Nik Knack

Recently, I was pouring through the New York Times food section and there it was: a recipe for potatonik. I let out a scream of joy. I’ve been looking for a recipe to replicate that wonderful steamy concoction of my youth for such a long time and there it was in front of my eyes.

Living in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn for many years, I was fortunate enough to live within walking distance of Mrs. Stahl’s knish store. For those of you unfamiliar with this Jewish delicacy, a knish is delicious handheld mashed potato pie. A piece of dough is filled with mashed potatoes, kasha, or other vegetables, and baked. I’ve never seen any filled with meat, though I have heard of chopped liver knishes. I’ll pass, though.

Mrs. Stahl’s offered potato, spinach, kasha, mushroom, and cabbage knishes, as well as blueberry-cheese and cherry-cheese knishes (the cheese was cream cheese).

I would stop into Mrs. Stahl’s shop when returning home from work and trudging down the many steps of the D train subway station on Brighton Beach Avenue. Not a regular item on the menu, but sometimes available when I was lucky, was potatonik.

This item was a masterpiece in the knish world. A potatonik is a dense, crusty Eastern European potato kugel (pudding) made with yeast, baked in a pan with lots of oil, and cut into individual square pieces. It was spiced with loads of ground pepper and steaming hot, and when it was passed to me in a piece of waxed paper dripping with oil, I was in heaven. In the winter, walking the few blocks to my apartment, that hot little square of heaven kept my hands and my tummy warm and comforted.

Since leaving Brooklyn, I’ve been searching cookbooks and the internet for a potatonik recipe to no avail. I had an idea I could improvise by making a potato pudding or a giant latke (pancake), but it wouldn’t really satisfy me like an authentic recipe would.

This is such a wonderful way to start off the New Year, and I have loads of potatoes left over from Hanukkah to get started on my potatonik. Now if I could only find a recipe for cabbage knishes, my favorite and the most obscure of all the knish varieties.

Potatonik
1 package active dry yeast (2 1/2 teaspoons)
1/4 cup warm water
1/4 teaspoon sugar
6 large potatoes, peeled
1 large onion
2 eggs
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 teaspoon or to taste freshly ground black pepper
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Additional oil

Dissolve yeast, water and sugar in a measuring cup. Let rest 10 minutes, until foamy.
Meanwhile, grate potatoes and onion by hand or in a food processor. If you want to have an authentic potatonik, grate the vegetables by hand and make sure you get some of your knuckles, as well.

In a large bowl, blend eggs, the 2 tablespoons of the oil, salt and black pepper. Stir in the grated potatoes and onion. Add flour and the dissolved yeast; mix well. Mixture will be thick. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise in a draft-free area for about 1 hour. It will rise and get somewhat puffy.

Pour vegetable oil into a 9x12-inch rectangular baking pan to a depth of about 1/4-inch. Pour in the batter. The oil will come up and over the batter. This is good. Let the batter rest for about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375°F. Bake potatonik on the middle rack for 45 minutes. Dip a paper towel into some more vegetable oil and pat the top of the potatonik with the oil bake another 10 to 15 minutes, until golden brown and crusty. Serve hot. Serves 12 or 6 Jews from Brooklyn.

Note: potatonik can be refrigerated for several days or frozen for 1-2 weeks. Reheat at 325° until warm, or develops a hard crust.