Lithuania

 Welcome to Lithuania!  I had a friend in college who did a semester in this country, and she loved it.  Since then, I've wanted to go!  Lithuania was the first country to break away from the USSR when it began to collapse, basketball is the most popular sport there, and the buildings look beautiful!  According to Google, the population is 2.79 million people, and the capital is Vilnius.  And their national dish is...

 

Cepelinai!

What's funny about this dish is not what's in it - it's the fact that it was named after the inventor of the zeppelin - Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin.  The shape of the cepelinai is the shape of a zeppelin!  Too funny!  It's basically a potato dumpling with meat.  Sounds easy enough, right?  To go with the cepeliani, we made Lithuanian Apple Cookies.  Sounded like a pretty simple meal.  Or so I thought...here's what I did:

CEPELINAI

Dough

3 lbs russet potatoes, peeled

1/2 lemon, juiced

2 tbsp salt

Filling

1 lb ground beef

1 onion, chopped

2 tsp dried parsley

1 tbsp salt

Gravy

4 oz bacon, diced

2 onions, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 C sour cream

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Fill a medium bowl with water and the lemon juice.
2. Place the peeled potatoes in the water and lemon juice and let sit for about 5 minutes (this helps them from turning gray).
3. Cut half of the potatoes, and boil them until fork-tender, about 10 minutes.  
4. Drain the potatoes and mash. 
5. Place the mashed potatoes in a flour sack and squeeze as much water as possible from the potatoes. Keep the squeezed out water.
   
6. With the other half of the potatoes, grate them on the smallest grater you have.
7. Place the grated potatoes in a flour sack and squeeze as much water from them as possible. Keep the water in the same bowl as the other potato water.
   
8. Slowly pour away the water from the bowl, but leave the layer of potato starch at  the bottom of the bowl.
9. Incorporate the potato starch with the drained potatoes and mashed potatoes.  
10. Add the salt, and combine well.
11. Combine the ground beef, chopped onions, salt, pepper, and parsley.  Mix well.
12. Bring a large stockpot of water to a boil.
13. Add about a tbsp of salt to the water.
14. Take a tennis ball-sized portion of the potato dough and flatten in your hand.
15. take a golf ball-sized portion of the meat mixture and put it in the center of the dough.
16. Fold into a zeppelin shape, and seal off the ends.
    
17. Repeat with the remaining dough and meat mixture (I had a lot of meat mixture left over).
18. When the water comes to a boil, reduce to medium heat and slowly lower the cepelinai into the boiling water.
19. Boil for 20 minutes, or until the meat is cooked through.
20. Carefully remove the dumplings from the pot with a slotted spoon and place on a plate.
21. While the dumplings are cooking, make the gravy.
22. Add bacon, chopped onions, and garlic to a large frying pan.
23. Saute on medium heat until the bacon is cooked through.  
24. Add salt and pepper to taste.
25. Turn off the heat and add the sour cream.
26. Mix well, and serve on top of cepelinai.

(Source: Cepelinai and Cepelinai)

LITHUANIAN APPLE CAKES

Apples

1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, and cut into 8 pieces

1 tbsp sugar

1/2 tbsp cinnamon

Dough

1 C gluten free flour

1 tbsp sugar

1/8 tsp salt

3 oz butter, cold, cut into half-inch cubes

4 oz ricotta cheese, cold

1 tbsp sour cream

Coating

1 egg, lightly beaten

Sugar

1. Preheat oven to 400  degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
   
2. In a medium bowl, mix the apple slices, cinnamon and sugar until coated.  Set aside.
3. In a food processor, pulse flour, sugar, and salt to combine.
4. Add cubed butter, cheese, and sour cream.
5. Pulse until all ingredients come together and form a ball.
6. Take the dough and place on a floured surface (I put it between two large pieces of parchment paper). 
7. Roll the dough into a long narrow rectangle about 1/4 inch thick.
8. Cut long strips of the dough about an inch wide.
9. Take one strip and wrap around one slice of apple in an overlapping manner, covering all the apple with the strip.
10. Pinch both ends so there are no holes.
11. Brush the top with the egg and sprinkle with sugar.
12. Bake 27 minutes, until golden brown.
13. Let them sit for at least 10 minutes, and enjoy!

(Source: Lithuanian Apple Cookies) 

The verdict?  Well, you tell me...

      

                        What it's supposed to look like                                                Nailed it

The cepelinai didn't quite turn out the way it was supposed to...Which makes sense to me - the potatoes had nothing to keep it together.  Or maybe I didn't have enough of the raw potato to hold together the mashed stuff?  Who knows...We just ate the meat filling with the "gravy" (which was super thick and chunky!).  That combination was OK, but I would rather eat something else...The cookies, however, were very good.  It was basically an apple pie pastry.  I wouldn't mind making those again!  Overall, we weren't impressed with the food from Lithuania.  That doesn't change the fact that I want to go!

 

 

ME

Taste of Cepelinai (1 is terrible, 10 is amazing): 3

Spicy (hot) (1 is not at all spicy, 10 is uneatable): 0

Flavor (1 is no flavor, 10 is packed with flavor): 3

 

HANDSOME HUSBAND

Taste of Cepelinai (1 is terrible, 10 is amazing): 5

Spicy (hot) (1 is not at all spicy, 10 is uneatable): 0

Flavor (1 is no flavor, 10 is packed with flavor): 4

 

ME

Taste of Lithuanian Apple Cookies (1 is terrible, 10 is amazing): 6

Spicy (hot) (1 is not at all spicy, 10 is uneatable): 0

Flavor (1 is no flavor, 10 is packed with flavor): 5

 

HANDSOME HUSBAND

Taste of Lithuanian Apple Cookies (1 is terrible, 10 is amazing): 6

Spicy (hot) (1 is not at all spicy, 10 is uneatable): 0

Flavor (1 is no flavor, 10 is packed with flavor): 6

 

Thanks for joining us!  Hope you had a good laugh at how it turned out - we sure did!  Join us next time in Bolivia!