(soft music) - Hi, I'm Jacques Pepin.

- And I'm Claudine Pepin.

- When you were growing up, did you ever read Alexandre Dumas?

- Of course, in French.

(speaks French) - "The Three Musketeers".

I loved it, but now I'm reading (speaks French).

- A dictionary of food.

What a great resource.

- Yes.

And I created this filet of sole stuffed with scallion and fresh herbs with a bright, creamy puree of peas in honor of Alexandre Dumas.

How about a succulent grilled leg of lamb marinated with garlic, ginger, and honey?

- [Claudine] Which is always served with a puree of spinach with crouton and egg in the French country style.

- And for dessert, elegant orange souffle combined with homemade orange sherbet.

When you really want to make an impression on your guest, make them a feast fit for a king.

- Next on "Jacques Pepin Celebrates".

- We're doing a very eclectic menu today, but it's a feast fit for a king.

- Do you get to be the king?

- I get to be the king.

- Okay.

- Only if you are the, not the queen, but the- - No, definitely not.

- What is that?

Not the dauphin, you know?

- No, no, no.

- Who would be queen.

- No, I'm not gonna be the princess 'cause that just doesn't... I'll be the joker.

- Not the princess.

Okay.

(Claudine laughing) We're gonna start with an orange souffle surprise.

The bottom of the orange is going to be filled up with a sherbet, and the top with a souffle.

So the sherbet, you can do that way ahead.

And that's what we're going to do here.

And what I need is a little bit of orange rind.

This is a grater.

(orange grating) And we need about a couple of tablespoon, or one, two.

And that actually not even to put in the sherbet.

It's to put in the souffle, you know?

- [Claudine] Oh.

- So, here.

- It smells wonderful.

- Yeah, this is really nice.

I wanna put this in there.

- You're good?

- Now, with this, see, you take the top part of it like this.

We're going to empty it.

(knife banging) The part which was grated, you know?

You can help me there.

What we are doing (silverware clanging) is really taking that pulp to put it right through the food processor here.

- Okay.

- You get it?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- [Claudine] I think I'll squeeze and then scrape.

- Good idea.

You see?

But on this one here, you don't really want to damage the receptacle too much.

So you wanna take that white skin, you know, that you have underneath, so that the whole inside of your orange, you know, is nice and clean.

- Are we gonna food mill this?

- [Jacques] That would be a good idea.

- [Claudine] Okay.

(food mill rattling) - Okay, so I need three cup, and that's about what I have.

- Okay.

- So, in there, you wanna put sugar and then a little bit of marmalade, you know?

- Orange marmalade.

- Yeah.

That's it.

And this is the base of our, not ice cream, but sherbet.

(spoon tapping) And then, Claudine, you can put that in your ice cream maker.

- Mm-hm.

- [Jacques] That's good.

And this, of course, will work in the machine according to your manufacturer instruction.

- [Claudine] Oh.

- Probably 20, 30 minute before it's nice and firm.

Here is the sherbet here that you have.

And I think one ball of this, you know, push it- - That's it?

- [Jacques] Inside a little bit.

- Do you want me to flatten it out on the inside, so it... - Well, yeah, a little bit.

I mean, see what happen here?

You wanna give yourself the space for the souffle.

So, about half of it should be the sherbet, you know?

And the other half, the souffle.

So, you're going to cook them this way.

- Uh-huh.

- Except that I'm going to put a little piece of aluminum foil underneath to hold them.

- Oh, okay.

- Okay?

So you can put that in the freezer.

(light music) All right.

I have a nice sole with herbs, you know, which... - Mm.

- And I'm going to start with a lot of different type of herb.

And certainly, with scallion here for me.

- Oh, you have chervil.

- I have chervil.

- And you have chives.

- Chive.

- Parsley.

- Parsley.

Smell it.

I think it's tarragon.

(knife chopping) - Oh yeah.

- Tarragon.

And what you wanna do is to get all of those herb soft, you know, so I'm gonna put a little bit of salt in there.

- You wanna get the herb soft- - Some pepper.

- Or you wanna get the... - Yeah, the herb soft like this.

Maybe I'll do the chive, right?

So, you wanna give me a little bowl for that?

And you know what, I'll put this directly in there.

I put my chive directly in there.

- You want all the tarragon or just?

- No, no.

A little bit of the tarragon.

Parsley.

That's a lot of herb, you know?

- Yeah.

- But this is how- - But it's good.

- We flavor it with herb.

Yeah.

- And I mean, if it's in the summer, and you've got all this stuff in your garden, why not?

- Exactly.

It's free.

- Yep.

- And now this is softened enough, so I wanna mix that in.

- Oh.

- Just mix in with a spoon here.

And the hotness of this should soften the herb a little bit.

- [Claudine] Just soften it?

- Yeah.

And what I wanna do is to start with this breadcrumb.

I have fresh breadcrumb here, which I put in the food processor without the crust.

And so fresh breadcrumb, I want to put them on top of the sole.

You know, right on top of the fish.

But I want to brown them first, so that they get that nice nutty taste, you know, that they have after they brown.

(spoon tapping) And then I put my breadcrumb on top.

And this, I have to stir it occasionally.

And then we can start with the sole.

So, those are nice filet of sole.

But I wanna do in this, I want to flatten them a little bit.

So I run my knife slightly on top to break the fiber here.

That makes it easier to pound it a little bit.

And then with the meat pounder and the plastic here, you (pounder pounding) gently, you know?

So, this is nice.

You see?

- Mm.

- I put a little piece of butter in there.

Pepper.

Salt.

Give me a bit of white wine.

That will cool off my pan.

(wine sizzling) Boy, that pan is hot.

- Yeah.

(wine sizzling) - Okay.

So, I take three filet and then the herb.

- Okay.

- And be sure to put the filet so that the white part of the filet, the fleshy part, is on top.

What I wanna do, you see, is to do a sandwich of herb.

Okay, this filet of herbs.

This one.

Okay, so now I want to bring that to a boil here and then cover them with the breadcrumb, and that goes into the oven.

Okay, salt on the filet.

A bit of pepper.

Okay, that is good.

- Is that enough?

- That's good.

And can arrange the breadcrumb on top there.

Okay?

- Mm-hm.

Would you like me to put this in the oven?

- Well, you can open the door if you want me to do it.

- Okay.

- 'Cause it's a heavy one.

In there here.

Okay.

- Okay.

- So now we wanna do a vegetable with that.

And we're going to do a puree of peas that we are going to serve in a receptacle here.

So, with a good vegetable peeler, which I have here, I'm peeling it around.

So, what I will do after, I'll cut through that recess.

(knife banging) You know, remove a little bit of this.

'Cause I wanna keep like a kind of cup, you know?

And on the side now, I have access to the skin that I didn't have access to before.

And I want to soften it, you know?

So I'm gonna put it in, it's just boiling water on top of that just to steam it a little bit.

So the peas are there, yes?

You can use fresh peas or even frozen one.

If you buy the frozen peas, you want to buy what is called the baby peas.

Now, what happens in this, you have to do it when those peas are hot.

Otherwise, the skin is not going to work.

(food processor whirring) Just.

(food processor whirring) - A pinch of sugar.

- You wanna do a little pinch of sugar.

Claudine, I'm gonna clean the outside.

And what about salt?

- Yeah, salt.

- Did you put salt?

- No, I didn't.

- I bring back the outside back in, and we again emulsify it.

- You want pepper?

(food processor whirring) - Maybe not.

See, I have a beautiful color here.

Very, very green.

Okay, you see the pepper here are, frankly, steam enough.

That's it.

So, let me check on- - The fish?

- On my fish.

Yes, to see if it's ready.

- [Claudine] Oh, that looks so beautiful.

- Isn't it?

- Mm-hm.

- Okay, so let me, doing one portion like this.

This is a nice way of doing a filet of sole.

- Yeah.

- We'll put a garnish here.

Now, let me take a little bit of that sauce here to put around.

- [Claudine] You wouldn't put it on top of the breadcrumbs.

'Cause they're nice and crunchy.

- [Jacques] I don't really want to dirty- - Yeah.

- The breadcrumb, you know?

And go ahead.

Now, again, you know, you're using two hand.

If you use one hand, that's it.

Now you can contour with the other hand.

That's it.

Oh, you have a little piece of chive in there?

- Yeah, well, remember, I didn't use it all.

There you go.

- This.

Giving me a piece.

- Yeah.

- And this is our filet of sole with herb stuffing and puree of peas.

- Leg of lamb?

- Leg of lamb.

You're gonna bone it out or am I going to bone it out?

- How about you bone it out and I watch?

I mean, just for a change.

- For a change.

What I have here is the whole leg of lamb.

That is the whole back of the animal, you know, like this.

You sit here when you go horseback riding or, you know- - Excellent.

- Lamb back riding.

(Claudine laughing) So, we're gonna bone it out.

Anyway, the first thing that I remove is that piece of hanging flesh here, which is actually from the inside cavity of the animal.

And this is part of the flank, you know?

- Oh!

- So it goes there.

You can see, even the end of it here, you can practically recognize the T-bone.

- Yeah.

- That would be the end of the porterhouse steak.

(knives scraping) Need help.

So, first, I'm going to clean out the outside.

- Okay.

- [Jacques] Because it's easier before it's bone out to remove this, the layer of fat.

- [Claudine] I'll get you a steel.

- This is the hip, and it's on the hip that you have the thickest layer of fat.

You know, so we remove all of this.

So there is that bone, which goes hip to the knees and down there.

So I'm following the bone.

- [Claudine] You like doing this.

I know you do.

- Yes.

See, you have all of the different muscle of the leg are going to be there, you know?

So, the largest muscle here, that piece here, is the top round.

And then underneath the top round, you have two piece of meat.

One like this.

Both of them are the bottom round.

One is the eye round, the other one the flat.

This is the piece of meat from the hip.

Maybe the most standard is the top sirloin.

And at the end here, you have the shank.

That will be on the final.

(Claudine laughing) - That's what I was just thinking.

I'm like, "Huh?"

- Okay.

- All right.

- So, you know what I wanna do here?

This is the larger muscle, and I'm going to open it, push it a little bit, and kind of open it like this.

This is approximately flat.

You see like this.

So, I put it on the barbecue.

It's going to cook about at the same speed.

Now I'm ready for your marinade add in.

- [Claudine] I am doing onions and some garlic.

(knife chopping) Jalapeno with the seeds.

- That's it.

- Hopefully, it's not, did you taste it?

Make sure it wasn't too spicy?

- Yeah, it wasn't too bad.

On this here, you know, you can remove some of the skin or leave the skin in.

Doesn't really matter.

- [Claudine] Yeah.

I think I cut, I broke off a little bit too much ginger.

I love ginger.

- Yeah, that may be a bit.

It's a lot, yeah.

- Yeah.

- But you can put all of this.

(food processor whirring) Okay.

- Okay.

- Now we add the liquid.

- Which is about a quarter of a, whoa, that smells good.

- The honey?

- No.

Well, yeah, I'm sure the honey smells good too.

But about a quarter of a cup of honey and a quarter of a cup of soy sauce and just a little bit of oil.

- And maybe a tablespoon of oil.

Not even.

That should help it to liquefy properly.

And of course, you would wanna do that ahead because you want this to marinate a day.

Or eight hours, six hours or whatever.

(food processor whirring) - Okay, so you don't really need salt because you've got the soy sauce.

You don't need pepper because you've got the jalapeno.

Right?

- That's right.

- Okay.

- Well, we probably need a bit more salt on top of it.

- Oh, you think?

- You know, one of the best way to do it is to have a large bag, and you put your leg of lamb in there, pour the thing on top, lock it, and keep it in your refrigerator.

You turn it a couple of times every two, three hours, that will marinate it.

But we're going to use it almost right away, so.

And that, I will turn it around so that it's really pick up all the taste of the marinade there.

And that's good.

- And that's good.

- Now, what you do, you grill it on each side about, no more than maybe six, seven, eight minute on very high heat to really get the marking of the grill.

And then you put it on a roasting pan or a cookie sheet or something, you know, jelly roll pan, in the oven, about 200, 225 degree oven.

You're gonna finish cooking very slowly, and rest should be beautiful.

And then whatever juice you have left of your marinade, you can pour it on top.

So, the puree of spinach, this is just water and a bit of spinach.

It's cooked enough.

I drain it.

Wanna drain maybe a little bit of the juice.

Not too much anyway.

- Not, yeah.

- And then we put it in there.

Make a puree.

I have some milk and a bit of cream over there.

- Okay, hang on.

- You know?

- Did you mix your milk and cream together?

- Yep.

- Okay.

- I have, it's basically all milk- - Ready?

- With a bit of cream.

(food processor whirring) I'm trying to do that.

- I think that's good.

- What I wanna do now, first, I'll put it directly into my pan here.

(puree sizzling) The pan is nice and hot.

- Whoa.

- I wanna put that, again, to bring it to a boil.

And it's going to liquefy a bit.

This has to be seasoned with salt, pepper, and a bit of nutmeg.

Now, here is a nutmeg.

(nutmeg chopping) Okay, this.

(knife banging) - That's pretty nice.

- So, I'm going to thicken it with a little bit of cornstarch.

So, that's it.

Let it cook a little bit longer.

And let's wait for the lamb.

So, we're gonna transfer it to this.

- Okay.

- Maybe.

Okay.

Now, all the marinade there, you know?

You taste the marinade is good.

- Oh yeah.

- Not too much jalapeno pepper there?

- Nope.

You know what I'm dying for is a great big piece of bread for that.

- To soak in there, you know?

Now I'm gonna carve it.

So, you wanna give me a platter maybe?

- Yes, a beautiful platter.

- I want to see, you know, the meat that you wanted in the medium rare.

Yeah, about like this, you know?

So then I know that, for me, this is a piece just a bit more cooked, but this is what I want to eat, because this is the piece of the shank.

And you know, we're gonna serve that with the- - Oh yeah.

- With hard cooked eggs.

So I have the hard cooked eggs here.

I'm going to reheat them a little bit, put a little bit of sauce on top there, you know?

You want to have, bring that at the table.

And then- - Oh, and spinach.

- Our puree of spinach.

I have some croutons to put in that I made.

- I know.

I found them.

You're lucky I didn't find them before.

- Well, my mother always made the, you know, the puree of spinach with the crouton and the eggs, you know?

(whisk scraping) You can put them like this.

- Oh, okay.

- Put some like that.

Arrange them like this.

Cut you some of the eggs.

Love the crouton.

Put one like this.

And here we have the grilled leg of lamb Robert with the puree of spinach and the hard cooked eggs.

Okay, shall we finish the dessert?

- Mm-hm.

- So, those things are in the freezer, right?

- Mm-hm.

- Okay.

- I'll get them.

- You know what I've done here can do it like that.

But just to make them hold because we're gonna put them in the oven.

- All right.

- Take a little piece of aluminum foil like this, roll it.

You can, you know, maybe squeeze the end like this and attach it, and make a little round thing like that for the orange to sit on top of it.

- [Claudine] Oh, okay.

So that they don't, all right.

- They don't go all over the place.

I'm beating my egg very fast.

So, (whisk scraping) first, you beat them fast, and then slowly to lift them up, to inflate them.

And I'm doing them in a copper bowl here because the copper bowl acidify the egg white.

(whisk scraping) And when you acidify the egg white, they tend to hold their shape better without graining.

Okay, just put the sugar in it.

(whisk scraping) And the orange rind.

- Yep.

(whisk scraping) - Orange rind, so.

- Spatula.

You want a?

- We put- - You should have a tip in there.

- This at the end, yeah.

Okay.

- Is this what you mean about the oranges?

- Oh, that's that.

You arrange them on top.

- Yeah.

So that's good?

- Okay.

And then outside of it, we're going put some ice water so that the ice cream doesn't melt too fast in the bottom.

Yeah.

Here, here, here.

A bit left.

Have enough for another one.

Go ahead.

- Now, do I wanna have the ice or just the ice water?

- No, the ice also.

- Okay.

- So, (ice rattling) go ahead.

All right.

And that's it.

All right.

You gotta be careful there because of the water inside.

Because the ice is melted now.

The souffle (indistinct).

Here we are.

Little bit of powdered sugar on top.

(knife tapping) I think it's a good idea to put those, yeah, and they're still cold there, on top of something which sturdy them like this.

(plate clanging) That's it.

(plate clanging) Here I come, Claudine.

- All right.

I'm watching the souffles.

I can see them from here.

Wow.

That is just beautiful.

- Isn't it beautiful?

- Yeah.

- Here you are.

All for you.

- Wow.

I have to touch it.

Ooh!

It's cold.

- See, the bottom is still cold.

Yes, it has to be.

- Yeah.

- Otherwise, it would be liquefied.

- Oh, this is awesome.

- This is an elegant dinner.

- [Claudine] This is a very elegant dinner.

- Certainly, an elegant finish.

- Yes.

- You know, so we're going to start with, remember, it seems so long ago that we did that little filet of sole with all the herbs and the puree of peas?

- [Claudine] The puree of peas in the red pepper.

- And then the leg of lamb on the barbecue.

And the strong taste with the garlic and the ginger.

All that stuff we put in it.

- And you could use that marinade for chicken.

- I'm looking forward to the spinach puree.

I haven't had it in a while.

- [Claudine] You put some of the juice on top.

- I put a bit of the juice on top.

Yes.

It blend things together.

- That's nice.

- And I've done a few cookie with hazelnut here.

- Ooh, I love hazelnut.

- For you, for our dessert.

- Very nice.

- So, with that feast, what are you serving us to drink?

- We're gonna open a bottle of wine.

I'm gonna go with this Ameritage from California.

It's gonna go really beautifully with- - With the lamb.

- With the lamb, yeah.

- And that's what you're going to open?

- Yes.

- And the rest of it is what?

- This is a sweet wine that we're gonna have with this.

- Yes.

- Which is gonna be really, really... - A Navarra.

- It's a Spanish wine.

- Is that from Spain?

Oh, yes.

I don't know that.

- Yeah, it's really, really wonderful.

It's noble rot.

It's really superb.

And this is an Alsatian Grand Cru Riesling, which is very dry.

It's fermented dry.

You're gonna love it.

- [Jacques] Mm-hm.

I love it.

- So.

(laughs) - This is very nice.

Oh my God.

- Look at that color.

- It is nice in color.

- I mean, it's just huge.

- Like berry, you know?

- [Claudine] Huge.

Beautiful, beautiful color.

- Smell wonderful.

- Big wine.

- So we're going to have a great feast- - Yes.

- You and I.

- Absolutely.

(glasses clanging) - I hope you have a feast with your family too.

Happy cooking.

- Happy cooking.