Dark tan, lumpy-textured, hand-formed into a heavy ball of flaky dough around its stuffing, the Yonah Shimmel knish is a foodstuff to be reckoned with. You can get it stuffed with all kinds of things, but we like potato filling best. It is smooth, spicy, heavy and satisfying. When you open up the hot spheroid, a warm, comforting aroma of seasoned spuds emerges; it is a smell so conclusively homespun that anyone who ever had a Jewish grandmother who cooked just might find themselves plunging into sentimental reveries about childhood Sunday suppers.
Even if the smell of hot knishes is not a culinary deja vu for you, Yonah Shimmel's is a place sure to evoke a powerful sense of culinary history. This shop goes back to 1910; its walls are rough plaster; its ornate patterned ceiling is stamped tin. The long, narrow tables are well-worn and frequently occupied by neighborhood gentlemen sipping tea and nibbling a knish or cheese bagel. The kitchen is in the basement; food is brought up to the dining area on a dumbwaiter.Knishes are available filled not only with mashed potatoes (the classic choice), but also with buckwheat groats (a.k.a. kasha), cheese and berries, cabbage, spinach, or sweet potato. They are all exemplary (except some fruit-filled ones, whose sweetness seems like a mutation), but we have to warn you that even a good knish is an acquired taste. It is fairly dry and dauntingly substantial; the kasha knishes, while tasty, are the heaviest of all. A knish ought to be cumbrous - that's its nature - but we believe the load of groats tests the limits of this concept.
For a nice side dish with a knish or two, have beet borscht. Served cool, it is bright pink and refreshing. As for the cheese bagels, they are a weird kind of food, less like a familiar round bagel and more like some kind of kosher funnel cake - soft, wet, dense, loaded with sweet and sour pot cheese. There are some desserts, too - apple strudel, potato pudding poppy-seed cake. However, after a few Yonah Shimmel knishes, appetite will be only a distant memory.
Our knish recipe comes from a vintage 1930s cookbook in our collection. It was published in Cincinnati by Procter & Gamble to tout the wonders of Crisco. You can make fine knishes with Crisco, but the secret of grandmotherly knishes is chicken fat. That's what gives them a really distinctive flavor. If, on the other hand, chicken fat seems just too great a digestive challenge, we suggest using half-chicken fat, half- vegetable oil.
This recipe is for classic potato knishes, but feel free to fill them with mixtures made from pot cheese, chopped chicken, chopped liver (for non-kosher knishes), buckwheat groats, or whatever scraps you have that can be seasoned, ground up and loaded into the dough pocket.
Now available! Nearly 200 of the most-requested recipes from this column, all in one book, "A Taste of America." It includes Jane and Michael Stern's favorite restaurants, as well as photos from their coast-to-coast eating adventures. Available in paperback, it can be ordered by sending $9.95 plus $1 for postage and handling to Taste of America, in care of the Deseret News, P.O. Box 419150, Kansas City, MO 64141.1992, Universal Press Syndicate
Knishes
1 cup chopped green onions (scallions)
6 tablespoons rendered chicken fat (or butter)
2 cups mashed potatoes
2 tablespoons sour cream
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
21/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
11/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, beaten
2/3 cup vegetable oil (or rendered chicken fat)
2 tablespoons water
additional oil to brush on dough Saute scallions in chicken fat. Combine with potatoes, sour cream, salt and pepper. Remove from heat.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Add eggs and oil (or chicken fat). Mix (but do not overmix) until smooth. Turn out on a lightly floured board, knead gently a few times, then roll out to 1/4 inch thick. Brush pastry with oil.
Cut out 6-inch circles of dough, rerolling scraps. You should get about eight circles. Put 2 to 3 tablespoons of filling into the center of each circle. Draw the circumference of the dough up to the center and pinch it together firmly, creating a seamless pocket. Prick once or twice with a toothpick.
Place pastries on baking sheet and bake 30 to 35 minutes, until medium-brown.
Makes 8 large knishes.