Cepelinai (Lithuanian Meat-filled Potato Dumplings)

Ingredients:

For the Meat Stuffing:
500g of an equal mix of pork, beef, and veal
1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp freshly-ground black pepper
1 large egg, beaten

For the potatoes:
6 large potatoes
4 rashers of thick-cut bacon (cut in 1cm pieces)
¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
Salt and freshly-ground black pepper, to taste

Method:

Pre-heat your oven to 180°C. Once hot place three of the potatoes in the centre of the oven and bake for about 40 minutes (you don't want them fully cooked). once baked, remove from the oven and set aside to cool.

In the meantime, prepare the meat filling: In a large bowl, mix together ground meat, finely chopped onion, the salt, a few grinds of pepper, and the egg until well combined.

Cover and refrigerate until ready to use. In a non-stick frying pan cook the bacon pieces until they render their fat and become crispy. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and set aside.

When the baked potatoes have cooled enough to be handled peel them, then grate into a bowl using the large side of your grater. Peel the raw potatoes then grate with the small side of your grater into the same bowl.

Season with salt, black pepper and nutmeg then the mixture with a wooden spoon until smooth and homogeneous. Get a little flour on your hands; take a full tablespoon of the potato mixture and flatten it. Form an indentation in the centre then put in ½ tsp of the meat mixture, close the potato mixture over the filling, then roll with your hands to an oval shape of an airship. Lay them out on large cutting board sprinkled with flour, and then sprinkle some flour on the top of the dumplings.

Bring a large, wide-mouthed pan of water to a boil. Salt the water and with a strainer lower in four of the dumplings, (add them one at the time). When the water comes back to a boil; turn down the flame to medium-low. When dumplings come to the surface, cook them not more than for 5-6 minutes. Get them out carefully with the strainer; orange cooked dumplings on a large platter in one layer, and keep them in the oven at 200 degrees. Repeat the same step two more times if you wont to serve all 12 dumplings right a way... alternatively, the uncooked cepeliani freeze well.

Traditionally these are served topped with the crisp-fried bacon and accompanied by a sauce or gravy such as a thick home-made mushroom-sour cream sauce.