N° 28: 'The Succulent Knish'

Knishes remind me of my youth and of health-food stores and of searching for something cheap, ready-to-eat, healthy, and filling. That search, when it took place at LifeThyme Natural Market on the western edge of Greenwich Village, often ended with a plastic-wrapped broccoli-, potato-, and tofu-filled knish. When I wanted to elevate the dining experience, I’d ask someone at the deli counter to microwave the knish for me.

LifeThyme is one of those frozen-in-time natural grocers. I assumed, based on appearances, that it had been occupying its spot on Sixth Avenue since the 1970s or ‘80s; I’m surprised to learn — I just looked it up now — that it opened in 1995. I guess that’s ancient to some.

Perhaps because none of them was a chain and each had its own quirky selection and layout, the natural food markets (or “health food stores,” as I still call them — maybe anachronistically) I’ve visited over the decades, starting when I was seventeen and living on my own for the first time, seem to have left indelible memories. There was the tiny market on Mercer Street where I first discovered Stonewall’s vegan “Jerquee”; the one on Rue Mouffetard in Paris that sparked an obsession with coconut-coated date rolls from bulk food bins. There was Karen’s on Astor (more of a health food deli — long gone), whose TLT (tempeh, lettuce, and tomato) sandwich I still crave.

Then, much later, Perelandra came into my life. The Brooklyn Heights apartment where we lived longer than any place I’ve ever (yet) lived was a short walk from this market that had opened — no one would be surprised to learn — in 1976. Perelandra was the shop I depended on when I first began testing recipes that would end up in my book, Good & Sweet. It’s where I bought sweet potato flour, organic milk powder, and freeze-dried berries. And just to the right of the refrigerated produce, they had those little plastic-wrapped knishes.

I’ve just learned that Perelandra closed for good on September 29. It had a good run.

Non sequitur: A few things I’ve enjoyed recently:

• reading Maria Speck’s Ancient Grains for Modern Meals;

• talking with

  Nicola Lamb
  about the imminent US release of (and tour for) her debut cookbook, SIFT (more on our conversation in an upcoming newsletter);

• and listening to the How To Fail podcast with

  Elizabeth Day
  .

And a few recipes that have caught my eye:

• Sophia Real | Real Simple Food
  ’s Prune & Chinese Five Spice Sticky Toffee Pudding with Miso Butterscotch Sauce;

• Marie Havnoe Frank
  ’s Brown Butter & Orange Gateau Nantais;

• and (not a recipe, just a tempting photo) the Pumpkin Custard Tart from Quince Bakery, as captured by

  Felicity Spector
  .

Talk to you soon. Thank you for reading this.

Brian

P.S. Remember to scroll down for the recipe.*

*Formal Assignment P.S. is for paid subscribers. It’s just $5 a month—or even less for an annual subscription.

What’s a Knish?

Gil Marks’s Encyclopedia of Jewish Food led me to a New York Times article from January 27, 1916 — the first in the paper to mention knishes (“or knishi, or whatever the plural is,” as the article puts it). In a piece titled “RIVINGTON ST. SEES WAR.: Rival Restaurant Men Cut Prices on the Succulent Knish.”, the reporter defines the food in question as “made of mashed potatoes with onions and a sprinkling of cheese, all wrapped up in baked dough, like an apple dumpling…” It originated in or around modern-day Ukraine and was mostly a fried affair until the mid-1800s, when home ovens became more common and baked knishes came to dominate.¹

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RECIPE: POTATO-BROCCOLI KNISH
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Knishes can be bland, and I packed extra flavor into this one by working cream cheese into both the filling and the dough (I thought of the supremely tender rugelach pastry that cream cheese helps produce). I jazzed the filling with mustard and dill, and I enhanced the dough with some whole wheat flour. For a dairy-free knish, you may use plant-based cream cheese and butter (or olive oil) in place of the dairy ingredients.

Shortcuts: Instead of making your own dough, you can use store-bought frozen puff pastry. Thaw it and roll it very thin. It will be different from the traditional dough but delicious. Instead of making mashed potatoes from scratch, you can buy dried potato flakes/powdered mashed potatoes.

Yield: sixteen 3-inch (7.5-cm) knishes
Active time: 2 hours 15 minutes *
Total time: 2 hours 45 minutes *

*For the shortcut version (Active time: 1 hour 30 minutes; Total time: 2 hours + thawing of frozen dough), see the head note above.

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INGREDIENTS:
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For the dough: