- Hi, I'm Jacques Pepin.

- And I'm Claudine Pepin.

- Today's meal is very special for both Claudine and me because it's for my brother, your uncle.

- One of the all time great lovers of good food and good living.

We'll start with an elegant filet of sole baked in artichoke bottoms.

- [Jacques] Crusty rib roast gets its robust flavor from a spicy rub.

- [Claudine] We serve it with a quick horseradish and cottage cheese dip - [Jacques] For dessert, apricot feuilletee, with an easy puff pastry you can make in the food processor.

- It's exactly his type of menu.

Join us for a special culinary treat.

We're cooking for Tonton Richard, next on "Jacques Pepin Kitchen."

- "Encore, With Claudine."

- Today we're cooking for Tonton Richard.

And to start our menu, we're starting it with an apricot feuilletee.

- Yes.

- Which you're gonna teach me how to make.

- Exactly.

And for that we're using instant flour, what is called granulated flour or instant flour.

You know that kind of granulated flour?

- Mm-hmm.

- It's different.

We are using it, we're going to do a very fast dough.

- Okay.

- A cup of flour.

Three-quarters of a stick of butter here, cold.

A dash of sugar.

- Sugar.

- A dash of salt.

And a quarter of a cup of cold, ice cold water in there, that you want in there.

Here we are.

Almost.

And we put all of that together.

- We do?

- Yeah, let's put it all together.

Okay.

- Okay.

- And we pulse it.

(mixer rumbles) See the idea here, you want the butter to still be in pieces in there, so that as it laminates, as you roll it, it will develop some of the flakiness of what we call a puff pastry, you know?

So here it is.

As you can see, it's not gathered together.

- No.

- But it will gather together.

Hopefully, that is.

A little bit of extra flour now.

And we start rolling it.

Okay.

Now here is what we do.

We roll it like this first.

It's always a bit more delicate to start with.

It's easier after, you know?

So, I am rolling it to a kind of rectangle here.

Now I bring one hand back in the center.

Use this.

That's good.

Another hand back here.

And then we fold it again.

This is what we call a double turn.

Here.

- Ah.

- I get a double turn here.

You see four layers, one, two, three, four.

And now another same turn.

Now you do it.

- Okay.

- Okay?

Be sure to have flour underneath.

- Flour on top.

- Flour on top.

And you start with this.

- Is it like traditional, you start in the middle and roll out?

- Yes, but you can start by already doing a little thing like this that starts extending it, you know?

- Okay.

- And then- - Now I did it.

(chuckles) So, you're going to go in the other way now.

That's it.

Okay.

Apply pressure on it.

- I'm scared to, because it's gonna squish.

- It won't squish.

You can apply all the pressure you want.

You don't want to go back too much, you know, back and forth.

That is back and forth on top of it, applying pressure, because you develop gluten in the flour.

So basically, from the center, you apply pressure.

You come back here without applying pressure.

From here you apply pressure.

- Okay.

- Until about the length that we want.

So again, we do a double turn this way.

Press it and fold it again.

That's it.

Now you're ready.

You could roll it now, but it would apply a lot of pressure in it.

It's better to have one which has been rested a little bit.

And you want a big, you know, rectangle like that, about 16 inch, about 16 inch by six inch wide.

Now what we did here is canned apricots.

And we put them into the oven.

And you dry them like this for about 20, 25 minutes so it concentrates the flavor.

So you wanna give me the other tray?

Concentrates the flavor, and then we can arrange them on the tray here.

Three, Claudine.

You go this way and I'll go down.

- Okay.

- Just about right.

Good.

- Yeah.

- Then we bring back the side on top of it.

We squeeze the corner here.

Make them hold.

Bring the side here.

And in the bottom of it, you can put that on a parchment paper.

Or here I put that on one of those plastic things that you put in the oven that nothing sticks to it.

So this is really good.

- Oh yeah.

These are great.

- You wanna put that in the oven.

- I'll put this in the oven.

- About 40 minutes.

Yeah, about 40, 50 minutes at 400 degrees about.

And the juice.

The juice, that's what I put in there.

I have a whole bunch of two cans here.

And this is reduced, nothing, I didn't put any butter, no sugar on top, but to reduce that juice, that's what we're going to glaze the top at the end when the tart is cooked.

It's finally cooked.

- I think so.

- All right.

Yeah.

Yep.

- Okay.

- Okay.

So you want to go up?

I'll go first.

- You go.

You're carrying the heavy, hot stuff.

- And remember what that is.

- Oh, this is the reduction of the juice from the apricots.

- Yeah.

- [Claudine] Oh wow.

- I don't want to break it now.

Okay.

And we want to, of course, glaze it with that reduction.

It's getting a bit thick now.

We have a beautiful wine to drink with that.

This is a Sauternes from France, which came from the Bordeaux area of France.

And one of the greatest dessert wines you can have.

We're going to have it with it.

So I thought that I'd add this with that a little bit.

You see?

And this is, you wanna brush this with that?

Go ahead.

- Yeah.

- See, you get a lot of different pieces, but here is a nice piece that you would serve.

Here would be a beautiful portion.

There.

- Absolutely.

- With this.

(triumphant music) This is the apricot feuilletee for our menu.

Let's move on to the piece de resistance, which is that big roast beef, you know, that I have here?

- Mm.

- [Jacques] This, you see, usually, you count, Claudine, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

- Seven.

- Seven rib roast.

This is what is called the small hand.

And the small hand is on the part where you have the New York strip, toward the center of the animal.

You always try to pick up your roast beef toward- - The small hand?

- That hand, toward the small hand, yes.

So there is a lot of fat that we get with- - That's a big piece of meat.

- Yeah, this is about 30 or 25 pounds.

This way.

So I'm gonna cut that piece here directly to leave it to you.

- [Claudine] Thank you.

(roast squelches) - [Jacques] And we have to cut the chine bone here.

- [Claudine] Okay.

- [Jacques] And we do two or three rib roasts about that size.

(knife bangs) Okay.

- Okay.

Wait, let me get this out of the way.

- This is nice piece here.

Take it on the board, right?

- [Claudine] Oh yeah.

(laughs) - Don't take it home now.

What we have to remove, of course, this is why I need the cleaver here too, is what we call the chine bone, you know, from the back here.

- Oh.

- And cutting it through.

- Now it looks like something I actually recognize.

- You recognize.

Now most people will cook it even with the layer of fat that we have on top.

What we are doing here is removing basically all the fat.

Because I want to cover it with a hot, spicy mixture.

- [Claudine] Which I could start working on.

- You can start working on this if you want.

Yes.

- Okay.

- Three cloves of garlic.

Put that in there.

This is our topping, which it should be very spicy.

So just put it in the... Yeah.

- And this is fresh ginger.

- Fresh ginger.

- Mm.

- You wanna put dry mustard in it?

- Dry mustard.

I'm gonna get a... - A little bit of sugar.

A little bit of paprika.

Some cayenne.

Remember, this is red, this is red.

But this is much stronger.

- But this is, yeah.

Some sugar.

Some soy sauce?

- Yes.

You want to put at least as much of that.

It has to cover the top of my... - Okay.

- Okay?

And I'm going to be ready.

- And I'm getting there, but I was just paying attention to you - Good.

In there I could lift up a little bit of that piece of meat here and remove the fat from underneath.

- Okay, here we go.

- Here we are.

Go ahead.

(processor whirs) - That's good, right?

- That's fine.

Good.

Well, we're gonna put it right on top.

Spread it a little bit on top, around to flavor it.

Okay, here we are.

We wanna put that into the oven, around 400 degrees.

You wanna put it 30 minutes this way, 30 minutes on the other side.

And then you want to let it rest in 180 degree oven or so.

And the meat is pink from the beginning to the end.

So here it is.

- Okay.

- I'll put it, help you there.

- I'm just gonna take it home.

- Okay.

- Okay.

- And now we just have to wait.

(gentle upbeat music) And our first course is going to be a filet of sole in artichoke bottoms, with a Duxelles of mushroom.

You know, we'll have a Duxelles of mushroom here.

See those mushrooms are cut into pieces here.

And we are going to cook them.

- Ready?

- Yep.

(processor whirs) Oh oh oh!

(processor whirs) That's it.

That's what you want to do there.

That's it.

That's perfect.

You see, you pulse the mushroom back and forth.

So we have some shallots here.

The shallots and mushroom together cooked is called a Duxelles, named after the Marquis Duxelles, part of the 16th century.

Anyway.

We are going to cook this and we keep cooking it until the water totally evaporates in it.

Put a dash of salt in it, a dash of pepper.

And then we do the sole.

You wanna gimme the sole, Claudine?

- Yep.

- We have four filet of sole here.

That's usually what people call a filet of sole.

You know, the two parts of the sole?

- [Claudine] Yeah.

- [Jacques] We call that a double filet.

Run your finger here.

See there is a little line of bone?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

So we cut on each side of that little line of bone to remove that center here.

- Okay.

- Just throw that out.

- I'm gonna try one.

- And then we fold it with the fleshy part, see the fleshy part?

This is under the skin.

There is more nerve.

This is against the bone.

If it shrinks it will shrink in that direction.

So you fold it in that direction.

Okay, you go ahead.

Use your knife flatter.

That's it.

I'm folding this.

- I probably am taking out too much.

- No, you're doing- - Is that good?

- You're doing perfectly.

- Thank you.

- Good.

So put the tomato on top of that.

- Okay.

- Salt.

Pepper.

- Tomatoes.

- And... That's it?

- Yep.

- That's all we have in there, plus, of course, a little bit of white wine to cook it.

You want dry, fruity white wine, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, that type of thing.

You can put a piece of paper in it.

You fold it in four like this.

And then, from the corner here, you do a triangle, another triangle, another triangle.

You see?

To do that point.

And then you measure the radius from here to the center.

And that will cover our fish exactly.

Because you want the steam, as they start cooking, the steam comes underneath and fall back on the fish.

So it's pretty- - What's the difference between using that and putting a cover on it?

Plus, it makes it twice better.

- Okay.

(laughs) - Okay.

I'm gonna show you how to do artichoke bottoms.

Look at them.

I go to a store, I buy the artichokes, like six artichokes for 50 cents because it's like that.

That's when you do artichoke bottoms.

- Oh.

- So I'll show you how to do this.

You cut this.

And on this side here, you see I'm cutting it, almost like a type of cone, you know?

(knife squeaking) You see, it's pointed like this?

- Yeah.

Oh.

- Of all the place that, we cut it at the limit of the choke.

And then now using a small knife, you turn this, we call it Tourner un artichaut.

And if you happen to have a very good vegetable peeler, those are very good for that.

You see, you can finish it with this.

But like that you don't take any chance at all.

- Yeah, I like that.

Definitely.

- And you do it until you still see a little bit of the green, you see, like this?

Beautiful artichoke bottom.

- And then you rub it with the... - Yep.

And we cook it.

Okay.

Now you cook them with water, a little bit of lemon juice, a dash of olive oil, salt, and that's it, until it's very tender.

And here are some which are tender.

I mean, look.

- Mm.

- Now we empty the choke.

You see the choke has been removed from those.

And you keep them in their own stock.

Now you see that, I just push with my finger.

Now you do the other one.

You can use a spoon if you want.

- Okay.

- You are doing this.

But that, if it's cooked properly, it should slide off.

Okay.

So here I have a beautiful artichoke bottom.

This is a lot to eat.

So what you want to do here, basically, is to fill up your artichokes with the Duxelles here.

And what I want to do, what I would do normally, I would put that back in there and you would want to warm it up in there, you know?

'Cause the artichokes has to get hot.

Okay, here we can leave them to warm here.

And do the sauce with this.

- Okay.

- Now here is the filet of sole.

We can take those, filet of sole cook very fast.

Do you want to remove that paper, Claudine?

Thank you.

- You don't need it anymore, right?

- Pretty tender.

- Okay.

- Okay?

- Mm-hmm.

- And remove those in here.

Okay.

- All right.

- And then you'll do the sauce right?

- Yep.

- You want to put that in there for you.

This is just the liquid.

Remember there is nothing else.

A bit of tomato.

- [Claudine] Oh that's right.

You didn't even start it with oil or anything.

- No, there is nothing in there.

Now we're gonna put some butter in it to finish it up.

I'll give you some butter here.

This is for four people, so two tablespoons of butter should be about fine.

(blender whirs) - That's good, right?

- We could actually have reduced the stock a little bit to get that slightly thicker.

But it's fine.

Now here we are.

This would be hot.

You see?

We do, let's say, one filet here.

Another filet here.

There is one filet which is always bigger than the other.

And then also, you want to add a little bit of parsley or something on top of it?

- Yeah, I have some chopped parsley.

- This is a very elegant dish.

- Yes, it is.

- And your uncle would be delighted with that dish.

Okay.

So this is our filet of sole in artichoke bottoms.

So we are doing cottage cheese, right?

- That's right.

- That's terrific.

- This is an old farm cheese.

And it's a way of using non-fat milk, 'cause the farmers always wanted to get the cream off the top and make their butter and have their delicious dessert.

- That's great.

The use of leftovers, right?

- It's the use of leftovers.

- Yeah.

That's terrific.

So now you've, the milk is coagulated and the whey is separating from the solid and now you have to cut it?

- I have to cut it.

And that releases more whey from the curd.

- Mm-hmm.

And the whey happened with acid that you put in it?

- [Sue] That's right.

It's coagulated by acid.

There's no rennet in it.

- And you're doing that very, very carefully in little slices.

- Yeah.

- That's great.

- [Sue] We're trying to make a small curd.

- Uh-huh.

So after it's in whey like this, you drain it, right?

- I drain it.

And then it needs to be cooked.

And it has to be cooked very slowly.

- So that's the difference between the fromage frais or the fresh cheese that my mother used to do in those little containers with holes.

- That's right.

And we do make fromage blanc here and coeur a la creme as well.

- Oh, this way too.

Look at that.

- So you're trying to make a little square.

And for cottage cheese, after this step, it is cooked.

- Uh-huh.

That's great.

And that's what we have here?

- [Sue] So here we have the finished curd.

- That's beautiful.

I'm gonna taste it.

Mm, good.

- So this needs to be salted.

And then this is my- - And now.

Ooh, the good stuff.

- [Sue] My clabbered cream.

It's a combination- - This is beautiful.

- Of milk and cream.

And then you have your clabbered cottage cheese.

- Oh gosh, this is good.

Now I want to taste it again, after we put the stuff in it.

(Sue chuckles) Mm.

Really good stuff, when it's fresh like this, huh?

- Within its first three days, it's- - At the best, huh?

- In its prime.

- Great.

(bright music) This is fresh horseradish.

About a piece, an ounce, you know, a good ounce.

- And I have regular cottage cheese.

- Right.

Put it in there.

I'll cut that into pieces.

Whoa, I can feel it, you know?

I can smell it.

- Ooh.

- When you grate this, phew, this is strong.

- [Claudine] (laughs) Yep.

- So the conventional horseradish sauce is done with whipped cream, whipped cream and grated horseradish, as we used to do in Paris.

The cold one and the hot one with a bechamel, that is a hot sauce, also done with cream.

- I have a pinch of sugar here.

- A pinch of sugar.

- Yeah.

- I'll put you a dash of salt.

- Salt.

- [Jacques] And you can process it.

- And I know we add some milk, but you can just add it- (processor whirs) - Let's see what it looks like.

(processor whirring) Yeah.

(processor whirring) I think we put a bit of garlic in there.

Just a clove of garlic.

- Ooh.

- We put in there.

Go ahead, emulsify it again.

- Okay.

(processor whirring) - What we have is this.

- Are we good?

- I think so.

What do you think?

- I think we're great.

- Let me taste this from there.

- I love this.

I love this on sandwiches.

- [Jacques] Wow!

It is hot.

But it's good.

- Oh yes.

- Yeah.

You love it on sandwiches, huh?

- Mm-hmm.

- So why don't you arrange that in there.

- Okay.

I'm gonna take it off the nice plate, 'cause I'll probably make a mess.

- Make a mess, huh?

- Well, at least I know.

- I'm gonna look at my lettuce.

They are just right the way I like (spoon bangs) my lettuce to be.

I'm going to get the roast beef now.

Let's see.

Now the roast beef has been resting quite a long time after it's been cooked.

And it cooked 30 minutes on one side and 30 minutes on the other side.

And now I'm putting it there.

Look at that.

- Oh wow.

That looks really good.

- What I would want to do here, you know, if I have a lot of fat, then I would wanna remove most of the fat here.

Remember I didn't put anything on top of it.

Still some of the fat melts out of it.

But now in the rest of this, a little bit of white wine, or red wine, and I do a natural sauce, you know, just bring that to a boil and we can stir it with this, you know, like this.

Okay, Claudine?

- [Claudine] That's gonna be so good.

- You wanna touch it like this?

See the way it bounces back?

- Yeah.

- It indicates how much it's cooked, you know?

- Do you want me to get you a tray?

Ooh!

- See the color?

- That's looks really good.

- Oh, okay.

That's more than enough.

- Our whole family loves beef.

- Not your mother.

- She likes it this way.

- This way she likes it, yes.

- Yeah.

- Put that the long way here.

Remove this here.

I'm going to arrange that right there.

I have four pieces here.

- One, two, yeah.

- Oh yeah, here.

And I have another one here.

I have my roast beef right there.

Mm.

- It's that good.

- I'm gonna put some of the lettuce right on top of it here.

The braised lettuce.

We don't really cook lettuce often enough, you know, and that's a very easy way to do, you know.

And those are very tender this way.

- [Claudine] Yes.

- You could fold them to make a little package, you know?

- Oh wow.

- Okay, Claudine, you can even put your horseradish sauce next to it.

I have beautiful natural juice here.

I put that in there on the lettuce.

This, and maybe in the middle of it, shall we put our bunch of watercress?

- That looks awesome.

- Right there.

And here it is, the spicy rib roast with the braised lettuce and the horseradish sauce.

Well, we have a magnificent meal today.

A real classic dinner.

And starting with the filet of sole with the artichoke bottom.

- [Claudine] I love that.

- [Jacques] And the roast beef, I know you like beef.

- [Claudine] Oh, I love beef.

And the lettuce.

I never thought to cook lettuce.

- [Jacques] And then that little puff pastry, you see we did it.

It's not exactly like a puff pastry, it's more of a mock puff pastry.

- Mm hm.

- Yes.

- And now we have wine.

- And now we have wine.

- I have Rully from Cote Chalonnaise, which is a Chardonnay.

- Yes.

A Burgundy wine.

- Yep.

- And that's what I'm going to have.

Perfect with the filet of sole.

- So I'm gonna serve you.

- And here I have a beautiful Pinot noir.

This one is going to be absolutely perfect with that roast beef.

- Yes.

Oh, that's gonna be awesome.

- So I drink for cooking with you.

(glasses clink) Your uncle would've been delighted with this meal.

And I'm delighted to do it with you.

(glasses clink) - Me too.

- Happy cooking.

- Happy cooking.

(upbeat music)