Potato Knish

Happy Easter, everyone!  It was a nice relaxing day here at home, with delicious recipes that you will just have to wait on.  In honor of Easter, I have to share a recipe that I tried out last weekend... and it just so happens to be a Jewish recipe.  Okay so it is probably not the best timing... a Jewish meal on a Christian holiday... but I am all about peace and harmony, so I am going to make it work :)

So, the great part about the fact that I made this dish is that it was one of the first things I ever pinned when I got Pinterest early last year, and my exact post was this: "potato knish... looks hard but amazing."  I have been thinking about the knishes every since.  To be honest, I had never heard of them up until then, but they looked perfect: little round balls of pastry stuffed with potato.  Pastry? Potatoes? Yes please.  But of course to make the dough, the filling, and then put the knishes together, there were a lot of steps listed, and I wasn't brave enough to tackle these guys last year.  However, last weekend, the time had come.

The blog I got the recipe from, Smitten Kitchen, was genius enough to list two different kind of knishes: the traditional, stuffed with russet potatoes and caramelized onions, and then her own crazy wonderful concoction of red bliss potatoes mashed with cream cheese, leeks and kale.  I was totally unable to choose between the two, so I decided to make a double recipe of the dough and try each kind of filling.

The dough itself had interesting ingredients like white vinegar and a whole half cup of vegetable oil.  It ends up coming out surprisingly similar to pie crust, considering the fact that the ingredients for both are pretty different.

Once the dough was made, I worked on the fillings.  They took similar amounts of time (although I really suck at caramelizing onions).  The fun part was actually putting them together.  You roll out the dough, put the filling on it, and roll it up semi-burrito-like.  Then you twist it off every now and then (like you are making sausage, although I would never), cut the pieces apart, and seal the bottoms.  Egg wash, bake, and you're done!

Doesn't it look like wrapping candy?

 Here is the interesting part: these were not the immense and giant hit that I had expected.  I made 12, and ended up throwing away probably half of them a week or so later.  I am not quite sure why, because I think they were great.  I will agree that they seemed a little dry, particularly the traditional one.  I felt like it needed a sauce of some sort.  They probably would have been good with sour cream, but we were out.  The red potato one was much better in my opinion (Rachael agreed), with the cream cheese helping to add some moisture to the filling, and the leeks and kale giving it some good texture and flavor.  However don't get me wrong - the traditional one was no black sheep.  After all, it's a carb wrapped around another carb, and really what more can a girl ask for?  But like I said, the Tucker family could only eat so many, so perhaps I am not a good little Jewish chef.  Cancel the matzoh balls.

Recipes:

potato knish, two ways

from Smitten Kitchen (you definitely want to go to the site for the how-to pictures if you try this out!)

Yield: 6 3-inch hearty knish)

traditional potato knish

Dough Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon table salt

1 large egg

1/2 cup vegetable oil (Joe also recommends schmaltz, or rendered chicken fat, if you’ve got some)

1 teaspoon white vinegar

1/2 cup water 

Filling Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds (about 3 medium) russet potatoes, peeled and quartered

1 small yellow onion, peeled and diced small

1 tablespoon vegetable or olive oil

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1/2 teaspoon table salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 large egg yolk

1 teaspoon water

Instructions:

1) Make dough: Stir together your dry ingredients in the bottom of a medium/large bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, oil, vinegar and water. Pour it over the dry ingredients and stir them to combine. Once the mixture is a craggy, uneven mass, knead it until smooth, about a minute. Place the dough back in the bowl and cover it with plastic wrap. Set it aside for an hour (or in the fridge, up to 3 days) until needed.

2) Meanwhile, prepare filling: Put potatoes into a large pot, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and cook until potatoes can be pierced easily with a knife, about 20 minutes. Drain, then transfer to a large bowl to cool.

Heat a large, heavy skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add butter and oil and once they’re fully melted and a bit sizzly, add onions and reduce to medium-low. Cook, stirring frequently, until deeply caramelized, about 45 minutes. Transfer to bowl with potatoes and mash together until almost smooth. (A few lumps make it taste more “traditional) Stir in salt and many grinds of black pepper and set the filling aside.

3) Assemble knish: Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  Divide the dough in half. On a well-floured surface, roll the first half of the dough into a very thin sheet, roughly in the shape of a 1-foot square, but really, no need to be rigid about it. Create a 2-inch thick log from half your potato filling across the bottom of your dough. Roll the filling up in the dough, but not too tight. A tiny amount of slack will keep the dough from opening in the oven. Keep rolling until the log has been wrapped twice in dough. Trim any unrolled length and add it to the second half of the dough; it can be used again. Repeat the process with the second half of your dough and second half of filling; you might have a small amount of dough leftover.

Trim the ends of the dough so that they’re even with the potato filling. Then, make indentations on the log every 3 to 3 1/2 inches (you’ll have about 3, if your log was 1 foot long) and twist the dough at these points, as if you were making sausage links. Snip the dough at each twist, then pinch one of the ends of each segment together to form a sealed knish base. Use the palm of your hand to flatten the knish a bit into a squat shape, and leave a small hole in the top.

4) Bake knish: Arrange knish on prepared baking sheet so that they don’t touch. Whisk egg yolk and water together to form a glaze and brush it over the knish dough. Bake knish for about 45 minutes, rotating your tray if needed for them to bake into an even golden brown color. Let them cool a little bit before digging in. Spicy mustard is a traditional accompaniment, but I recommend sour cream.

Red Potato Knish with Kale, Leeks and Cream Cheese

Follow the dough and assembly directions above, but replace the Russet and caramelized onion filling with this one.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds medium red potato (about 3 to 4), peeled and quartered

1 big leek (about 1/2 pound), white and light-green parts only, halved lengthwise, and thinly sliced 

1 tablespoon vegetable or olive oil

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 generous cup lacinato kale ribbons (about 3 ounces or 1/4 to 1/3 bundle), tough stems and ribs removed and leaves cut into strips 

1/2 teaspoon table salt

Freshly ground black pepper3 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

1) Cook potatoes: Put potatoes into a large pot, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and cook until soft, about 20 to 25 minutes. Drain, then transfer to a large bowl to cool.

2) Meanwhile, prepare leeks and kale: Fill a medium bowl with very cold water and drop in leek rings. Swish them around with your fingers, letting any sandy dirt fall to the bottom. Scoop out the leeks and drain them briefly on a towel, but no need to get them fully dry. Do the same with the kale, but you can leave the leaves to nearly fully dry, patting them if necessary, on the towels while you cook the leeks.

3) Heat a large, heavy skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add butter and oil and once they’re fully melted and a bit sizzly, add the leek slices. Reduce heat to low, cover with a lid and cook leek for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Raise heat back to medium, add the kale ribbons and cook until they wilt, about 5 minutes.

4) Transfer mixture to bowl with potatoes, add the cream cheese and mash together until combined. Stir in salt and many grinds of black pepper and set filling aside.

Ready to bake!