Lithuanian recipe
How to make Cepelinai (potato zeppelins)
cepelinai
All of Lithuania, made bigger in the west than in the east
Large dumplings of grated raw potato, stuffed with minced meat, curd cheese or mushrooms, boiled and served with a sauce of sour cream and fried bacon bits. Often called the national dish.
Ingredients
- 2 kg floury potatoes, peeled
- 300 g minced pork
- 1 small onion, very finely chopped
- Salt and black pepper
- For the sauce: 150 g smoked bacon, diced, 1 onion, chopped, and 200 g sour cream
Method
- Boil about a quarter of the potatoes until soft and mash them. Finely grate the rest of the potatoes, put them in a clean cloth and squeeze out as much liquid as you can into a bowl.
- Let the potato liquid stand for a few minutes, pour off the water and keep the white starch at the bottom. Mix the grated potato, mashed potato, starch and a good pinch of salt into a firm dough.
- Mix the minced pork with the chopped onion, salt and pepper. Take a handful of potato dough, flatten it in your palm, put a spoonful of meat in the middle and close it into an oval, zeppelin shape.
- Lower the dumplings into a large pot of gently boiling salted water and simmer for about 25 minutes, stirring now and then so they do not stick.
- Meanwhile fry the bacon and onion until golden and stir in the sour cream. Serve the cepelinai hot with the sauce spooned over.
Made it at home? Tick it off and it goes into your kitchen passport.
They were once called didžkukuliai, and were later renamed after Count Zeppelin, because their shape looks like his airships.
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