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9 Comments:
I'm stumped, too, Sindy. Have put in a couple calls to some sources to see ... Will try to get back to you promptly. Unless one of our fellow serious eaters knows the answer ...
Adam Kuban at 4:02PM on 02/08/07
With meat or cheese?
Barbara Hanson at 4:20PM on 02/08/07
With meat. I just tried it adding a little onion and garlic. But when I boiled it ..all of the potato came off the meat ...grrrrrrrr
Sindy at 5:38PM on 02/08/07
You know, I just realized that I had to look up what a cepelinai was. I had never heard of it before you asked, Sindy. So for anyone else out there like me, here's from wiki Wikipedia: a Lithuanian national food. It is made from grated potatoes, usually containing ground meat, although sometimes dry cottage cheese (curd) is used instead. The potato dish resembles a Zeppelin in its shape, and is about 10 to 20 cm long. The size depends on where it was made - in the western Lithuanian counties cepelinai are made bigger than in the east. Cepelinai are boiled and served with sour cream sauce, or bits of bacon (cracklings). [cepelinai, from Wikipedia]
If that's not clear enough -- basically looks like you take raw, grated potatoes and boiled, mashed potatoes, knead them together and form egg-size chunks into patties. Then put a filling (ground beef or dry cottage cheese or mushrooms) in the center of the patty. Close patty up over filling, making an ovoid shape, then boil it. Sounds pretty good.
Adam Kuban at 5:41PM on 02/08/07
The recipes I looked at didn't call for spices, but did call for the addition of potato flour to hold it all together.
Barbara Hanson at 9:15AM on 02/09/07
The recipe I used was the one in Wikipedia. I only found one other recipe for this at all. I guess that maybe the potato flour might help. Like I said all of my potato boiled off the meat and was just a sludge in the bottom of the pan of basically "boiled meatballs" ick!
Sindy at 4:29AM on 02/10/07
Sindy: I contacted the Dale Lukas, cultural chair for the Lithuanian American Community, and she put me in touch with Laima Hood, a New York based member, who passed this recipe on to me. Many thanks to Ms. Lukas and Ms. Hood! —Adam
CEPELINAI | recipe adapted from Lithuanian Traditional Foods, compiled by Birute Imbrasiene
Cepelinai, or "zeppelins," are a rather recent Lithuanian tradition. They were begun in the middle of the twentieth century, but their fame spread throughout the country. "Zeppelins" are very filling, and for this reason they are eaten during days of hard work, especially during harvest time. The variety of fillings used makes "zeppelins" adaptable to different times of the year.
Ingredients
2 pounds raw potatoes, peeled and grated
4 cooked potatoes
Salt to taste
Process
1. Put raw potato gratings in a double cheese cloth, and squeeze dry. Save potato liquid, let potato starch settle at the bottom, decant potato liquid, and mix starch with dry potato gratings.
2. Rice boiled potatoes, and add to raw grated potatoes; salt and blend well. (Adding several crushed vitamin C pills at this point can prevent potato discoloration.) Take about 1/2 cup potato mixture and flatten, making a round form. Place a spoonful of filling mixture (recipes below) in center of the round, fold over, seal seam, and make into an oblong shape.
3. Put "zeppelins" into boiling water, and cook for about 30 min., stirring gently.
CEPELINAI FILLINGS
Beef or Pork Filling
Meat-filled cepelinai are served with fried bacon bits or with melted butter and sour cream.
1 onion, finely chopped
9 ounce ground meat (beef, pork, or a mixture of both)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon marjoram
Pork is the traditional meat filling for cepelinai—rather fat, cut from the shoulder. A mixture of pork and fat is also used. Sauté onion, and add to the ground meat. Season with salt, pepper, and marjoram. Blend well.
Cottage Cheese Filling
Farmer's cheese cepelinai are eaten with melted butter, sour cream, or fried bacon bits.
9 ounces farmer's cheese
1 ounce bacon, finely chopped and fried
1 ounce butter
1 tablespoon sour cream
1 egg, beaten
Salt to taste
1/2 teaspoon French tarragon or peppermint
Blend farmer's cheese with fried bacon, add butter, sour cream. egg, salt, and herbs. Mix well.
Adam Kuban at 1:34PM on 02/12/07
Thanks for going to so much trouble Adam. I will give these another shot!
Sindy at 2:41PM on 02/28/07
I've had much experience making these for my lithuanian husband and learning from my mother-in-law. The key reason these fall apart is because the raw potatoes are being "grated" on the wrong setting. Look on your vegetable grater. It usually has a few different choices. You want to "shred" the potatoes on the sharpest setting. That is the little holes with spikes pointing up. Make sure you use potatoes with high starch content as well.
When dropping them into the water, bring the water to a rolling boil. BUT then you want to bring the heat down, and reduce the water to a gentle boil/simmer before carefully dropping your zeppelins.
cookiecutter at 12:35PM on 01/22/08