Lithuania

Since it was a high of 107 today and I spent the better part of the afternoon in the pool, I wasn't super thrilled about having a ridiculously carb-heavy meal of cepelinai. Oh well.

Cepelinai are potato dumplings filled with ground pork, beef or veal. They are then drowned in a bacon, sour cream sauce. Hearty.

Although all the recipes I found called for "grated potatoes" this is a lie. If you grate potatoes then you will get fine angel-hair like strands of potatoes and they will not mix well and when boiled will fall apart. Instead, you need to pulverize the potatoes.

Ingredients:

       Dumpling Mixture:

• 4 lbs Idaho potatoes, peeled and finely grated pulverized
• 1 lb Idaho potatoes, peeled, boiled and riced
• 1 teaspoon salt, more or less to taste

           Meat Mixture:

• 1 pound ground pork or 1/3 pound pork, 1/3 pound beef, 1/3 pound veal
• 1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 large beaten egg

          Gravy:

• 1/2 pound bacon, diced
• 1 large chopped onion
• 1 cup sour cream
• Black pepper to taste

Preparation:

1. In a saute pan, saute the chopped onion for the meat mixture in 1 tbsp of butter. In a large bowl, mix all the meat ingredients thoroughly. Refrigerate until ready to use.
   
   
2. Add a drop or two of lemon juice to the grated potatoes so they don't turn brown. Place them in a fine-mesh cheesecloth or cotton dish towel and twist over a large bowl to get rid of the excess water. Pour off the water, reserving the potato starch at the bottom of the bowl.
   
   
3. Unwrap the cheesecloth and place potatoes in bowl with the potato starch you reserved from the bottom of the bowl. Add the riced (yes, rice the potatoes. The potato ricer is amazing.) boiled potatoes and salt. Mix well.
   
   
4. Put a large stockpot of water on to boil. To form the Cepelinais, take about 1 cup of dumpling mixture and pat it flat in the palm of the hand. Place 1/4 cup or more of meat mixture in the center and, using slightly dampened hands, fold the potato mixture around the meat into a football shape, sealing well. Continue until both mixtures are gone.
   
   
5. Carefully lower dumplings into salted, boiling water to which 1 tablespoon of cornstarch has been added (to prevent dumplings from falling apart). Make sure water returns to the boil and continue boiling for 25 minutes. Remove dumplings, drain briefly on a clean dish towel and place on a heated platter.
   
   
6. While dumplings are boiling, make the gravy. Fry the bacon and onion until tender. Drain and combine with sour cream and black pepper. Thin with 1-2 tablespoons milk if necessary. Drench dumplings with gravy or pass it in a gravy boat at the table.

Since the dumplings came apart it was highly disappointing and I'm sure the overall effect was lost. They turned out more like meat dumplings with a starchy coating. (They were too pathetic to photograph).

Heidi's rating: 6 out of 10. [However, the bacon sauce was a 9 out of 10 :-)]
Tony's rating: 6.5 out of 10.
Baby M wasn't impressed.