Cepelinai/Zeppelins

Описание: A flagship of Lithuanian cuisine, the Zeppelin, a stuffed potato dumpling. There are versions stuffed with cheese or even veggies and the hard part (the skin) is mostly covered here.

As a second note here I think the potatoes here were not quite starchy enough and would have benefited from just a little bit of starch added. The dumpling itself was a bit dense and chewy but still certainly quite good. If you add more starch, the outer casing will be a little less dense and a little more moist.

Finally someone trying to make this for the first time should expect to try to make it many times before figuring it out. This is roughly my 9th time making this dish.

Finally you need some equipment for this dish:

1. A fine mesh cloth bag or a potato pulp press
2. A box grater with a fine grate side or an electric potato grater.
3. A potato ricer/potato press (terms used interchangeably)

Recipe, 2 dumplings for 1 person (scale up as needed):

Dumpling:
500g/1lb starchy baking potatoes, peeled
50g(1/10th weight of baking potatoes) potatos for boiling
Juice of half a lemon or a vitamin c tablet

Filling:
60 g ground pork
a quarter of a small onion
salt, pepper, and basil to taste

Topping
a handfull of bacon
Onion to taste
Sour cream to taste

Misc: corn starch

Add lemon juice or crushed vitamin C tablet to a bowl.
Grate large potatoes into a bowl using fine grating section of box grater or use electric potato grater. Consistency should be similar to apple sauce. Add frequently to the bowl where the lemon juice or vitamin C is, stirring frequently.

Using the bag or potato pulp press, squeeze as much of the water from the potato pulp as possible, setting aside. Add wrung pulp to mixing bowl. Make sure the water sits for at least 5-10 min.

Boil small potato until soft. Run under cold water and remove skin. Run through ricer/press and add to mixing bowl with pulp.

Decant water from pulp, saving starch, Mix starch with dough and lightly salt. Kneed until smooth. Should be a bit sticky. Add a dusting of corn starch and continue to kneed if not at all sticky. If two dry, add a couple drops of water at a time. Set aside. Divide into equal sized balls for each dumpling.

Mix ingredients for filling well. Divide into small balls per dumpling.

Shape filling into oblong shape. Then with wet hands, take ball of dough and flatten into a disk, placing the filling in the middle. Close the dumpling around the filling. It should be basically closed (but my be rough or even have small occasional gaps at this point).

If dough cracks, add more water to hands before proceeding.

Toss zeppelin back and forth between hands to smooth any seams and make sure it is now properly sealed. Set aside and form other one. Dust all sides with starch.

Add starch and salt to water. Bring to a boil Boil zeppelins in simmering water for 20 min. While it is boiling proceed.

Fry bacon for a couple minutes. Add onions and fry a few more minutes. Remove from heat.

When zeppelins are done, remove from water and let rest a minute or so. Top with onions and bacon, and sour cream.

What to do if things go wrong:

1. Dough is cracking while forming zeppelins: wet hands and toss back and forth, wetting hands over and over until zeppelin is smooth.

2. Not enough starch, trial disintegrates while cooking: steam instead. Not as good but tasty nonetheless.

3. Zeppelins come out dark. Eat them anyway and next time use more vitamin C. Also these can darken if left too long before cooking.

4. Zeppelins stick to the bottom of the pot while cooking. With a wooden or plastic spatula gently push it to unstick it.

5. Cut open a zeppelin and it is not done! Wrap in foil and return to the boiling water. The foil will hold it together and it will continue to cook (and even sometimes reseal).

A special thank you:
The site which I am honoring is   / loveklaipeda   which is full of wonderful photography of the Luthuanian coast.