Cepelinai

Ingredients

Dough

• 2 kgfloury potatoes, peeled, for grating raw
• 500 gfloury potatoes, peeled and boiled
• 2 tbsppotato starch, plus the starch settled from the grated potato
• 1 tspsalt
• 1 tbsplemon juice or citric acid solution

Filling

• 400 gminced pork shoulder
• 1onion, very finely diced
• 1 tspsalt
• ½ tspblack pepper
• ½ tspdried marjoram
• 2 tbspcold water

Spirgučiai sauce

• 200 gsmoked fatty bacon (lašiniai), finely diced
• 1large onion, finely chopped
• 250 mlsour cream
• ½ tspblack pepper

To cook

• 4 litreswater
• 2 tbspsalt

Directions

1. Mix the pork with the onion, salt, pepper, marjoram and cold water, working it for 2 minutes until sticky. Chill while you make the dough, and roll into 8 balls.
2. Boil the 500 g of potatoes until tender, then mash smooth and cool completely.
3. Grate the 2 kg of raw potatoes on the finest grater, or blitz to a pulp, tossing with the lemon juice as you go to stop them blackening.
4. Squeeze the raw pulp very hard in a cloth over a bowl and set the liquid aside. Leave it to stand 10 minutes: a dense white layer of potato starch will settle at the bottom.
5. Pour off and discard the grey water, scrape the settled starch back into the squeezed pulp, add the cooled mash, the extra potato starch and the salt, and knead to a smooth, pliable, faintly grey dough that holds a shape.
6. With wet hands, take a handful of dough, flatten it into a disc in your palm, set a ball of meat in the centre and close the dough around it, sealing carefully and rolling into a pointed oval, the zeppelin shape that gives the dish its name.
7. Bring a wide pan of well-salted water to a gentle boil, never a rolling one. Lower the cepelinai in with a slotted spoon and stir the base of the pot once so they do not stick.
8. Simmer, uncovered, for 25–30 minutes from the moment they float. They are done when the dough has gone from opaque grey to translucent and glossy and a skewer goes through with no resistance.
9. Meanwhile render the diced bacon in a cold pan over medium-low heat for 10 minutes until crisp, add the onion and fry 8 minutes until golden, then stir in the sour cream off the heat and warm gently without boiling.
10. Lift the cepelinai out with a slotted spoon, drain briefly, and serve two per person, smothered in the spirgučiai sauce with plenty of black pepper.

Technique

• Returning the settled starch is not a detail, it is the recipe. Without it the dough has no binder, and the dumplings burst and dissolve in the water.
• Never let the water boil hard. Violent boiling tears the dough. Lithuanians say the water should barely shiver.
• Squeeze the grated potato until you think you have gone too far, then squeeze again. Wet dough is the other cause of collapse.
• Test one dumpling first. If it splits, knead a little more potato starch into the remaining dough before shaping the rest.

Substitutions

• No smoked lašiniai: use thick-cut smoked streaky bacon or diced smoked pancetta.
• Curd cheese mixed with egg and dill makes the classic meatless filling, cooked exactly the same way.
• Sour cream can be thinned with a splash of milk if it threatens to split in the hot pan.

Variations

• Cepelinai su varške, filled with salted curd cheese, eaten in Lent.
• Cepelinai su grybais, with a wild mushroom and onion filling.
• Didžkukuliai, the older name still used across much of Lithuania.

History

Potato dumplings named after the zeppelin airships that flew over Lithuania in the early twentieth century, which their shape resembles.

Frequently asked questions

What is Cepelinai?

Cepelinai is a main from Lithuania: zeppelin-shaped potato dumplings stuffed with meat, bacon-cream sauce; national dish. Potato dumplings named after the zeppelin airships that flew over Lithuania in the early twentieth century, which their shape resembles.

How long does Cepelinai take to make?

Cepelinai takes 50 min of preparation and 40 min of cooking. The recipe makes 4 servings, 8 dumplings. It is rated hard to make.

What can I substitute in Cepelinai?

Yes, within limits. No smoked lašiniai: use thick-cut smoked streaky bacon or diced smoked pancetta. Curd cheese mixed with egg and dill makes the classic meatless filling, cooked exactly the same way. Sour cream can be thinned with a splash of milk if it threatens to split in the hot pan.

What is the most important thing to get right in Cepelinai?

Bring a wide pan of well-salted water to a gentle boil, never a rolling one. Lower the cepelinai in with a slotted spoon and stir the base of the pot once so they do not stick.