash) and knedlík (traditional Czech boiled dumplings).

But now we're looking for other grammas (or babas, omas, lolas and kookums) to teach their recipes to their grandchildren.

And we at the CBC would love to be there when it happens!

To apply, visit cbc.ca/pitchastory.

Gramma's Kitchen

5 years ago

Duration 3:26

The CBC went into Mila Klimes cosy kitchen as she shared her love — and traditional Czech recipes — with granddaughters Sadie and Danica!

Gramma Klime's kuře na paprice (chicken paprikash)

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

• 1 whole small chicken (or four chicken breasts).
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped.
• ½ litre whipping cream or half and half.
• 3 tbsp sweet paprika.
• 1 tbsp butter.
• ½ cup milk, 1 tbsp flour (for thickening sauce.).
• 1 cup chicken stock.

If you are making homemade chicken stock, use two to three bay leaves, 10-15 peppercorns and 10-15 all spice seeds.

Directions

First, make a stock: Put whole chicken and all spices in a large pot. Cover with cold water.

Bring to a boil and simmer for one hour. Drain and reserve stock. Skin and debone chicken.

Make sauce: Heat butter in pan. Add onions and cook until glassy. Add chicken and cook for a short while.

Add paprika and cook for a few minutes, until paprika darkens.

Keep simmering and add whipping cream and chicken stock.

Whisk flour and milk in a glass. Add to sauce.

Cook for about 10 minutes until sauce thickens.

Serve with dumplings or egg pasta.