(gentle music) - Hi, I'm Jacques Pépin.

- And I'm Claudine Pépin.

Today, we are preparing a special kosher menu for some of our Jewish friends.

- Okay, I know about not mixing meat and dairy products, but what else do I have to keep in mind?

- Well, no pork and shellfish, but don't worry, there is still lots to choose from.

I call this stew of artichoke, snow peas, asparagus, and lettuce my "Hymn to Spring" vegetables.

- [Claudine] We'll prepare salmon in the classic style of the city of Grenoble with capers and lemons.

- [Jacques] And for dessert, a tangy cherry compote.

- Sounds like kosher cooking can be inventive and delicious.

- Yes.

What's important is to enjoy it with friends.

- Join us for a kosher menu next on "Jacque Pépin's Kitchen."

- "Encore with Claudine."

Today we're doing a kosher menu for friends.

You have friend who are- - Yeah, my friend Mark eats kosher.

You're not a kosher person, you eat kosher, right?

- Thank you for the correction.

- Is that right?

- Yeah.

- Yeah, okay.

- I think so.

I think you're right.

But anyway, when you have friends which have certain dietary restriction, there is always a way of, you know, get them in your house and receive them well and still abide by their tradition.

- That sounds good.

- So we're going to start with this here.

Tell us what that is.

- Okay, this is orzo, and it's known as risoni, right?

- Well, in Italian it's called risoni, which mean rice, but it is a pasta, nothing to do with rice, but it has the shape of rice.

Yeah, put it in there.

- I told you I tried to cook this like rice and I cooked it for 20 minutes on a two to one ratio.

It didn't work really well.

- Well, of course that cooked in about eight minutes.

- I didn't know.

- Okay, we want to bring that back to a boil.

And yes, about eight minutes.

And during that time, we're going to start our sauce.

And our sauce is going to be arugula.

You have arugula there?

- Yeah.

Here, wait.

Let me spin it.

- Okay.

You're going to spin it a little bit.

- I'm going to do this.

- I'll start this.

Okay.

(spinner whirring) This is great.

- [Claudine] I know.

And then I can stop it.

- Break it.

- That's cool.

(knife thudding) - Even if it's slightly wet, it's perfectly fine too for this.

And we're going to start with the scallion.

We put in there.

- [Claudine] Can we put the arugula in right away?

- No, no, no, no.

Not yet.

I'm going to put some onion in there.

And actually, I should have put the pinoli, why don't you put those pinoli nuts in there?

The pinoli nut should brown a little bit too.

(knife thudding) (pan sizzling) You want to brown that a little bit, then you can add those onions, Claudine.

Good.

So this is asked to cook for a couple of minutes.

In fact, probably four or five minutes with the arugula before we continue with the tomato.

I also have here a little bit of anchovies we're going to put at the end.

So we use the oil here.

The anchovy, we'll cut it into pieces and add it with the tomato, you know?

- Oh wow.

- At the end right there.

Okay.

So here is the arugula that we're going to put in there.

And of course, arugula is what we call in French rocket.

It has a kind of garlicky, pretty strong taste.

I have a lot in my garden.

I love it.

So let's cook that for a couple of minutes.

- Okay.

- Let's cover it.

And let's move on to our salmon.

Let me check this first.

- Do you put salt in the water or not salt in the water?

Does it matter?

- I put a little bit of salt in the water.

- Okay.

- Okay.

Question of taste.

Okay, look at that salmon.

Isn't that beautiful?

- It is beautiful.

- When you look at quality of fish, you can see that, how shiny, the eye is shiny, and more than anything else, look at the gill.

- [Claudine] Ooh.

- [Jacques] Bright red, shiny.

That's a fresh fish.

- [Claudine] Smells good.

- Exactly.

Maybe the most important thing, your nose, you know?

So you go under the gill, you put your knife flat on top of it here, on top of the central bone, and we remove that large filet, you know?

I have a beautiful knife here, which- - [Claudine] Wow.

- Cut good.

Maybe you can get rid of that for me.

No, no, no.

Just the salmon.

- Oh, just the fish.

- I need this.

Okay.

Now we take the rib cage here, I'm sliding my knife, you see, under the bone here.

This is the bone of the rib cage, and then sliding this out.

When you buy salmon, Claudine, do you do that or?

- I usually, I'm sorry, I know it's not as economical, but I usually buy the pieces already done.

- Yeah, there's absolutely nothing wrong with this.

And now along the side here, you have a series of bone.

You see that here?

You can feel it one, two.

Up and pick this one.

Pulling in that direction, not there because you tear the flesh.

- [Claudine] Oh, okay.

- You pull in the same direction.

I took my hand, let me, along the way.

One left here.

Yeah, I can feel it.

That's it.

See I feel, that one there.

Good.

- [Claudine] Okay.

- That's clean.

Alright, so we cut our steak here.

About that size.

We cut four steak, one, two, three, four.

And we're going to start cooking those steak skin side down.

We call that in France (speaking French), that is only on one side, it's only cooked on the skin period.

There.

- Oh.

- And as you see, what do I put in the pan?

- [Claudine] Nothing.

- Nothing at all.

- Oh.

- And you will see that by the end I finish cooking that fish, I will have at least a tablespoon of the fat coming out of the fish, even starting with nothing at all.

- I can get rid of this.

- This is a very high, yes, get rid of that.

Thank you.

- You're welcome.

- This is a very high fatty fish.

Very high in omega-3, which is very good for you, for the cholesterol and so forth.

First, we cook it about three minute this way.

You know what I'm going to do?

I'm going to saute my arugula there.

I'm afraid that's going to turn a little bit in the back.

And it's browning.

- Oh, it looks really nice.

- You want to put that on low, Claudine?

- Yep.

- So I leave that on low and we are going to continue with the fish, which is here as we can see, it's going to cook.

It doesn't stick, you see, on this side.

- [Claudine] No.

- We're going to have a very crunchy stuff.

So let's do, the garnish for that is going to be capers, parsley or chives, the crouton and lemon.

And this is in the style of Grenoble in France.

Grenoble, you know?

And what we have to do is to remove the skin this way up to the flesh, you know?

Take the pith out.

You know, the- - The white stuff, right?

- The white stuff.

It's called the pith, right?

- [Claudine] Mm-hmm.

- Am I saying that correctly?

- [Claudine] The pith.

- Yes, thank you.

- The pith.

- Okay.

And this, we can cut into little dice.

So go ahead, start cutting those into little dice.

- Oh, okay.

- If you see too many seed, you remove them.

Okay.

- And I'll add them to here?

- Add them to this, yes.

That's enough.

- Seeds out of here.

- Good.

So this is still, you see that, getting crusty.

I'm going to leave it a little longer like this.

And let's move on to do our sauce here.

- Okay.

- See this way.

Now let's add this to this.

- The tomatoes and the anchovies, right?

- Tomatoes and anchovies to it.

Probably a little bit of salt on top.

You know, I need pepper.

Cover that so that it warm up.

And this will take maybe another minute or two at the most to cook, so we just have to wait.

(pan sizzling) Okay, let's check it again.

- [Claudine] Is it ready?

- [Jacques] I think so.

- [Claudine] I hope so.

- You know, you don't want it mushy, but it tastes like rice.

(spoon thudding) It's good.

It's ready.

- Mm.

It's ready.

- Okay, let's mix it together.

- Okay, let me get a bowl.

Get this off my fingers.

- I want to drain all of this.

We drain it this way slowly.

So you can put it on the side, you know, on those things.

And you can leave it on the side like that to drain.

- [Claudine] Oh, that's cool.

- Yeah.

And then we'll add it directly to the sauce here.

- Oh.

Oh no, that's a good idea.

- Yeah, okay.

And we can saute.

Do you want to saute it, Claudine?

- I don't.

- Mix it together like this.

Now, I want you to get ready with the cheese.

Just put that there.

- [Claudine] Okay.

- [Jacques] Look at that.

I have quite a lot here.

- Can I do cheese yet or no?

- Yeah, you can do cheese.

Anytime you want.

Go ahead.

A lot of cheese on top of it.

You can do it this way.

I can do it differently here.

Keep going, cheese here.

I'll do cheese with the vegetable peeler.

- Oh, that looks so pretty.

Little shavings.

- You want to bring that over there?

I feel that I have to cover my salmon here.

See my salmon, Claudine?

You can see this is still raw a little bit.

- [Claudine] Yeah.

- But there, it's practically cooked through.

Now we cover it and now we wait.

One minute for this, it's going to be ready.

Okay, I think that's ready now.

You see?

- [Claudine] Oh wow.

- You see the top part of that, which was raw, I mean, this is still pretty rare in the center.

You know, a little bit the way I like it, but it's cooked in it.

- Okay.

- Let's arrange it on top of this.

- Some tongs.

- I think I'll take a spatula for that because now, you want to put it skin side up.

- [Claudine] Oh, okay.

- The skin is really crispy, look at that.

- [Claudine] Oh, wow.

(pan sizzling) - You can even taste it, Claudine, if you want.

Look at that there.

- That looks really good.

- Yes.

And what we have on top of it here, we still have a little bit of fat.

I'm going to clean that up.

So I'm still using, you see that, in that recipe, I use only one skillet, you know?

- [Claudine] That, I like.

- Cleaning that up.

(Claudine laughs) Butter, now we put in there, a little bit of melted butter.

Two tablespoon for four.

This is our sauce.

Then on top of that, sprinkle this.

- Okay.

- Sprinkle some of this.

Here, you go ahead like this.

The crouton, the lemon and the capers.

Right.

- [Claudine] And we leave the lemon raw like that?

- The capers.

Yes, that's it.

When you bite into it, it's like having lemon juice.

That's great.

You ready with the chives?

- Okay, do I do the capers on here?

- Yep.

- I definitely like the assembly.

- And what we are going to do is to deglaze with a little bit and get ready with the chive.

You see, I am a bit on the right end.

I mean, the butter is just slightly nutty looking.

We put it right on top of it this way.

And in the bottom of your pan, a little bit of vinegar to deglaze to get just a few drops of the acidity on top.

- [Claudine] Oh wow.

And then I put the chives, right?

- [Jacques] Chives.

The chives and it's- - [Claudine] It's a meal.

- It is a meal.

So here we are.

Our beautiful salmon here, Grenobloise, and the orzo with the arugula sauce.

- Now we're going to do an artichoke "Hymn to Spring."

And for that, we have snow peas, asparagus, Boston lettuce, and of course, artichokes.

- Right.

- And you're going to help me do this.

- The first thing we do, we're going to take the stem.

If I break it like this, if you see a lot of thread there because the artichoke here, this is quite fresh.

It's nice and clean.

- [Claudine] Okay.

- We're going to use this, so you can cut yours.

- All right.

- And I'm going to peel it.

- Let's put these to cook because I know it takes about- - Yeah, cut this one, then I need it.

- Oh.

- [Jacques] Alright.

Thank you.

- [Claudine] Here.

- And those, we put to cook directly into- - Upside down, right side up or?

- Well, you put them so that they fit together like that, tight.

And we put a plate, we're going to cook this, so I'm going to put this here.

Put that upside down on top so that it cooked.

And this has to cook for like 45 minutes to an hour until you push one of the leaves and it really come out clean.

And you can taste it then you put it under cold water and you leave it a long time under cold running water until it's cold inside.

We have some cooked there.

So we have to peel this, Claudine.

We can peel it with- - Take this off.

- Because even this is eatable, you know, this is a stem of your artichoke, but there is a lot of fibers here.

So you have to cut the outside this way, that thick layer here.

And you can do it with a vegetable peeler.

It's fine.

But then you have to do it at least two or three times.

- Oh.

- Or maybe I should do it by hand, right?

And cut this one in four- - Why?

- Because you have to take a thickness as much as this, you know, this is the fiber that you have outside, you know?

Yeah.

Okay.

This, we're going to put the onion to cook here.

Also with this, we're putting a little bit of olive oil in there.

So this has to cook for four, five minutes.

We can cover it.

And basically, what you get is this- - Oh wow.

- You know, when you finish cooking here.

And then we can continue with the rest of our stuff.

- Okay, these are already cut.

- Yes.

So we put asparagus.

Remember, look, look.

Those asparagus- - These are already peeled.

- Have been peeled, they've been peeled from here to the bottom.

- [Claudine] Yeah.

- [Jacques] So you can use the whole.

- Because if not, they don't taste right.

- Right.

Then snow peas.

- And more asparagus.

- More asparagus, so it's really like a spring type of thing.

We put the lettuce in a few minutes.

And then I lower this.

- And salt and pepper.

- Salt pepper later.

Let's do the artichokes now.

- Okay.

- So as you can see here, bring that here.

The artichokes has been cooked.

Now you be sure, you know, to press it to really have all the juice.

I mean, the water out of it.

- [Claudine] Okay.

- This artichoke is cooked, and you know it, Claudine, if you pull it out, you see the way it comes out?

- Yep.

- And you taste it.

That's it.

The way you eat your artichoke.

So what we are going to do is basically- - I love artichokes.

- The same thing here.

- Artichokes are healthy, right?

- Artichoke is good.

It's high in phosphate and stuff like that.

I'm going to give you those here.

- [Claudine] Okay.

- We're going to scrape the heart of it.

You have a spoon?

- Yeah.

Do you have a spoon?

- Okay, yeah.

So what you want to do, it's like if you're eating the artichoke, you can take three or four leaves at the time.

We scrape the eatable part here.

All right.

That's it here.

- Okay.

- More of this.

And the whole cap here, you see, then I can put it flat, this is more tender.

And again, scrape the end out of it on this side and on this side.

That's all eatable.

Here we are.

This is no good, that's no good.

And now I have the artichoke's heart here.

You remember, in the middle of that artichokes, you know- - [Claudine] It's got fur.

(Jacques speaking French) (Claudine speaking French) - Yeah, we call (speaks French) in France, which is the choke here, you know?

And then of course, you have to remove that.

And you see if your artichoke is cooked, that will slide off pretty nicely.

And here you have an artichoke's bottom.

This you throw out, of course.

It's uneatable.

Then we cut that into pieces.

The artichokes are, look at all that flesh here.

- [Claudine] Yeah.

- Give me the other artichoke's heart.

This is the one from the other three artichokes.

And here, Claudine, you want to cut those?

- [Claudine] Yeah.

- Also.

During that time, I'll see what it looks in there.

See, that's nice and green.

Beautiful.

I'll put the lettuce in this.

You have so many different type of vegetable in it.

If you don't want to put all of it, you can omit.

A little bit of sugar.

Bit of sugar to give, a pinch.

A dash of salt.

There, our artichokes in it.

Here we are.

I think you're going to like that vegetable, right?

- I'm already eating some, so.

- Yeah.

And I'll put all of this in there.

This is nice.

- That is beautiful.

- And I do think that- - [Claudine] That's a great color.

- I do think I'd put the lid back on top of it, and it probably should cook for another couple of minutes now.

Well, let's check the vegetable now.

You know, you want them cooked, you don't want them falling apart.

Remember, the artichoke bottom is already cooked.

- Oh yeah, that's right.

Okay.

- Yeah, beautiful.

- That is awesome.

- I think that's fine.

- Okay, I'm going to get you a bowl.

- Yeah.

You want to taste any of this?

Okay, don't burn yourself.

- Mm.

- Good?

- Mm-hmm.

- Enough salt?

- Yep.

Perfect.

- So we have a nice beautiful plate of spring vegetable here.

- Oh, this is great.

- [Jacques] Okay.

- [Claudine] Okay?

- Yep.

And this is my artichokes "Hymn to Spring."

- [Claudine] That was awesome.

- [Jacques] Okay.

And now?

- Dessert.

- Good.

- Okay.

- So what we have here, we have some cherries.

And of course, you use fresh cherries if you can get them.

You can pit them with the point of a knife or with something like this, you know, to pull out the pit to have a piece here coming out.

But of course if you don't have, if you have frozen cherries, most of the time, they're going to be already pitted.

In any case here, the important part, you see, I have the pit here and I want to crack.

(metal thudding) I crack those pits to give me the taste of the inside, you know?

And this is a really good taste.

The taste of the nut inside the pit.

Claudine, put that in there now.

- Okay.

- Okay, put that all the way.

- All the way?

- Yep.

And then we're going to attach this.

And if I cook, if I cook my pit like this inside my cherry, then I'm going to get that kind of nutty taste from the center of the kernel, you know?

So that goes inside.

And what you want to put, you want to put some white wine in there.

- [Claudine] Yeah.

- About three quarter of a cup.

(pan sizzling) Good.

And a little bit of cherry.

A cherry preserve, a cherry marmalade here.

- Mm.

Are you going to- - See that?

See, the juice will come out.

What you have to do is relatively simple, you know?

You want to cook this, bring it to a strong boil, cook it about five minutes, and a lot of juice is going to come out of it.

So we want to thicken it lightly.

Here, you want to- - Okay.

- Make it?

I have a little bit of cornstarch here, diluted with water.

You know, we have to put some sugar in there also.

I forget the sugar.

After about five minutes of boiling, you add your cornstarch mixture.

And you stir it, you put it all together in one shot there.

Stir it and that's going to thicken right away.

And at that point, you can take it, let it cool off.

You let it cool off.

You can leave it overnight.

Leave the pit in there because you're going to have the taste.

And I think we have some, which are ready, right?

- Yep, I'll get it.

- Okay.

- And a bowl.

- So it's a simple- - Or a dish.

- Yes, it's a simple recipe, but it's quite nice.

Are you going to do the honor or should I?

- You can do the honors.

I'm going to go behind you to get the sour cream.

- All right, so I'll try not to mess up the side.

- [Claudine] That's why.

- Well, you know what we could put in there if you want to, a little bit of the Kirschwasser.

Kirschwasser is a brandy of cherries where actually some of the pit, you know, of the cherries that have been crushed and put into it, so it's not that strong.

The best one from the black forest.

But this one, you know what?

This one is from United States, this one is from Oregon.

It's beautiful.

Okay, here we are.

You want to put a little bit of that in there?

It's more than enough.

And that's it.

- Okay.

And here we go.

- And this is our cherry compote for a kosher menu for friends.

We're on our kosher menu for friends today.

We really have terrific food.

Huh?

- We really do.

It's wonderful.

The medley, the hymn of artichokes or medley of vegetables- - [Jacques] That's great.

- Is just so good.

I'm so excited to eat.

And the salmon is great.

This is beautiful, it's elegant, and it's actually pretty easy to make.

- And we also have orzo, orzo with arugula.

It's a little different, but I tell you, that could be a meal itself.

- Oh yeah.

- I love pasta this way.

- And I guess we're going to break with tradition and have some red wine?

- Yes, with the salmon.

The salmon is a fatty fish, you know?

And on your fatty fish, you can really have a pinot noir.

We have a pinot noir from the central coast here.

It's very flowery and very good.

It's going to go well with it.

Although, we're going to have a Coteaux du Layon, which is a sweet wine from the Loire Valley with the cherry.

That's going to go well with it.

- Oh yeah.

- But in any case, I think that you're going to like breaking tradition with the red wine.

And so don't worry about having your friend to dinner if their diet are different than yours.

Cook for them, be happy and enjoy being together.

Happy cooking.

(glasses clink) - Happy cooking.

(gentle music)