Cepelinai (potato dumplings) — Photo: Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

Cepelinai (potato dumplings)

cepelinai

Large oval potato dumplings with a meat filling, topped with a sauce of crisp bacon, onion and soured cream.

Eaten in: Lithuania

Prep: 50 min
Cooking: 35 min
Total: 1 h 25 min
Servings: 4

About the dish

Cepelinai are Lithuania's national dish – large, elongated dumplings whose shape recalls the zeppelin airships that gave them their name. The dough is a mixture of grated raw potatoes, squeezed well of their liquid, and boiled potatoes, and inside hides a filling of minced meat, or sometimes curd cheese or mushrooms. The dumplings are simmered gently in salted water and served generously topped with a sauce of crisp bacon, onion and soured cream. They are filling, festive and labour-intensive, so they are usually made with several pairs of hands.

Main ingredients

potatoes
minced pork
onion
smoked bacon
soured cream

Lithuania: Also called didžkukuliai.

More: Wikipedia (pl) Wikipedia (en)

Recipe

Cepelinai (potato dumplings)

https://foodmap.ominuvo.com/dish/cepelinai

Ingredients

4 servings

4 servings

2 kg floury potatoes
1 tsp salt for the dough
1 tbsp potato starch (if needed)
400 g minced pork
2 onions
salt, pepper, ½ tsp marjoram
150 g smoked bacon
250 g soured cream

Method

Boil 500 g of the peeled potatoes and press them through a ricer. Grate the rest on the finest side of the grater and squeeze them hard in muslin or a clean cloth.
Pour the water off the squeezed liquid and add the starch that has settled at the bottom to the potatoes. Combine the raw and cooked potatoes with the salt and knead to an even dough; if it is too loose, add the potato starch.
Mix the meat with one grated onion, salt, pepper and marjoram.
With wet hands, take a palm-sized piece of dough, flatten it, add a spoonful of filling and shape it into an oval dumpling about 12 cm long, sealing the edges well.
Cook the cepelinai in a large pot of gently boiling salted water for about 25–30 minutes, stirring carefully at first so they do not stick.
For the sauce, dice the bacon and the second onion and fry until golden, then stir in the soured cream. Serve the cepelinai covered with the hot sauce.

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