Sunday Breakfast

My father is the only person I know who actually enjoys gefeltifish. That oily, slightly fetid fishy paste is usually placed on the table only as an obigitory gesture, but he will actually eat the stuff. I guess that I'm missing something but I don't quite know what it is about New York Jews and white fish.

My family, though pretty far removed from our Jewish heritage (our Temple going lasted only a few years) has always maintained contact with that part of our history through food. It's a funny thing, being Jewish, and one that we probably take way to much credit from. Admittedly, we've got the whole immigrant, Holocaust refugee story down and it is an amazing story, but were not that Jewish. It's mostly a identity we take on as an excuse for our obnoxiousness I think. Something that makes it endearing as opposed to annoying.

One thing I've always loved though, is Jew Food.

If you've ever been to New York you know jew food. Hell, New York is jew food. Zabars is proof of that. What's better then street bagel on Broadway or a knish slathered with ketchup from the fat hairy guy on the corner? My little brother would argue nothing. The kind you get upstate are nothing compared to a real New York knish. Filled with potatoes and peas, hot and crusty right off the fryer, dripping oil and mustard down your hands, there's nothing that tastes or smells quite like a street knish.

Anyways, yesterday we tried to recreate the Sunday brunches of my father's youth in our tiny apartment kitchen to limited, if enjoyable success. We had fresh bagels with cream cheese, lox and tomatoes, omelets filled with spinach and mushrooms, and of course, cinnamon doughnuts.

The cooking process did not take that long and was fun. I took over the egg station, teaching my culinary challenged father how to properly dice an onion and flip an omelet. The actual omelets themselves didn't turn out quiet how we had hoped,they were simultaneously rubbery and undercooked,but looked really nice so it was ok. Being the limited meat eaters that we are, we turned to our old favorite Morningstar Farms for their ever popular veggie sausage link to provide us with the porky bits we lacked.

But it was the lox that really hit me.

I've never really(gasp) dug salmon lox, I hate the way the fish smell sticks to your fingers and how the taste hits you in the roof of your mouth, so I never eat them. This time however, I thought I would be daring and venture out into the deep recess of Jewdom I have inherited.

So I tentively took a bite of my bagel, moving past the wet seedy tomato and smooth cream cheese till I hit the fish. Whoa, did I ever hit the fish. For a second my nostrils were compeletly engulfed in the oily thick smell of brine and I couldn't taste anything except fish fish fish. I put my bagel down and decided to consult the eggs, leaving the lox for a later time. Upon glancing up however, I glimpsed my dad happily chomping down on that poor dead fish like his name was Goldstien (Frank comes pretty close though). Maybe I have to grow into true enjoyment of Jewish cuisine, right now I'm good with just bagels and mustard.



THE (NOT QUITE NEW YORK) POTATOE KNISH

Ingredients
(makes 1 serving)

DOUGH:

2 c Flour

1/2 ts Baking powder

1/4 ts Salt

1 Egg

1/4 c Oil

POTATO FILLING:

4 Potato: cooked mashed

Chicken fat: melted

Salt and Pepper (lots of pepper )

LIVER FILLING:

1/2 lb Liver beef: broiled, choppd

3 Chicken liver:broiled chopped

1/2 lb Ground beef: sauteed

1/2 c Potato: mashed

1 Egg

1 Onion; minced and browned in 1 tb Oil

1/2 ts Salt

Instructions

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. Beat egg, oil, and water and add to the flour mixture. Knead lightly until dough is soft; it will be slightly oily but not sticky. Cover and set in a warm place for 1 hour. Make filling. For either filing, combine all ingredients and mix well. Divide dough in half and roll as thin as possible into a rectangle. Spread the filling on long side of the dough and roll like a jelly roll. Cut into 1-in. slices. Pull ends of the dough over the filling and tuck into the knish to form small cakes. Place on a well-greased baking sheet. Bake in a 375 degree F. oven until brown I didn't post the original knish recipe, but I do have quite a few in my collection. This is one from Balabustas More Favorite Recipes, by the B'nai Israel Sisterhood, Gainesville.

*modified from chef2chef.com- The liver filling can be substituted with any vegetarian mixture- I dig peas and carrots.