Cepelinai recipe

Lithuanian zeppelin-shaped dumplings whose dough is squeezed raw grated potato bound with boiled potato, wrapped around a meat filling.

2 hourshard8 ingredients

Ingredients

• 1600 g raw potatoes
• 400 g boiled potatoes
• 500 g ground pork
• 2 onions
• 200 g smoked bacon
• 200 g sour cream
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper

How to make Cepelinai

1. Peel 2 kg of potatoes. Boil 400 g of them in salted water until tender and mash them smooth; grate the other 1.6 kg raw on the fine side of a grater.
2. Squeeze the raw grated potato hard in a cloth over a bowl and keep the liquid. Let it stand 15 minutes, pour off the water and keep the white starch settled at the bottom.
3. Combine the squeezed raw potato, the mashed potato and that starch with 2 tsp salt. This is the dough, and the raw grated potato is what makes it cepelinai rather than ordinary dumplings. No meat goes into it.
4. Mix 500 g ground pork with 1 finely diced onion, 2 tsp salt, ½ tsp black pepper and 3 tbsp cold water so the filling stays juicy.
5. Flatten a fistful of dough on a wet palm, put 1½ tbsp of filling in the middle, close the dough over it and roll it into an oval pointed at both ends, 10 to 15 cm long.
6. Lower them into a large pot of gently boiling salted water and cook 25 to 30 minutes at a bare simmer. A hard boil splits them open.
7. Meanwhile fry 200 g diced smoked bacon with 1 chopped onion until the fat renders, then stir 200 g sour cream in off the heat to make the spirgai sauce.
8. Lift the cepelinai out with a slotted spoon and pour the hot bacon and sour cream sauce over them.

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