Name: Cepelinai
Prep time: 60 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 100 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Other
Ingredients: 1500 g Potatoes; 400 g Minced pork; 2 medium Onion; 1 tsp Dried marjoram; 1 tsp Ground black pepper; 2 tsp Fine sea salt; 2 tbsp Sunflower oil; 3 l Water; 150 g Bacon rashers; 200 g Sour cream, to serve

About this dish

Cepelinai are named for the Graf Zeppelin airships that crossed Europe in the 1920s and 1930s, whose long oval shape the dumplings echo. Potatoes reached Lithuania in the 18th century and became the staple of a poor, cold country, and this is what a household did with them on a Sunday: grate them raw for body, mix in boiled potato for softness, and hide meat in the middle. The raw-and-cooked split is the whole trick.

Gluten-free
Not vegetarian because of Minced pork, Bacon rashers
Contains dairy because of Sour cream, to serve

Ingredients

4servings

1500gPotatoes
400gMinced pork
2mediumOnion
1tspDried marjoram
1tspGround black pepper
2tspFine sea salt
2tbspSunflower oil
3lWater
150gBacon rashers
200gSour cream, to serve

Instructions

Peel the potatoes. Finely grate 1.2 kg of them, then squeeze the pulp hard in a clean cloth over a bowl and keep the liquid.
20 min
Tip: Leave the squeezed liquid to stand for a few minutes. The white starch settles at the bottom, and pouring off the water and returning that starch to the pulp is what holds the dumpling together.
Boil the remaining 300 g of potatoes in salted water until soft, mash them smooth, and mix them into the dry raw pulp with the settled starch and 1 teaspoon of salt.
15 min
Tip: The boiled potato makes the dough soft and the raw potato gives it bite. Mix while the mash is still warm and the dough comes together without egg or flour.
Fry half the chopped onion in 1 tablespoon of oil for 5 minutes, then mix it into the pork with the marjoram, pepper and a pinch of salt. Roll into 8 small balls.
15 min
Tip: Season the meat properly now. Once it is sealed inside the dough, nothing you add later will reach it.
With wet hands, flatten a portion of dough in your palm, set a meatball in the middle and close it into an oval about the size of a small egg, sealing every seam.
10 min
Tip: Wet hands stop the dough sticking. A crack or thin spot will split in the water and leave a ruined dumpling, so press the seams shut.
Lower the dumplings into a large pot of simmering, salted water and cook gently for 25 minutes, turning once, until they float and feel firm.
30 min
Tip: Keep the water at a bare simmer. A rolling boil tears them apart, and they sink and then rise again when they are done.
Fry the diced bacon with the remaining onion in the remaining tablespoon of oil until golden. Drain the dumplings, top with the bacon and onion, and serve with sour cream.
12 min
Tip: The rendered bacon fat is the sauce. Spoon it over the dumplings while everything is hot so it soaks into the surface.