- Hi, I'm Jacques Pepin.

- And I'm Claudine Pepin.

- We have a treat, Titine.

Claude went hunting, and we have venison for dinner.

Let's come up with a real country menu, one your grandfather would've enjoyed.

- Well, Mamie would make a classic onion soup gratinee under a crust of golden melted cheese.

- [Jacques] Salted venison steak with a tart currant sauce make a great midwinter entree, and a creamy chestnut puree in little zucchini boat add the touch of elegance.

- [Claudine] Hey, how about my godfather's favorite, cheesecake with apricot blueberry sauce for dessert?

- I wish we could invite our whole family from France, but since we can't, I hope you'll join us for an elegant country dinner.

- Next on "Jacques Pepin Celebrates!"

- Well, today we're doing a country dinner, you know, something earthy but elegant.

- Okay.

- Elegant.

I think Uncle Claude went hunting, so we have venison to do for you.

- I love venison.

- But first, I wanna show you really how to do the real onion soup, (knife thudding) you know, as we do in Lyon, as we do in France, basically all over.

Remind me a lot of, bring back a lot of souvenirs of those onion soup, you know, that we ate at 3:00 in the morning (Claudine laughing) on the Champs-Élysées somewhere, you know?

- Do you think there are as many kinds of onion soups as there are people?

I mean, everybody's got sort of their own variation.

- It's true, but mine is the best.

- Okay.

- Okay.

- As long as that's clear.

- (laughs) That's clear.

(Claudine laughing) So a little bit of oil and butter, and you want to brown those onion for a long time, you know, to cook those, like, (onions sizzling) 15, 20 minute- - Wow.

- to get nice crystallization in the bottom, you know?

But the sugar come out of the onion, and you really get it crystallized.

(spoon clanking) You see that, Titine?

(spoon rasping) You know, your grandmother put garlic in there and also sometime put a tablespoon of flour.

- Oh, really?

- Yeah, which is unusual, but what she does, (knife thudding) after she put the flour, she cook the soup, and after she cook the soup, she put it through the food mill.

Okay, so this, you put your stock on top.

- And that's just chicken stock?

- Good chicken stock, salt in there.

- Pepper?

- Pepper.

Go ahead, put some pepper.

So this usually cook five, 10 minutes.

So now you can bring me the bowl.

We're gonna build the onion soup, and there is all kind of different bowl, but you want a bowl at least that size.

- [Claudine] And that's ovenproof.

- Yeah, you wanna put the bread in it- - Okay.

- Titine?

And those are just slice of baguette here that you put into the oven.

- So, like, two- - Then you want a good five, six of those, you know?

And we have two type of cheese.

We can have only one.

We have Emmentaler, you know, which is the one with the hole there, Swiss cheese, Emmentaler, and Gruyere.

But you know, one or two doesn't really- - [Claudine] Well, we could also, you know, use the rest fondu or something.

- Yeah, so you put- - Cheese does not go to waste.

- a couple of tablespoon because we put the rest of the cheese on top, and you want to really fill it up.

And then we'll put the rest of the cheese on top.

- This is winter and- - This is- - 3:00 in the morning food.

(Claudine laughing) - serious winter stuff.

Let's mix those like this a little bit, okay?

- Okay.

- So you want to push this around.

So you have, like, half a cup of cheese on top, you know, a third of a cup.

I'll put that in the oven about 425 degree for a good 25, 30, 35 minute until you have a nice crust.

And it's better in the oven than under the broiler 'cause it need time.

You know, it took, like, 30, 35 minute to get that real crust.

This is the real onion soup.

(bright music) Now we're going to do venison steak- - Mm.

- with a black or a red currant sauce with a chestnut puree.

And I have a loin of venison here.

- [Claudine] Oh.

- You can buy unless you have a friend like me.

(Claudine laughing) So this is the loin, the whole loin, what you would call the New York strip, you know, in the beef, what you do big steak with.

And this is the silver skin.

Remove everything here.

You know, I want it totally clean.

For this, a thing like that, you know, about four ounces.

- Mm, look at the color of that meat.

It's so beautiful.

- It's beautiful and lean, yeah.

Maybe I'll do three.

- Okay.

- So what you wanna do, (tenderizer thudding) pound it a little bit like this.

You can even pound it with plastic wrap.

(tenderizer thudding) And what I want to put in there, Claudine, about a tablespoon of oil- - Mm-hmm.

- and the thyme leaves that I have here.

And then... (tenderizer thudding) - Just dried thyme?

- Dried thyme and a little bit of lemon rind in.

(lemon rasping) And that's it.

You don't wanna put the salt on top of it when you marinate here because the salt will draw out the moisture, so couple of hours.

If want to, you know, sometime I put it in there like this, marinate.

- Perfect.

- And that's it (plastic rustling) until you're ready to cook it.

(hands patting) And now I wanna talk to you about chestnut, which we do all the time for Christmas, starting at Thanksgiving.

At least two- - Mom loves chestnuts.

- three times, we do chestnut.

- Mm-hmm.

- Now you buy them at the market.

Those are, of course, fresh chestnut.

You have the one who came in can like this, and they're all cooked.

Then you have a puree of chestnut, I know, from the southwest of France, a puree of chestnut which already has sugar and vanilla in it.

That's only for the dessert.

- Mm.

- And what we have here?

- [Claudine] Those look candied or something.

- They're marrons glaces, you know, the glazed chestnut.

This is cooked for hours and hours very, very slowly with a syrup so they don't break.

So it's totally impregnated with the sugar syrup.

That's of course, for dessert, called marrons glaces, glazed chestnut.

In France, for Christmas, we always have those.

- Yeah.

- Okay, so what you wanna do here, you know, with a small paring knife, you wanna score it, so, you know, I use my thumb here.

You see I score on this side through, turn on the other side, and score again on the other side.

You want to do a lot of scoring.

You can even go totally around if you can.

And that will help.

Don't do too many at a time.

- What do you mean?

- Well, because you put them in the oven, and they cool off.

So this, sometime we put them in boiling water, put them in oil, you know, but the best way is to put them in the oven.

I have some here.

When they come out of the oven, we peeled a bunch there, they usually blow up like this.

But you see there is two skin there.

There is the first skin and the inside skin, which is this.

So often when you buy them at the market, (shell crunching) you know, a lot of that skin is left on, you know?

Now when you cook them whole like this, it's important to have both skin removed.

For us, it's less important today because we're gonna do a puree, so we're going to put it to the food mill, so it doesn't matter that much.

'Kay.

- Okay.

So that, we're going cook with chicken stock, a bit of celery, salt, and pepper put in.

- Yep, so chicken stock.

(knife thudding) - [Jacques] This is the classic way.

- All of it?

- If you do it, yeah, because it's cooked a long time, and it's going to reduce.

(knife thudding) This is, of course, the way you do it with the salt and pepper when you're going to do a savory dish.

So I have one which is cooked here fully.

(pan thudding) Yeah, you see the water reduce.

- Oh, okay, does it get absorbed in there as well?

- Yes, because that kind of blow up.

You see?

But the chestnuts are cooked, and you want them very tender.

- [Claudine] Hmm.

- [Jacques] I'm gonna put them to the food mill, so.

- [Claudine] All right, here's the food mill.

(utensil clanking) - There you go, good.

(mill clattering) Go back.

That's it.

Let's see that.

(mill clinking) Okay, that's it.

- Okay, (utensil clanking) - So here what we're going to do in there with a couple of tablespoon of butter, some cream, salt and pepper- - Whoa, there it goes.

(pot clanking) - we'll taste it and even a little bit of- - Did you put... - [Jacques] You can even put a dash of sugar if you want.

(whisk clanking) - [Claudine] Does it need a lot of salt?

- No, that's- - No?

- But we'll taste it.

(whisk whirring) - Whoa.

- Want a creamy puree.

(whisk whirring) This, you could probably do that ahead, you know, and reheat it, like, in the microwave oven or keep that into a pot with water around in a bain-marie type.

- Mm.

- You know?

(utensils clanking) Mm, that's good.

- Yeah?

Mm.

- Creamy, yeah?

- Really good.

- Okay, thank you.

- You're welcome.

- We'll leave that on the side.

I'm wanna start cooking those steak, here, which haven't marinated that long, but that's enough.

And what you wanna do with the steak, (utensil clanking) definitely, we're going to create a sauce.

It would not be a good idea at that point to do those steak (pan clattering) in a non-stick pan because I want the crystallization in the bottom, that is, the juice of the steak, to create some type of glaze in the bottom of my pan, and in that glaze, we're going to create a sauce.

(pan clattering) So this, get it hot, and at that point, you can put your salt and pepper on it just before you start cooking it.

- Okay.

- This will cook couple of minutes on each side 'cause you want it pretty, you know, medium rare.

(steaks sizzling) That's it.

Okay.

Bit of the marinade seasoning on top here.

Okay.

- And then?

- And then I'm gonna do the zucchini here.

- Okay.

- This, you don't have to do that.

This is just extra, maybe that long, or maybe that long.

Yeah?

- Okay.

(steaks sizzling) - We cut pieces like this, about three in each, you know.

I'm going to do, like, a kind of receptacle with that to put the puree of chestnut in it.

(steaks sizzling) One, two, three should work.

And then I want to blanch (steaks sizzling) a couple of minutes just to get it soft, basically.

(pan rasping) And let me turn my steak.

I think they're ready.

(utensils clanking) (steaks sizzling) they're beautiful, and again, even this, you want to let them rest after they are cooked.

And I'm gonna put them on this so that they rest for while after cooking.

You could keep them in a 160-degree oven or so just for the meat to decontract and the meat get tenderer and pink all around.

- Mm.

- Okay.

What else we doing today?

- Okay.

We're gonna do a cranberry chutney.

- A cranberry kind of relish- - Relish- - chutney- - chutney thing.

- that we put in there.

So what do we have in there?

- I'm gonna get all my stuff.

- That's vinegar, ooh.

- Here, could you open this?

- Yep.

- And here, here as well.

(knife rasping and clanking) - [Jacques] So a package of... (cranberries rattling) - [Claudine] Just a package of fresh cranberries.

- [Jacques] Yep.

- And then I have allspice.

I have mustard seeds, I have jalapenos, diced, and I've got some orange rind I'm just gonna add.

- Okay, bit of vinegar in there.

(bottle thudding) - Ah.

(knife rasping) That works a lot better when you use your thumb, just by the way.

- [Jacques] Yeah.

- Just... (laughs) - Use your thumb to pivot.

Yeah, that's it.

That's the right thing.

- That good?

- Yeah.

- [Claudine] You want more?

No?

- No, no, that's good.

- Okay.

- [Jacques] We have no sugar in there, right?

- No.

- You don't put any sugar after 'cause we put enough- - No, 'cause you put honey.

- Yeah, but that I put enough honey then.

Mm, it's good.

I like the jalapeno in there.

- Mm, and the mustard seed kinda gives that a little zip and the allspice.

- That's it.

- And that's it.

- So what do you do here?

- So you just take this, you cover it, and- - Bring it to a boil?

- And just let it very, very, very slowly 'cause it does take a while for the fruit to break down.

- [Jacques] 10, 12 minutes, yeah?

- Yeah.

- My steak are basically ready now.

(steaks sizzling) This is cooked enough.

(steak sizzling) We remove that.

Oop, hot.

- Whoa.

- [Jacques] Let it cool off a little bit.

- I'm gonna put this on the stove, thank you.

- And then my steak, (steak sizzling) yeah, I can see the way it bounce back like this.

It mean that the center of the steak is very rare.

And if I were to open those steak now without letting them rest, you would see that the outside of the steak is practically overcooked.

If I let them rest, it's going to decontract, and the whole thing will be nice and pink.

- [Claudine] Mm-hmm.

- So let's do the sauce here.

I have vinegar, red wine vinegar.

(vinegar sizzling) And you really want this to cook out, you know.

And you also want red wine about a half a cup there at the most.

You wanna taste it?

(bottle thudding) - Okay, I'll get a glass.

- And I have red currant or black currant jelly.

I like the black currant sometimes.

We call cassis in French.

It's less commonly available.

The red currant is fine, too, and a little bit of demi-glace to finish the sauce, and the demi-glace is, of course, a reduction of brown stock.

You brown the bone in the oven.

You put them in a pot, water, salt, pepper, no, no, no salt, pepper.

Onion, carrot, and so forth- - (laughs) Okay.

- a bit of tomato if you want, and then you reduce it.

You have a brown stock.

When the brown stock is done, you take all the fat out of it.

Then you reduce it to the moment where it's slightly syrupy like this.

And that's what we call a demi-glace.

- So you usually end up reducing it by half?

- Yeah, at least.

- You could taste that.

I'm gonna taste that one.

- And then, you know, in there, there is no salt, nothing.

Now we season.

(pan clattering) Now I let it reduce a bit more.

- Yeah, you want taste?

- Yeah.

How is it?

- My fine china?

It's good.

- Delicious.

- You can't cook with something you wouldn't drink anyway.

- Here is what we do here.

You put your knife through here, and you want to cut that.

- [Claudine] I knew you were doing a something.

- [Jacques] Well, you wanna do this to do, like, a little receptacle to put the puree of chestnut.

- Do you want me to get a platter so we can put 'em on?

- Yes, that would be nice.

- All right.

- Okay, I can hear that my reduction is practically done.

See, now it's reduced to a glaze.

So I'll put the demi-glace in there (pan clattering) to cook- - Okay.

- to emulsify it, and the jelly, you know.

- [Claudine] 'Kay, I am going to put some of this lovely relish in this nice bowl.

- Okay, the steak, ooh, you arranged that nicely here.

- [Claudine] Thank you.

- This is really- - Oh, please don't go outside the boat.

- You know what?

- What?

- Yeah, use both hands.

You see what you're doing there?

You're holding this.

You don't have to hold it.

Nothing will happen to it.

(Claudine laughing) What you do, you go with one hand, you know.

You protect yourself there and either with another spoon or whatever you use.

(whisk clanking) Now I want my currant jelly to finish melting here, and you know what?

- [Claudine] Do you want some butter for the sauce?

- Depending on the richness of it, let me taste it.

(sauce sloshing) (utensil clanking) - [Claudine] Well?

- I still feel quite a lot of acidity there, maybe a little piece of butter to finish it up.

Now I want to strain this.

(whisk clanking) (pan clattering) You know what?

- What?

- [Jacques] I think I want to thicken it a little bit.

- What do you want?

- So I have strained it already, so I need a little bit of potato starch or arrowroot, or- - Sure, 'cause I know you.

Oh, there?

- No, give me the little bowl.

Yes, I need it.

- All right.

- Just want, you know, really, a small touch.

Now give me a dash of red wine in there.

Oh, that's enough.

And I may not even use all of this.

You have to dilute your starch.

If you put the starch directly in something hot, it will seize and lump, you know?

That's it.

You see it's really a minimal amount, but it will give me more of a glaze, you know?

- There you go.

- Thank you.

Okay, now I'm going to glaze this.

(utensils clanking) You see?

This sauce will glaze just more- - Oh.

- beautiful, yeah.

- That is just so beautiful.

- I'll cut this one just to show you the inside of the venison the way it should be.

- [Claudine] Mm.

- We can present it this way.

Okay, and this is our venison steak with black currant sauce and chestnut puree.

(bright music) Okay, we have your parent, your uncle favorite- - My godfather.

- favorite dessert, yes.

Your parent, uncle- - It's all the same person.

- favorite thing.

Cheesecake, it's named after him anyway, Cheesecake Roland, so what we have in there?

- Graham cracker crust.

- Graham cracker crust.

- Make the crust first anyway.

Butter.

- Crust first.

- 'Cause I'm gonna- - Butter.

- break it up a little bit.

- I have cinnamon there.

- I hope so.

- Yeah, that's cinnamon - [Both] And lemon juice.

- Do you want some zest?

- Maybe a bit of lemon rind.

- Sure.

- Or zest.

(knife rasping) (lid clattering) Go ahead.

(blender whirring) We're gonna put that in a removable bottom.

- Oh, okay.

- Okay.

- Am I done?

- You ready?

- That's good.

- Yes.

Put that right in there.

(plastic rustling) (lid clattering) Okay.

Okay, now I'm going to arrange this in there.

During that time, you can do the cheesecake.

- Okay.

- Tell us what you have.

What I'm going to do here is to press this in the bottom and a little bit going up the side also, maybe that much of the side.

Even if it's irregular, it doesn't really matter.

- [Claudine] 'Cause it's just gonna taste great anyway.

- [Jacques] Yeah.

- I have four softened sticks of cream cheese, (cream cheese thudding) cup of sugar, blend these two first, (blender whirring) and then I'll add eggs (lid clattering) or lemon rind.

- That's it.

(spoon clanking) What, you have lemon juice there?

- Lemon rind, lemon juice, add eggs and sour cream.

- That's it.

(spoon clanking) (blender whirring) Put that in there.

(container clattering) Nice and creamy.

(container clattering) And this is a cheesecake who serve, like, 10, 12 people.

You know, it's a big cheesecake.

- Yeah, I love cheesecake.

- Yeah, me too.

And this is one thing that I learned to do in America.

I had never seen that in France.

- No, probably not.

- So when I go to France, like I went last June, you know- - Uh-huh.

- I had eight packet of cream cheese (Claudine laughing) in my suitcase to bring to your godfather.

- Oh, that's so great.

I'm gonna get you a tray.

- Yep.

- Actually, I'm gonna get me a tray 'cause I'm gonna be the one taking this thing to the oven.

- Put down a cookie sheet.

It's already easier in the oven to start with.

If it's spilled over or to get it in and out already here- - Especially the in and out.

- to do it on the... Okay, then I have a sauce with that, and this is done with just plain apricot preserve.

I strain it so that it's smooth.

Even if it's not strained, doesn't really matter that much.

And then you put blueberry in it.

Remember here we put fresh blueberry.

Don't put frozen blueberry there because it make a mess, a bit of cognac, you know, like, a good tablespoon, if I feel it need to be a bit thinner, a dash of water.

(spoon clanking) Here we are.

(spoon clanking) - And here's- - That's fine.

- a cheesecake - Here is the cooked one.

- Yep, and let me get a platter.

(container clanking) - Sometime it crack a little bit.

This is nice, huh?

- Mm-hmm.

This is really beautiful.

(spoon clanking) - Just serve it just like this.

This is Roland cheesecake with a blueberry apricot sauce.

Well, we have a real Franco-American meal tonight.

- Absolutely.

- Onion soup with the gratin, the crust on top.

And then- - Oh, and then the venison with the zucchini boats.

And the beautiful chestnut puree, really elegant.

- That rich black currant, or blackberry, or different type of jam sauce with the reduction of vinegar - The reduction is very, very nice.

- Vinegar and wine, yeah.

- And the cranberry.

- Your relish.

- Relish, which- - A salad.

- I like.

- Cheese, we love.

We have all kind.

- Yeah, we want some cheese and, of course, cheesecake.

- Roland cheesecake, yeah.

- Yes.

- And you know what, I like it when it's not too cold, room temperature.

- Uh-huh.

- [Jacques] What are we drinking then?

- Well, we're gonna have a beautiful, beautiful wine that is a beautiful blend from California.

It is from Sonoma, and it's got cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, and merlot.

So it's a nice- - American style.

- Yeah, and also- - That could be superior with- - Yeah, I know.

It's big.

It's full.

It's, "How you doing?"

- Okay, okay, can I have that?

- "I'm a big glass of wine."

- [Jacques] Okay.

- And then also I thought what would be really fun would be to have some Madeira with dessert.

- Madeira with de dessert- - Yeah, it's cooked wine.

- You know the Madeira could also work with the onion soup- - Yeah.

- at the beginning, you know.

- Yeah, absolutely, but Madeira is a cooked wine.

So if you open a bottle of Madeira, chances are we're not gonna finish the whole thing unless, you know, we've got a really long night of discussion ahead, but this, you can leave open for months 'cause it's already cooked.

- Yeah, I remember when I was in Madeira going into the attic where they had those vat of wine.

- Oh, wow.

- It was, like, 110 degrees and stay there- - Yeah, they boil it, right?

- for a month.

No, it stayed a month under the hot sun there.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, so it's cooked.

- Mm-hmm.

- Well, it was a great meal to do, I think a very elegant meal.

- Yep, and very simple.

- Even though it's earthy, but it's elegant.

And I hope you are going at least to do a couple of those dish and share them with your family as we are sharing it together.

- Happy cooking.

- Happy cooking.