Todd Shoberg Recipes

Butternut Squash Risotto with Pea Shoots

Ingredients

  • 1.5 cups carnaroli rice
  • 1 cup diced onion
  • Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 1 cup dry/sweet white wine approx.
  • 5 cups aromatic vegetable or chicken stock
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Crème fraiche
  • Bay laurel
  • Butter
  • Brown sugar
  • 1 large butternut squash
  • Pea shoots (or other greens such as wild arugula)
  • Parmesan

Directions

First prepare squash: peel skin and cube the neck part of squash and dress the large part of the squash with extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper and roast in oven at 350°F until its soft and browned. In the cavity of the squash, take out all the seeds and stuff the squash with butter and a tablespoon of brown sugar. Take the cubed squash and sauté in pan with butter on high and let butter brown, but not burn. Set aside to cool. After other part of squash is finished roasting, put into blender and puree smooth, or chunky, add a tablespoon or two of crème fraiche to it to loosen it up – season with salt and pepper.

Prepare risotto: heat stock up to simmer, heat ronduo or dutch oven style pot with extra virgin olive oil, sweat onions until soft and translucent, add one small leaf of bay laurel (will need a quick hike on or around Mt. Tam to source) add a couple pads of butter and then the rice. Stir rice in butter and onions until rice becomes slightly translucent. Add white wine and continue stirring until the wine is cooked out. Then, while continually stirring rice, add one cup of stock at a time until its all absorbed and rice is finished, with a slight tooth to it but not crunchy. It should be nice a creamy. Add diced squash and two cups of squash puree and 1 cup of grana padano/parmesan cheese. After plating in large bowl for family style dining, top with extra virgin olive oil, pea shoots, and cracked black pepper.

Potato Gnocchi with Duck Confit

Duck Confit – Prep night before

Take 4 duck legs and salt them the night before with salt and any herbs you’d like (star anise, clove, fennel seed, coriander, etc). The next day take legs and rise off excess salt, add to baking pan and cover with duck fat or canola oil. Cover with foil and put in oven at 250°F for about 4 or 5 hours. After 2 hours keep checking on the duck legs every hour. They are done when the bone pulls easily away from meat. When finished, let cool and take off skin and pull meat off bone.

Gnocchi – Ingredients

  • 2 1-pound sweet potatoes (yams), rinsed, patted dry, pierced all over with fork
  • 1 1/2-ounce container fresh ricotta cheese, drained in sieve 2 hours
  • 1 cup finely grated parmesan cheese (about 3 ounces)
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 2 teaspoons plus 2 tablespoons salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
  • 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup unsalted butter
  • 6 tablespoons chopped fresh sage plus whole leaves for garnish
  • 1 large pomegranate – seeded

Directions

Line sheet pan with sweet potatoes and bake in oven until soft. Cut in half and cool. Scrape sweet potato flesh into medium bowl and mash; transfer 3 cups to large bowl. Add ricotta cheese; blend well. Add Parmesan cheese, brown sugar, 2 teaspoons salt, and nutmeg; mash to blend. Mix in flour, about 1/2 cup at a time, until soft dough forms. Turn dough out onto floured surface; divide into 6 equal pieces. Rolling on floured work surface, form each piece into 20-inch-long rope, sprinkling with flour as needed if sticky. Cut each rope into 20 pieces. Transfer to baking sheet. Bring large pot of water to boil; add 2 tablespoons salt and return to boil. Working in batches, boil gnocchi until tender, 5 to 6 minutes. Transfer gnocchi to clean rimmed baking sheet. Cool completely Preheat oven to 300°F. Melt butter in heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add chopped sage. Turn off heat. Season sage butter with salt and pepper. Add gnocchi. Sauté until gnocchi are heated through, add confit and some of the reserved confit oil/duck fat to skillet and turn up heat, browning gnocchi slighty. Turn of heat and add pomegranate seeds.

Brussel Sprouts with Pancetta or Bacon

Ingredients

  • 1 pound of brussel sprouts
  • Pancetta or bacon – equivalent of 4 thick slices of bacon
  • Salt and pepper
  • Apple cider vinegar
  • Butter

Directions

Trim brussel sprouts outer leaves and trim stem; cut brussel sprouts in half. Cut thick bacon or pancetta into large diced pieces. In a cast iron skillet or heavy duty sauté pan on low to medium heat, (lower the better) slowly render the bacon until browned and cooked. Once finished, drain fat into cup or bowl and set aside, as well as the bacon. In same iron skillet, put over high heat. When skillet starts to smoke add raw brussel sprouts to pan and add reserved bacon fat. The bacon fat will be salty to just lightly salt brussel sprouts. Let cook on high while continuously turning the brussel sprouts in the skillet so they cook evenly. Check one brussel sprout and stick a fork in it to see if its softened throughout the center. When they are cooked through and browned, add a few splashes of apple cider vinegar, the cooked bacon/pancetta and a couple tablespoons of butter. While still on high heat let butter melt and start to brown slightly, turn off heat and let rest.

Standing Rib Roast (boneless)

Ingredients

  • 10 pound standing rib roast
  • Garlic
  • Onion
  • Leeks
  • Carrots
  • Fennel
  • Celery root
  • Maldon sea salt
  • Cracked black pepper

Directions

Salt liberally the night before. 4 hours before you plan to cook roast, take out of fridge and let rest at room temperature. This is the tempering process, meat will always cook much better and be more tender if the let the meat comes to room temp first. In large steel baking pan ,large enough to hold entire roast, lay roast in pan, cover it with pads of butter and surround lower part of pan with large diced leeks, onion, fennel, carrots, celery root, and cloves of garlic. Put into oven (preferably with convection) at 500°F until outside of roast browns, turn down to 350°F and turn fan off, allowing roast to slow cook for a few hours. As the roast cooks, continually spoon the liquid from the juices, butter and vegetables over the roast 15 minutes or so. Cook until solid rare and then pull out and let rest on wire rack for at least 15-20 minutes. After you slice meat of rib roast sprinkle roast with a little maldon sea salt and drizzle over some really nice extra virgin olive oil. Add cracked black pepper.