The Knishening -- What We Learned

C'mon ev'rybody! Let's put on a show!

1.  I enjoy baking knishes en masse.
2. The heaviest October snowfall in recorded history will mess up a start-up knishery's debut.
3. People like free knishes. Many were generous with donations after tasting.
4. People really like chocolate hazelnut knishes.
5. Hell will freeze over when I bake 568 knishes in my home kitchen again. Or, Spring -- whichever comes first.
6. Realized that if I don't do a proper debut in the spring, the Empenadas/Perogies/Shumai/Borekas/(insert ethnic dumpling here) will have won. That ain't right.
7. The Lo Down has got my back. And rep is built one knish at a time.
8. A friend will store two trays of knishes in her fridge, and when she getS stuck in her building's elevator with them for two hours, she will only eat two.  (I don't know whether to be happy, sad, horrified, or relieved she didn't eat more....)
9. My wife. My wife!!:

The Power Behind the Knish

Imagine having your partner baking and making a mess 12 to 14 hours a day for 5 days straight, after a weekend of piling up potatoes, onions and other bulk goods all over your kitchen. Imagine that while working full time. Imagine that while looking after a rambunctious toddler. And now imagine that while NINE AND A HALF MONTHS PREGNANT. And now on top of that, imagine STILL being happy with your life, STILL pitching in as much as possible with your partner's knish fantasies, STILL picking up the slack no matter what happens. I don't have to imagine it, fortunately, I married that tough dame!

So in the immediate future, a baby is popping in on us (names that come to mind: Potato, Lil' Spinachy, Knenny, and of course, in honor of the town from whence our dumpling came, Knyszyn. Who needs vowels when you got love?) Expect to see:

• a Kickstarter campaign before 2012, 
• a few top secret Knishery NYC plans for the winter, 
• continued recipe experimentation recorded on this site,
• and a proper, non-snowed out Knishery NYC debut in the Spring!

Rumor has it that we'll be opening up a proper store in the new year. I think I might have said that because I was cold standing in the park with my knishes, thinking how wonderful it would be to be able to serve knishes right out of a hot, radiant hearth. Because love don't come out of no microwave!


Thanks and good knishing,


Noah Wildman
That Guy, Knishery NYC

THANK YOU

It was cold, it was windy, it was distinctly knishy. More to come shortly.

The Knishening - Delayed by a Day

I was happy to have the last of about 165 potato knishes in the oven when this email comes through the wire:

Dear HSF Vendors:


We regretfully announce that because of the worsening weather conditions we will have to cancel tomorrow's fair.  Given that it was to be our last day of the season we really wanted to keep the fair open but because of the combination of wind, rain, snow, we felt it could not be helped.

Apologies for any inconveniences.

So what's a guy with 500+ knishes supposed to do? Does he throw down his dough? Cry into his seltzer? NO: The show must go on...in his own L.E.S. backyard!

Please join Knishery NYC for an early afternoon FREE tasting. Menu to include:

• Potato, Broccoli Cheddar, Spinach and Pumpkin for the savory team
• Apple Cheese and Chocolate Hazelnut for the sweet team

Come one, come all. Take a doggy bag for a loved one! Sunday, October 30th from 12 to 3pm. Map and directions below.

Thanks and hope to see, and feed, you on Sunday.



View The Knishening, Sunday October 30th in a larger map

The Park behind 500 Grand Street, entrance on Grand between Willett and Columbia Streets. Take 14A bus to Grand & Columbia, or 14D to Delancey and Columbia. F/J/M/Z at Delancey/Essex or B/D to Grand Street.

I'm just an innocent, newly born potato knish. Please find a home for me....IN YO BELLY!!!

The Knishening is Two Days Away

Spinach & Roasted Garlic, on the way back from Brown Town

It's getting closer. Day after tomorrow Knishery NYC shall fling some knishes on the proverbial wall, and hopefully some will stick. I suspect the pumpkins will stick rather well, though the kashas are a bit dense for that kinda thing.

Yesterday was a catch-up day: in the morning finished baking pumpkin donuts, made a huge amount of dough (12x bigger than I've made before) then had to take off to school, a high school where I teach culinary once a week -- I could drop almost all of my obligations this week, but a regular class is not one of them.

Today, half the day was dedicated to broccoli cheddar and the other half to spinach & roasted garlic. How much garlic, you ask? This much!

Acquired from the Grand Street CSA.

 That's a whole lotta garlic, but made mellow, smooth and creamy by roasting it in a closed pouch with a little olive oil and salt. After a 12 hour cooking session, the task was done. Timing myself while peeling a five pound bag of potatoes, I found it took 8 minutes. That might not be remarkable to some, but on Monday when I timed it, I was at 12 minutes. The Knishening is Quickening.

While the pic on top looks mighty sexy, how would you like to see them.....nikkit?!

Why, hello. Didn't anyone teach you to knock?

 Tomorrow is the last day of production, where we saved the biggie for last: straight up potato knishes.

Four more days until Knishnageddon

It's nice to be able rush out of your apartment at 9pm to your local supermarket in desperate need of kasha, then having to select from not one, not two, not even three but four different variations of said grain. (It comes in whole, course, medium and fine, referring to the level of grind the grain went under. Whole tends to fall apart to easy in a knish-application, and fine goes mushy. I got course.) I tragically underestimated the amount of kasha I'd need during the day, and ended up making a second batch during the evening's assembly/baking.

Today we popped out a whole mess of kasha and several dozen pumpkin knishes. The pumpkin filling was supplemented with butternut squash, eggs, salt and shortening -- I was tempted to go crazy with the spices, but it's simple pumpkininess stayed my hand.

Other than fillings, I cooked the 45 lbs of onions for about 10 hours during the day. The three white stinky trays at the begining of the day became one golden mahogany brown tray by time it was ready for assembly...

Five days until.....The Knishening

So for the first day of production, started with those that'll keep best in the fridge. Knocked out dough, filling, assembly and baking of a whole mess of apple-cheese and chocolate-hazelnut knishes. I had picked up a can of fancy hazelnut praline paste to experiment with, but decided against it because why risk ruining a very large batch with an x-factor. Maybe next time.

Ever wonder what 45 lbs of diced onions look like?

 

Oh caramelization, take me away!

I wore goggles, but still got a runny, stingy nose and a scratchy throat from breathing in the onion. Such are the daily dangers in the life of a knishnaut.

Do these 150 lbs of potatoes and onions make my (bike's) behind look fat?

Conversation in my elevator, while bringing up the groceries:

Him: "That's a lotta potato & onions."
Me: "Yep."
Him: "Latkes?"
Me: "Knishes"
Him: "Cool."

Yes, I live on the Lower East Side.

No Knishitty!

To paraphrase Blackstreet, "You gotta bag it up -- no knishitty!" One week until our Hester Street Fair debut!

Our first press!

The NY Times is to NYC as the Lo-Down is to the Lower East Side.

Knishery NYC Debut: Saturday October 29th at the Hester Street Fair!

It's a date! KNISHERY NYC will have a booth at the Hester Street Fair on Saturday, October 29th! For more information, visit their website. For now, the menu will include about a half-dozen varieties. Standard notions, such as potato and broccoli-cheddar, to be expected. Any special requests? Please let us know what's on your Knish Wish List and we'll see what we can do. Thanks!