Take a bucket of potatoes and depending on their age, you can make a thousand variations of food
Here’s one of our great recipes!
Zeppelins!
How to make Grate Cepelinai!
Some unique recipes have been developing in Lithuania far from the influences of the western world
Cepelinai - (pron. 'Tse-peh-lin-ay)
Simple yet so complex
Getting this little beauty to work well is all in the texture of the surrounding potato casing: too hard and it's a fight, too mushy and it falls apart. When spot on, it is as delicate a full hearty feed can get, a terrific comfort feed in a dramatically cold winter feels perfect.
Cepelinai were named after the inventor of the zeppelin aircraft, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. Lithuania’s national dish, which is over 150 years old, was originally called didzkukuliai. They were renamed cepelinai because of their cylinder shape similar to zeppelins.
Ingredients
For the dough
- 6 lb potatoes (ideally russet or Idaho)
- ½ lemon
- 2 tablespoons salt
For the filling
- 1 lb ground beef or pork or combine with veal – your preference
- 1 onion , chopped
- 2 tablespoons salt
For the gravy
- 4 oz. bacon , diced
- 2 onions , chopped
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 cup sour cream
- Salt
- Pepper
Instructions
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Peel the potatoes. Press the juice of half a lemon (alternatively, crush half a vitamin C pill !) and place in a large mixing bowl.
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Grate the raw potatoes with an electric or manual potato grater into the bowl. Regularly mix the potatoes so they do not turn dark.
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Place some of the grated potatoes into a cheesecloth over a separate bowl and squeeze until the potatoes are almost dry. Repeat with the remaining grated potatoes.
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Slowly pour away the potato juice from the bowl to collect the layer of potato starch settled at the bottom of the bowl.
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Incorporate the potato starch with the drained grated potatoes, add salt and knead until well combined.
Filling
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Combine the ground beef (or pork), chopped onions, pepper and salt. Mix well.
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Fill a large stockpot with water, add 1 tablespoon of salt, and bring to a boil.
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Take a portion (size of a tennis ball) of the potato dough and flatten in your hands. Take a smaller portion (size of a golf ball) of the meat filling and put in the center.
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Fold the potato dough to seal the dumpling and form the shape of a zeppelin. Repeat with the remaining dough and meat.
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Once the water comes to boil, reduce heat to medium and slowly lower the cepelinai into the boiling water.
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Boil for 20 minutes or until the meat filling is cooked through. Carefully remove the dumplings from the stockpot with a slotted spoon.
Gravy
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Add the diced bacon and chopped onions into a large frying pan. Sauté on medium heat for about 8 to 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper.
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Turn the heat off, then add the sour cream. Mix well and thin the gravy with a little hot water or chicken stock if necessary.
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Serve the cepelinai generously topped with the gravy.
Step by step process by Cep-Lina!
Our masterchef is Lina Ceplinskiene (her name befits the task!)
Photos of the process by Barbara Rolek
Grated potatoes to begin with - try using large peeled raw Idaho potatoes.
Lithuanian cepelinai or zeppelin dumplings are hearty, football-shaped dumplings made with grated raw potatoes and riced boiled potatoes.
They are made in either a curd cheese variety (like farmer's cheese) served with a sour cream-milk sauce, or a meat variety (ground pork or a ground pork-ground veal mixture), and served with a sour cream-bacon-onion sauce.
Here, Lina Ceplinskiene, a cook for Grand Duke's Restaurant in Summit, Ill., shows how she has made Lithuanian meat Cepelinai all her life. She is using a special processor common in Lithuania, but you can use a typical food processor.
Quarter the whole potatoes and feed them into your favourite food processor/grater
The raw potatoes are grated very finely so they form a smooth purée.
There will be lots of water left over and this then needs to be wrung out
Try a fine mesh cloth
collect the fallout.
It is important that all of the liquid be removed from the potatoes. Place the potato pulp in a muslin cloth or cheesecloth and wring it dry over a bowl to catch the water and potato starch (which you will use).
It is important that all of the liquid be removed from the potatoes. Place the potato pulp in a muslin cloth or cheesecloth and wring it dry over a bowl to catch the water and potato starch (which you will use).
Collecting the starch
the secret binder
Carefully dispose of the water from the potatoes which collected when they were wrung dry. Make sure to leave the potato starch sediment at the bottom of the bowl.
Adding the dried and squeezed potatoes
Remove the squeeze-dried potatoes from the cloth and transfer to a bowl with the reserved potato starch.
Adding Riced Potatoes and Grated Onion
Riced Potato?
Boil other potatoes and then push them through a ricer!
Then grate some onion.
Add the riced potatoes and grated onion to the mixing bowl and combine.
Then grate some onion.
Add the riced potatoes and grated onion to the mixing bowl and combine.
Next step - Have all the ingredients ready
Make sure you have all of your ingredients ready before you begin to form the meat cepelinai.
Lina uses an all-pork filling for her meat cepelinai, but a combination of pork, beef, and veal also can be used.
Lina uses an all-pork filling for her meat cepelinai, but a combination of pork, beef, and veal also can be used.
Add a decent amount of meat filling (see recipe at top of page)
About a third of meat to potato mixture
Encase the meat completely
The football (Aussie Rules/Rugby/Grid Iron) should fit the length of your hand, palm to fingertips
Complete the rest of the portions
Get them all ready before the cooking, but remember, fresh is always best
That wonderful feeling when the final stage goes to cook
Here we go, gently place the zeps in boiling water which has corn starch added: adding cornstarch to the boiling water will assure the dumplings won't fall apart when boiling. Let the meat dumplings cook for 25 minutes.
Set and serve
Remember: Add the diced bacon and chopped onions into a large frying pan. Sauté on medium heat for about 8 to 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper.
Turn the heat off, then add the sour cream. Mix well and thin the gravy with a little hot water or chicken stock if necessary.
Serve the cepelinai generously topped with the gravy.
Turn the heat off, then add the sour cream. Mix well and thin the gravy with a little hot water or chicken stock if necessary.
Serve the cepelinai generously topped with the gravy.