Bobkin will appear twice at the this weekend at the Ohio Expo Center. On Saturday at 2 p.m., he’ll cook potato gnocchi with broccoli rabe and delicata squash. On Sunday at 2 p.m., he’ll make an Asian pork roast with accompanying sauces and a salad of smashed cucumbers.
Look for him on the Home Stage in the Bricker Multipurpose Building.
We sat down with Bobkin to talk about food and cooking during his appearance at the Central Ohio Home & Garden Show last weekend.
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Question: How did you get your start? Is there someone or something that inspired you?
Jared Bobkin: It’s funny, because most people talk about cooking with their grandmothers or their mothers or their aunts or whatever. My mom is and was a terrible cook. She didn’t enjoy cooking. She used to take chicken breasts and take a 9-by-13 Pyrex dish and pour mango salsa that we used to buy at Costco over the top and cook it until you could bounce it like a rubber ball.
So really, what it was for me is we would eat out a lot … but every restaurant we’d go to had the same food. They always had like a salmon piccata and a chicken pasta dish. I’d say, “Mom can we go to the place we get mussels from?” Because it was something different. I would order oxtail. My mom would be like, “Do you even know what that is?” My dad would say, “It’s the tail of an ox,” and I’d say, “Cool.” It was something different.
Q: Do you think there’s a Midwest cuisine?
Bobkin: I really think there is. What America thinks of as home-cooked meals is our aesthetic in the Midwest. I was just working with a New York chef in December. He was very precise, precision, small portions. We were doing a dinner in Metro Detroit, and I was like, “Who is that going to feed here?”
Conversely, on the West Coast — California, specifically — it’s lighter dishes. They don’t know the phrase, “stick to your ribs.”
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Q: What ingredients do you like working with right now?
Bobkin: Cabbage. I’ve been working on this cabbage dish for years, and all the sudden cabbage is popular now. I’m not saying I started it. I’ve been working on this charred cabbage with anchovy cream and breadcrumbs and cooked in a ham stock, all this crazy stuff. I work on it here or there; I’m not in the kitchen every day working on it. It’s kind of like painting.
Q: What trend are you ready to see end?
Bobkin: Those little markers on menus. You should know if you’re a diner what you can and can’t eat. If you have a major allergy, you’re going to let them know anyways. I’m really over the keto diets, the fad diets. In 10 years, it’s going to be something different.
I’m also over buzzwords. Don’t tell me it’s cauliflower rice if you’re just grating cauliflower. It’s cauliflower. Don’t tell me it’s rice. Don’t tell me it’s steak sous vide. Just give me a good, tender steak.
I just want food to be delicious. I want the chefs in the back to giggle because they know what’s going on. They know all the special stuff that went into a dish, but you or I as a diner just know, “Wow, I’m coming back.”
Q: What do you cook at home?
Bobkin: I use steak a lot. That’s because it’s quick and easy.
But we experiment. My wife is more of a simple eater. She’s not into all the crazy flavors. She likes a lot of things, but she doesn’t need it to be crazy and intense. When she makes meatloaf, she makes meatloaf. She doesn’t want me to cure the meat for two days.
OK, Here’s a great example. When she makes tacos, she makes the tacos that we all know. When I make tacos, I’ll take a piece of pork belly, cure it in salt and sugar and blood-orange juice and dried chile peppers for two days and then braise it in the same dried chile peppers and crushed peppers and beef stock, low and slow. Then I broil it so the top gets crispy, then chop it up so you get that crunch and that fatty feel.
My ego gets big. My ideas get even bigger, and she really reins me in. She’ll say, “Can we just have burger, cheese, lettuce?” I’m like, “Do you want me to make the buns?”
At a glance
The Central Ohio Home & Garden Show continues through Sunday at the Ohio Expo Center, 717 E. 17th Ave. Show hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. General admission is $8 online or $12 at door; children 17 and younger admitted free. Active-duty military and veterans admitted free on Feb. 22. Senior citizen tickets cost $6 at the door on Feb. 21. Teachers admitted free on Feb. 19. Valid ID or credentials are required. Wine tasting add-ons cost $5. Discount coupons are available at Lowe’s to be used at the door only.
Pillowy Potato Gnocchi
Fo the gnocchi:
4 medium russet potatoes
Sea salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 eggs, beaten
1½ cups all-purpose flour
For the dish:
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons butter
1 cup thinly sliced delicata squash (see Note)
1 cup minced broccoli rabe
1 tablespoon pepitas (hull-less pumpkin seeds)
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
Fresh basil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Note: To prepare the squash slices, cut a delicata in half and, using a spoon, scoop out the seeds; slice crosswise to make half-moons.
To make the gnocchi: Boil the potatoes in simmering salted water for 45 minutes. Remove and let cool.
In a ricer, rice the potatoes, removing the peels as you go, onto a work surface. Sprinkle the riced potatoes with 1 tablespoon of the oil, 1 teaspoon salt, the beaten eggs and flour.
Gently but quickly make a very tender dough and shape it into a mound. Cut the dough into six portions. Roll out each, one at time, into a rope ¾-inch thick. Cut into ¾-inch lengths and freeze the gnocchi for at least 2 hours or until ready to be used.
To make the dish: In a large saute pan, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter; add 32 of the frozen gnocchi (yes, still frozen!). Let the gnocchi brown lightly, for about 5 minutes, turning to ensure that all sides get equal color. Remove the cooked gnocchi and keep warm.
Repeat the step with another 32 gnocchi. When cooked, add to the first batch of gnocchi and keep warm.
In a large cast-iron pan, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter over medium heat. Add the delicata squash and the broccoli rabe and saute for 7 to 8 minutes, until golden.
Add the gnocchi to the squash and broccoli rabe, along with 2 tablespoons cold water and add 1 tablespoon butter.
Toss well, add the pepitas, cheese and basil, and season with salt and pepper; cook for 2 minutes. Serve hot.
Bo Ssäm
8-10 lb pork butt (bone-in preferred)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup kosher salt plus 1 tablespoon
7 tablespoons brown sugar
Put the pork shoulder in a roasting pan, ideally one that holds it snugly.
Mix together the granulated sugar and 1 cup of the salt in a bowl, then rub the mixture into the meat; discard any excess salt-and-sugar mixture.
Cover the pan with plastic wrap and put it into the refrigerator for at least 6 hours, or overnight.
Heat the oven to 300 degrees. Remove the pork from the refrigerator and discard any juices that have accumulated. Put the pork in the oven and cook for 6 hours, basting with the rendered fat and pan juices every hour.
The pork should be tender and yielding at this point — it should offer almost no resistance to the blade of a knife and you should be able to easily pull meat off the shoulder with a fork.
When ready to serve, the sauces are made and the lettuce is washed, etc., turn the oven to 500 degrees.
Stir together the remaining 1 tablespoon salt and the brown sugar and rub the mixture all over the pork. Put it in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes, until the sugar has melted into a crisp, sweet crust.
Smashed Cucumber Salad
2 seedless cucumbers (about 1 to 1 1/2 pounds)
1 teaspoon salt
2½ teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons sesame oil
3 teaspoons light soy sauce
1½ tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2-4 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
1-2 teaspoons chili oil (optional)
2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds
A small handful of chopped cilantro
Wash the cucumbers and pat them dry with a clean towel. Make the salad dressing by combining the salt, sugar, sesame oil, light soy sauce and rice vinegar. Stir until the sugar and salt are completely dissolved. Set aside.
On a cutting board, lay a large knife flat against the cucumber, and smash it lightly with your other hand. The cucumber should crack open and smash into four sections. Repeat along its full length. Once the whole cucumber is completely open (usually into 4 long sectional pieces), cut it at a 45-degree angle into bite-sized pieces.
In a large bowl, mix the cut cucumber with the prepared dressing, garlic and chili oil. Toss it well. Serve, garnished with sesame seeds and cilantro. (Note: if you prefer to omit the chili oil, heat up a tablespoon of oil in a pan and drizzle it over the cucumber.
Ssämjang Sauce
1 tablespoon ssämjang (fermented bean and chile paste)
½ tablespoon kochujang (chile paste)
¼ cup sherry vinegar
¼ cup grapeseed or other neutral oil
Combine all ingredients and set aside until ready to serve
Ginger Scallion Sauce
2½ cups thinly sliced scallions (greens and whites; from 1 to 2 large bunches)
½ cup finely minced peeled fresh ginger
¼ cup grapeseed or other neutral oil
1½ teaspoons light soy sauce
¾ teaspoon sherry vinegar
¾ teaspoon kosher salt, or more to taste
Combine all ingredients and set aside until ready to serve