Cepelinai

Shell: 1.2 kg raw peeled starchy potatoes; 400 g cooked peeled starchy potatoes, cooled; 40-70 g potato starch; plus the remaining ingredients listed for this component. Finely grate raw potatoes and squeeze very dry through a cloth. Let liquid settle; discard water and keep starch sediment. Rice cooked potatoes. Squeeze raw potatoes in small batches through a clean cloth until very dry. Let liquid stand until the starch visibly settles, then pour off the clear liquid carefully. Rice cooked potatoes without adding milk.

Mix squeezed raw potato, cooked potato, recovered starch, shell salt and 40 g added starch. Test a small piece in simmering water; if it breaks up, add more starch. Mix just until cohesive and test before filling. A test piece should hold together at a quiet simmer; make small starch adjustments only if it falls apart.

Filling: 300 g ground pork; 1 small onion (80 g), grated; 1/2 tsp salt; plus the remaining ingredients listed for this component. Mix filling. Divide potato dough into 8, flatten in damp hands, enclose filling and seal into oblong zeppelins. Mince filling onion finely, stir the raw meat and seasonings evenly and keep cold. Divide filling into 8 portions. Enclose each fully, pinch shut and smooth all shell cracks with damp hands.

Gently simmer in a wide pot 25-35 minutes, until shell is tender and pork reaches 71°C/160°F. Use a wide pot with room around each piece and keep a very quiet simmer. Do not stir roughly or boil hard. Check the thickest part of a test shell and the meat temperature; floating alone is not enough.

Topping: 100 g bacon, diced; 1 onion (100 g), chopped; 150 g sour cream. Cook bacon and topping onion until golden. Spoon over dumplings with sour cream. Render bacon over medium heat, then cook onion in the fat until golden. Spoon the hot topping over carefully drained dumplings and add the measured sour cream.