Knishes Are Knice!

I’m writing this from the comfort of an Amtrak lounge car, riding the Coast Starlight from Portland to Los Angeles. It’s about a thirty-hour trip, and if you’ve ever ridden Amtrak, then you know the pleasures are many but do not include the food. I like to eat one meal in the lounge car just for the experience, but it’s too expensive to do that for every meal and I prefer some healthier snacks anyway.

So I packed a few tangerines, a bag of freshly-picked raw snap peas, some garlic cheese curds, and organic, naturally-sweetened raspberry lemonade. For something more substantial, I broke out an old recipe and made knishes.

In talking about it, I realized that not a lot of people outside of New York are familiar with knishes. I don’t know how my Southern ass found out about them – being Jewish was probably a factor – but I’m so glad I did. They’re delicious, portable, and oh-so-cheap! The recipe makes a ton of knishes, which is great because they freeze beautifully and go right from the freezer to the oven, toaster oven, or microwave. They’re also delicious at room temperature, making them ideal to take to work for lunches or to bring on long train trips.

I’m giving the recipe here for the knishes I made last night; you, however, are not married to this filling. Plain mashed potato filling is good, or you can add cheese, chicken, or any veggies. I’ve even offended the culinary sensibilities of three continents by making a sort of knish-bao hybrid, filling my knishes with teriyaki stir-fry. Knishes are a great way to use up leftovers.

Speaking of bao, I also like to prepare my knishes with that technique. Traditionally you roll up knish filling in the bread dough like a jellyroll, then cut it with the side of your hand and pinch it shut. For silly reasons, I like mine bao-style, like round stuffed buns, instead. So I’m giving you those instructions here.

And when you look and the recipe and think it’s too much oil and flour to be nutritious – remember, this makes A LOT. How many depends on the size of your knishes but I got almost three dozen out of this recipe. So don’t worry, you’re not eating it all at once!

THE FANTASTICALLY PORTABLE FREEZABLE KNISH!

Dough:
2 cups unbleached white flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup barley flour *
1/2 Tbsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 Tbsp garlic powder (optional)
2 eggs
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup veg or canola oil
1 1/4 cup water

Filling:
3 lbs potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 lb ground organic beef, chicken, or turkey
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 small turnip, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 cup spinach, finely chopped
2 eggs
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp chipotle powder (optional)

Egg Wash:
1 egg + 1 Tbsp water, beaten together

* If you can’t find barley flour, just use 3 cups whole wheat and 2 cups white. But barley flour gives a very nice flavor if you can find it.

Preheat the oven to 375 F (200 C), and lightly oil a baking sheet.

For the filling, throw the potatoes in a pot and cover with water. Salt it if you’re in a hurry, and bring it to a good boil. Simmer the potatoes 10-20 minutes, until cooked.

Meanwhile, in a skillet, cook the ground meat and onion together. You don’t need to add oil; the meat will sweat its own fat out. When the meat and onion are cooked, drain in a strainer to get the excess grease out, then set aside.

The potatoes should still be cooking, so start on the dough. Mix the dry ingredients together in one bowl, and beat the wet ingredients in another bowl. Pour the wet into the dry and stir to combine until it’s all mixed in. Knead the dough until it’s even and moist but not sticky – add a little more flour if it stays sticky, or a little more water if it’s crumbly. (This is easier than it sounds, trust me.) You should be able to roll it into a ball and your finger should leave a lasting impression in the ball when you poke it, without dough sticking to your finger.

By now your potatoes should be about done. Drain them and return them to the pot with the heat off. Mash the potatoes well, then stir in the other ingredients until evenly blended.

Tearing off fist-sized chunks of dough, roll each chunk out one at a time until it’s about ¼-inch thick. Cut circles out with a cereal bowl or something similar. Hold a circle in your hand with the palm flat, and scoop a tablespoon or two of filling into the center. Gather the edges up carefully and give a little twist – it doesn’t have to be a perfect seal at the top, but you don’t want filling leaking out the sides. A bit peeking through at the top is just fine.

Keep rolling out the scraps with more dough and making more knishes until you’ve used all the dough. If you have a little filling left over, just eat it for a snack or give it to the chickens. Once all the knishes are ready, arranged nicely on the baking sheet (or sheets; you might need two), and brush them with that egg wash.

Stick the knishes in the oven and bake them for 30 minutes. Careful when they come out – the middle is REALLY hot; I burnt my lip on a fresh knish last night because they smelled so good I couldn’t wait. Let them cool for awhile and then bag ‘em up for the fridge or eat them right away.

If you plan to freeze the knishes, only bake them for 20 minutes and then give them another 20 minutes in the oven from the freezer.

Make sure you bring a couple extra if you take them to work; everyone wants one. I like to make a game out of it and say they can only have one if they correctly pronounce the word “knish.”

Meatless Monday: Eggy Barley Bread

We had a beautiful sunny weekend, but today looks like a chilly rainy day again, so lunch is vegetable barley soup and fresh-baked eggy barley bread. You don't get much more warm and cozy than that!

I'm a big fan of barley, which for some reason does not get the attention today that it did in the previous century. As a whole grain, it's got a chewy, hearty texture and wholesome flavor that is the perfect accompaniment to soup; you can also make risotto with it instead of rice. As a flour, it brings a lovely rich warm flavor and a creamy softness to breads.

This is a good recipe for the bread machine, if you have one. If you don't, you should get one! I don't often bake my breads in the machine, but I do when I'm busy and it still churns out hot, delicious, crusty fresh-baked bread with only five minutes of effort from me. It's cheaper than storebought bread, as well as fresher and more delicious. So get you a bread machine post haste, and then make...

EGGY BARLEY BREAD

1 cup water
1 egg
1 1/4 cups unbleached white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup barley flour
1 1/2 Tbsp butter
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp yeast

Get the water in your measuring cup and then crack the egg in. Beat the egg and water together slightly, then pour into the bread machine. Sprinkle the flours over so that they float on top of the water. Cut up the butter into chunks and drop it into two corners of the machine, then add the sugar to another corner and the salt to another. Make a little well in the middle with your finger and pour the yeast into it. Switch the machine onto its basic setting and let 'er rip.

Come back when it's done, and transfer the loaf to a wire rack to cool. Make sure you cut a big slice for yourself (and anyone you like) and butter it while it's still hot. Have that slice with vegetable soup. Watch the rain fall as you eat and think about how much you love life.

Vanilla-Coffee Gelato: No Ice Cream Maker Necessary!

I put this together last year when I had a brunch at my apartment and we didn't finish the huge pot of coffee I brewed. I couldn't bring myself to pour all that fresh-ground deliciousness down the sink, and I didn't have any blueberry bushes to pour it on then (now I do!), so I fell back on my favorite coffee ice cream.

I don't have an ice cream maker yet, though I hope to get one this summer. I also wanted to keep things reasonably light - not too sugary, not too rich - so I tried a freezer gelato and it worked out beautifully!

If you don't have a vanilla bean, then just use a teaspoon of vanilla extract, but I highly recommend obtaining a vanilla bean for this if you can. It makes a world of difference in the flavor, and the little specky vanilla seeds give the gelato a lot of character.

VANILLA-COFFEE GELATO

3 egg yolks (save the whites and scramble them up for breakfast later)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 cup milk
1 cup coffee (day-old and strong, if possible)
1/2 a vanilla bean

Bring a pot of water to a boil. In a non-plastic bowl that fits over the boiling water pot, combine egg yolks, brown sugar, and honey; beat well until bubbles form. Beat in the milk, then the coffee, until it's all well-combined. Split the half vanilla bean open lengthwise, then carefully scrape out the seeds into the mixture and drop the bean in too. Give it a good stir.

Set the bowl over the boiling water and cook, stirring often, until it thickens into a custard. Make sure you scrape the bottom as you stir! You don't want to cook the custard to the bowl. Once you've got your thick custard, remove the vanilla bean and pour the custard into a freezer-safe container and stick it in the freezer.

About every half hour or so, stir it up with a fork. It will take a few hours to freeze but you only need to stir it for a minute to break up the ice forming. When it's frozen, check to see if it's icy; if it is, break it up into chunks and dump them into the blender for a quick whirl. The blender will break up the ice and you can re-freeze it all you want after that without needing to blend it again. It'll stay nice and gelato-ey in the freezer now - if, of course, you don't gobble it up right away.

Which you will.

So-Seedy Nut Bread

I know bread is the big bogeyman right now, but I love it. Wheat is rich in folic acid, fiber, and tons of vitamins and minerals; whole-grain bread has been proven to reduce cholesterol and minimize the risk of heart disease and diabetes. Bread has been "the staff of life" throughout most of human history, and - let's face it - everybody loves to eat it!

The problem is that supermarket "bread" is often just a conglomeration of processed flour, stripped of all its nutrition and taste, mixed with unrecognizable chemicals and preservatives. The last time I bought a loaf of bread, for a culinary emergency when I didn't have time to bake, I didn't use it all and the last few slices sat on the counter for almost a month before I reached for them again. They were still soft. Ew!! Not even the slightest bit stale and no mold! That's not food - if mold spores and microorganisms don't want to eat it, you shouldn't either.

Artisan bakery bread can be found to purchase, but it's expensive. A much better solution is to bake your own. Breadmaking is a great way to work through stress, with all the punching and kneading and shaping. If you have a bread machine, you can let it do the initial mix and kneading, but you should still pull it out to shape and rise in a regular loaf pan; that square loaf you get with a bread machine is unweildy and makes an awkward sandwich.

Here's my favorite bread recipe. It's loaded with seeds and nuts for extra protein, fiber, and heart-healthy good fats. Try it toasted with butter and/or jam, but also try it with meats, cheese, and/or veggies for a big Dagwood sandwich. It'll keep you full for hours and hours, unlike the soft white stuff in the plastic bag. Enjoy!

SO-SEEDY SANDWICH BREAD

1 1/3 c warm (not hot) water or whey
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 Tbsp honey
1 1/2 c whole wheat flour
1 1/3 c unbleached white flour
1/2 c ground flaxmeal
1 tsp salt
1 tsp active yeast
1/4 c sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, or a combo
1/4 c chopped hazelnuts or walnuts, divided
2 Tbsp sesame seeds
1 Tbsp milk or soymilk

Bread Machine Method: Pour water, olive oil, and honey into machine. Sprinkle over the flours and flaxmeal to cover the water, add salt to the corner, and make a little well in the center to pour the yeast into. Once you've added the yeast, turn the machine onto the dough cycle and let 'er rip, checking in a few minutes later to make sure it's kneading everything together and not knocking flour balls up against the walls of the machine like mine does sometimes.

When the raisin beep goes off, or when there's only five minutes left in the first knead cycle, pour in all the nuts and seeds EXCEPT for 1 Tbsp hazelnuts.

Without a Bread Machine: Stir the water, olive oil, and honey together until well-mixed, and then carefully stir in the yeast. Let it sit in a warm place until it bubbles up (about 5-10 minutes). Mix the flours, flaxmeal, and salt together in another bowl and add the yeasty water; stir gently with a fork until it just starts to combine together, then start kneading it in. As it takes on a doughy consistency, you might want to transfer it to a countertop or table to keep kneading.

Mix and knead with your hands for 10 or 15 minutes, working it well, then spread it out thin and sprinkle the nuts and seeds on top (except for the reserved 1 Tbsp hazelnuts). Keep kneading until it all comes together evenly, another 5 or 10 minutes, then ball it up and put it in a clean bowl. Cover it with oiled plastic wrap and let it rise half an hour.

Either Way Resume From Here: Take the 1 Tbsp reserved hazelnuts and chop them up very, very finely or run through a small food processor. Set aside for later.

When the dough cycle or that first rise is finished, take out the loaf and punch it down (this means kneading it for a few minutes until it collapses a bit). Put it in a bowl, cover it with oiled plastic wrap, and set it in a warm place for half an hour. Come back and punch it down again, then shape it into a loaf to fit a well-oiled, floured loaf pan. Put it in the pan, cover it with the oiled plastic wrap again, and let it rise another 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 F (175 C).

Brush the top with the milk (you might not need all of it). Make a couple of small slashes in the top with a sharp knife, and sprinkle the finely-chopped hazelnuts over the top. Put it in the oven, and quickly pour a splash of water onto the oven floor; it'll make a big whooshing steam cloud, so shut the oven door quickly to keep all that steam in. This gives the bread a nice crust.

Bake for 30 minutes or until the top looks nice and the bottom sounds hollow when you knock on it. Let it cool on a wire rack before you slice into it and enjoy. Make sure you have friends or at least one loved one at home with you while you bake this bread, because it smells fantastic and you'll want to share a slice of the fresh hot bread with someone who will ooh and ahh all over it with you!

Tight-Arse Tuesdays - Mexican Bruschetta

I was lazy in the kitchen this week when I came up with this little gem that I love so very much now. I bet if I had used fresh barlotti beans instead of tinned, it would've been even better (and cheaper!). As it was, like I said, I was lazy.

I got a kilo of chicken thighs the other day for around nine dollars. I was telling my fiancee that I read a blog ealier that day that suggested halving the meat in a recipe and adding a filler instead to save money. I said I was going to try this. He looked wounded.

I browned two chicken thigh fillets, diced as small as possible, in the pan before adding one can of barlotti beans, 1/4 cup salsa, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp garlic powder, and 1/4 tsp dried chillies plus a dash of paprika. I set it aside.

I like to dry-grill my bread. Oil works fine, but doesn't seem to do a nice crunchy brown that I love the outside to be. So I started up my grill pan and had my man slice up the bread at an angle. I toasted it nicely on both sides, setting off my fire alarm in the process. Luckily, this happens often, so the man was standing underneath it waiting to push the button. Sensitive thing!

The bread I got for a dollar on sale from the day old section of the grocers, which works perfectly with this recipe. The can of beans was a dollar and the chicken was about $2. Topped with a dash of olive oil, chopped fresh tomatoes ($1) and some coriander from the garden, this meal feeds three for five bucks.

Oh, and it's freakin' delicious and hubby didn't notice the lack of a lot of meat!