KNISH

There you were, innocent man, wandering down the street, when you smelled it. Hot fat! And a faint touch of....
Oy!
An echte yetser you have? Good! Let us deal with that.


Azoy:


THE KNISH

Dough:
Two cups plain flour.
Quarter cup water.
Two to four Tbs cooking oil or schmaltz.
Two eggs.
A pinch of salt.

In a steel bowl klop and klots di eyer with the oil and the water. Mix in the flour, adding more as needed and knead till you have a smooth dough, just barely tacky. Do not overwork the dough! You don’t want a tough crust.
Ball it, cover, and let it rest for about half an hour.

Filling:
One cup coarse mashed potatoes.
One onion, chopped.
One Tablespoon cooking oil.
Plenty of salt and pepper.
Chopped parsley.

In a frypan sauté the onion golden.
Mix the potato-mash, gilded onion, parsley, salt and pepper together. Adjust taste. A pinch nutmeg is good to add, but isn’t customary.

On a greased or floured surface roll out dough to a rectangle about ten by twenty inches, cut in half lengthwise, then cut each length of dough across into four.

Place a portion of the filling on each square, flatten it, and fold each square of dough over, taking the corners and pulling them over the filling to join in the center. A bit of whapping and tweaking to get nice square shapes is all it takes, if there’s a little dough flapping extra per knish, trim it with a paring knife. Or simply do as if making apple turnovers – who says you have to be perfect? Brush a little butter on top.
Bake thirty to forty minutes in the oven at 375 degrees (preheated) till nice.

[NOTE: 01/26/2009 - 'Rabid Political Feline' (a pseudonym!) followed the recipe over the weekend. And reports that the crust, well, meh. Alas. Meh. Filling nice, but crust.... meh. Well, I usually add more grease to the dough, reversing the proportions of water and grease (olive oil, animal fat, and butter mixed). But then, I LIKE IT GREASY (and I do not keep kosher). The effect, especially if using butter instead, is rather like a southern pie crust. Which, of course, is heretical. At the very least im gontzem apikorsish to da max. It is also a good idea to finish them by frying. Did I mention that I like greasy? It's probably heresy to mention that I eat mine with a dollop of chili-paste on the side........ ]


But, you could just go to Yonah Schimmel’s…..

That too is emmes a tayneg.