Potato Knish!

On my first non jetlagged day living in New York, my cousin's girlfriend, just done with law school, was kind enough to babysit me all over town. She took me a bakery somewhere on Columbus (never went back cos I'm too lazy to walk TWO avenue blocks) in the 80s, and fed me this amazing Jewish thing, Knish. I swear it was like the samosa made for me, because it has no spices, only delicate flavours and such lovely pastry!

This weekend, three (four?) years later, my dear Israeli friend came over for a big cookout and taught me to make it. Along with challah bread, no bake cheesecake, and a pavlova. But more on those later.

The recipe is modified from here. The original called for only 4 cups of flour but the dough was more goo than anything else, so I added until I got something I could work with.

For the dough:

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable sunflower oil
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 tsp salt
• 5 cups flour, plus more to work the dough

For the filling:

• 7 potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1 packet mushrooms, washed and chopped
• 2 onions, chopped
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp minced garlic (more if you want)

Boil potatoes until mashable. In a pan, fry the onions, with garlic, till translucent, then add mushrooms, salt and pepper. Cook until liquid dries. Add to mashed potato mixture and set aside. Divide into three equal parts.

In a bowl, beat the eggs, water, salt and oil. Slowly add flour until it comes together. Turn out on floured surface and knead until it no longer sticks, and is elastic. It's about 8-10 minutes. Add flour if it remains sticky over time. Form the dough into a log and cut into three equal pieces.

Roll each piece out into a rectangle about 1/4 inch thick. Spread evenly with potato mixture, leaving a 1-inch strip clear long the length of the rectangle away from you. Starting at the edge near you, gently roll the dough into a log, where the length of the rectangle remains the length of the log. Cut into 12 pieces. Repeat with other two sections of dough.

Lay on a greased baking sheet, preferably with the crossection not touching the sheet. I did it the other way so it looked like rolls, but it turned out the inner ones didn't cook too well.

Brush with an egg and milk glaze if you like.

Bake at 190C or 375F for about 40 minutes, or till they are golden brown.

Totally yum.