Date Night Dinners - Traditions

5/30/2014 tringel 0 Comments

This week Brenden was feeling a little adventurous, and nostalgic, and exploratory, and homesick, and...okay maybe I am not quite sure what he was feeling, but that is not important. The point is, for some reason Brenden decided to choose meals that were native to our heritage/culture. I thought this was an interesting idea, so we flew with it. The hardest part of the plan was choosing what we would make. Most of the traditional Jewish foods I make, I had already made for Brenden during the holidays and most of the Dutch food Brenden enjoys has pork products in it. It took a little bit of thinking and research but we eventually found some foods we were excited to experiment with. So get excited for a series of Jewish and Dutch food, and by series I mean two posts, this one and next weeks.


We decided to go with my culture this week since Brenden is still finalizing his perfect pork-less Dutch meal. That meant the menu for the night would be knishes. For those that don't know, a knish is a Yiddush word that was derived from the Ukrainian or Russian "kynish," meaning dumpling or cake. A knish consists of a filling covered with dough that is either baked, grilled, or deep fried.

As I am sure you know by our past recipes, we tend to steer toward the safe and simple side of cooking. Not this week. Neither of us have ever made a knish or anything like it, but we were excited to begin the endeavor. With school over and summer making the days longer, taking the time to try new things is much less stressful. We decided to make the most common knish, a potato knish, with a little added flair, for dinner. We added ground beef to the potato to get a little protein in there, and then of course we mixed in some cheddar cheese for flavor (so much for heritage...if you are kosher you are not supposed to mix meat and cheese...oh well, everything needs cheese).

As we began making the dough for the knishes, we realized the recipe was going to make A LOT of knishes so we decided to spice up the dish even more and make some of them into dessert knishes. While I grew up with the fond memory of trying different potato knishes from different delis, my dads favorite were the cherry cheese ones. I have never had a desert knish and Brenden doesn't like cherries, so we decided to do a spin off my dad's specialty and make strawberry mascarpone knishes. Plus, it ensured us that may dad would not sneak a knish or six, and help him stick to his diet.

Both Brenden and I feel we had great success at a first attempt of knishes. There are definitely slightly adjustments we would make next time, but only with seasonings and such, nothing major. Believe me, the 2 dozen knishes were gone in just a few short days so they were good enough. As I said, we would add a bit more seasoning to the potato knishes, just to spice it up another notch and give the flavor a bit more depth. The desert knishes were amazing but unfortunately the strawberry jelly and cheese got a bit liquidly as it warmed up and began to leak out of the knishes, so we need to find a way to fix that...maybe just stuff them with more filling, lots more filling?! But the flavor was there.

Although the recipe may seem taxing and intimidating at first glance, it really is worth it. Give it a shot, you will love them, I mean it is a big ball of carbs after all. As I said, it makes a lot so you will have left overs to last a few days, or you could freeze them and reheat them as desired to stretch the dish out longer and add variety to weekly meals. Don't forget to stayed tuned next week to see what Brenden brings us from the Netherlands. If it is anything like what his parents make when we visit, I already know it will be tastey.

Knishes
Recipe adapted from madeinourkitchen.com, Potato Knish
Ingredients

• Dough
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup water
• 1 Tbsp white vinegar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 cups all-purpose flour (plus extra for rolling)

• Filling - dinner
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1.5 large onions, diced
• 2.5 lbs russet potatoes
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Filling - dessert
• 1/3 cup mascarpone cheese
• 1/4 cup strawberry jam
• Egg wash
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp water

Directions

1. Beat egg and water in a small bowl until combined.
2. Set aside until ready to use.

      B. Dough:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Beat the eggs and mix the with the oil, water, vinegar, and salt until combined.
3. Add the flour gradually, beating first with a spoon and eventually your hands as the dough thickens and you begin to knead. Add enough flour to make the dough smooth (you may need a bit more then 4 cups of flour as called for).
4. When the dough you preferred consistency, shape into 4 even balls.
5. Let the dough rest, covered with a damp cloth, for about half an hour.

      C. Filling - dinner:

1. While the dough is resting, prepare the filling.
2. Peel the potatoes and cut them in half.
3. Place them in a large pot, filled with cold water and salt to taste.
4. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat to a simmer and cook until soft, about 20 minutes.
5. Drain and cool for five minutes.
6. As the potatoes cool, take a large skillet, cook the ground beef and onion, until the beef is browned and the onions are translucent, caramelized, and soft, about 20 minutes.
7. Mash the potatoes, and the egg, salt, pepper.
8. Stir in the beef and onion mixture and the cheddar cheese until all the ingredients are evenly mixed in.

      D. Assemble:

1. On parchment paper sprinkled with flour, roll each ball of dough out as thin as possible into a flat rectangle.
2. Spread 1/3 of the filling into a line on 1/3 of the dough, leaving a one inch border.
3. Roll up the dough like a jelly rolling, beginning at the side with the filling.
4. Using the side of your hand like a knife, divide the roll into 2-inch knishes.
5. Pinch the open ends shut with your fingers.
6. Repeat this process with 2 more balls of dough.
7. Use the fourth ball of dough for dessert.
8. Begin again by rolling out the ball of dough as you did the previous three.
9. Spread the mascarpone cheese across 1/3 of the dough. Pour and spread the jam on top of the cheese.
10. Again, roll the dough like a jelly roll, and divide as you did the first three.
11. Place the knishes flat side down on a baking trays lined with parchment paper, leaving about 2 inches between each.
12. Brush each knish with the egg wash.
13. In batches, bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.
14. Remove, serve and enjoy.