Cepelinai

Lithuania's zeppelin dumplings, a shell of raw and boiled potato wrapped around minced pork, boiled whole and served under bacon, onion, and sour cream

Origin: Lithuania

From the journey of Potato.

Cepelinai are large potato dumplings, shaped into the ovals that gave them their name after the airships of the 1920s, filled with minced pork and boiled. They are served under a sauce of fried bacon, onion, and sour cream, and a portion is two of them, which is a great deal of food. The dough is the technical interest. It is made from two potato preparations combined: raw potato grated and wrung out hard, and boiled potato mashed, in roughly two parts raw to one part cooked, plus the starch reclaimed from the squeezed-out liquid. The raw potato provides the structure and the greyish translucency; the boiled potato makes it workable; the reclaimed starch binds it. Get the ratio wrong and they disintegrate in the water, which is the standard first-attempt outcome. They belong to the food of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a state that at its height ran from the Baltic to the Black Sea, and the potato repertoire they sit in is shared with Poland and Belarus. Lithuanian cooking also carries a substantial Ashkenazi Jewish layer and a German one, both visible elsewhere in the repertoire.

Ingredients

Dough

  • 1.5 kg floury potatoes, peeled
  • 500 g floury potatoes, peeled, for boiling
  • 1 tsp salt

Filling

  • 400 g minced pork
  • 1 onion, very finely chopped
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 0.5 tsp black pepper
  • 1 tbsp water

Sauce

  • 200 g streaky bacon, diced
  • 2 onions, chopped
  • 250 ml sour cream

To serve

  • 2 tbsp dill, chopped

Method

  1. Boil the 500 g of potatoes until soft, drain well, and mash smooth. Set aside to cool.
  2. Grate the 1.5 kg of raw potatoes finely, then wring them out hard in a tea towel over a bowl.
  3. Let the squeezed liquid stand two minutes, pour off the water, and scrape the settled white starch back into the grated potato.
  4. Combine the raw grated potato, the cold mash, and the teaspoon of salt into a smooth, slightly tacky dough.
  5. Mix the pork with the finely chopped onion, salt, pepper, and a tablespoon of water. Roll into four ovals.
  6. With wet hands, flatten a quarter of the dough into a disc in your palm, set a meat oval in the middle, and close the dough around it, sealing it completely and shaping into a zeppelin.
  7. Bring a very large, wide pan of well-salted water to a bare simmer and lower the cepelinai in gently. Do not let it boil.
  8. Simmer for thirty minutes, turning once carefully halfway through.
  9. Meanwhile fry the bacon until crisp, add the onions, and cook until golden. Stir in the sour cream off the heat.
  10. Lift the cepelinai out with a slotted spoon, drain, and serve two per person under the bacon and sour cream sauce, with dill.

Notes

The raw-to-boiled potato ratio and the reclaimed starch are the two things that decide whether these hold together. Test one dumpling first before committing the batch. A little citric acid or lemon juice in the grated potato keeps the dough from greying, which is a common commercial trick. Curd cheese or mushrooms make the standard vegetarian filling.

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