- Hi, I'm Jacques Pepin.

- And I'm Claudine Pepin.

- Today's menu is all about comfort food.

- Mashed potatoes!

- No, not today, Claudine.

- Can you talk about comfort food without mashed potatoes?

- Comfort food isn't any one thing.

It's whatever warms you up and lift your spirit.

- [Claudine] Like a robust and filling lentil and barley soup that's a meal in itself.

- [Jacques] Or catfish filet with fresh peas and zucchini, a bean sprout salad is unusual and refreshing, and an old-fashioned baked apple like your grandmother used to make.

- It's simple, flavorful food that's both unusual and comforting.

What more could you want except for mashed potatoes?

- Join us for a comfort food feast.

- Next on "Jacques Pepin's Kitchen: - Encore with Claudine."

- Today, Claudine and I are cooking comfort food.

- Extremely comfort food.

- Extremely comfort, yes.

Satisfying food, and we're gonna start with a lentil soup.

It's easy to do, right?

- Yeah, everything in the pot and there you go.

- We have the lentil and all that.

And we have a good stock here.

I want to taste the stock as we start.

I have a special tasting spoon here.

You take the spoon here and you taste on this side.

- [Claudine] This means you can double dip.

- Yeah, you can go again.

- Yes, that's cool.

- I like that.

- This is a tasting spoon.

That's great, now this is a good stock.

No salt in it.

- Okay.

- Chicken stock.

We have four type of lentil here.

Do you know those?

- They're pink and black and gray and green.

- That's what they are.

This actually the Lentil Le Puy, so called the green lentil from France, that's what we are using today.

This is the regular lentil, supermarket.

- Yeah, those are familiar.

- Great too and very inexpensive.

This is the pink lentil.

It's used a great deal in the Andean cooking.

And actually this turn white, I mean, this turn almost the same color than that one is cooked.

And this is the beluga lentil, like a dark caviar.

And actually it's grown in this country too.

- Hmm.

- But we are going to use a pound of the- - Which kind?

- Green lentil, yes?

- Oh.

- Lentil Le Puy, you know?

And what you wanna do is to wash your lentil first.

So I'm putting them in a pot with water there.

Here we are.

Just if there is any sand in there, you know, you want to rinse them out.

Hmm, here we are.

I'll dry them, or you?

- Let me get rid of this?

- Yeah, hmm, hmm.

Do you wanna put them in there?

I put them in there.

- Okay.

I put them in there.

- I'll put 'em in here.

- Okay, and then you want to put this in there and tell us what that is.

- Vulgare?

- Vulgare?

- No, I'm wrong!

I'm sorry.

- This is bur-ley.

- It's like bur-ley.

- Yes.

- Oh, barley.

- Barley.

- Barley.

- We are going to do.

- It's not bur-ley, it's barley.

- This is going to be barley soup.

- Bul-gar?

- Barley soup.

Okay, here we have this in there.

And now all of our vegetable.

This, you wanna put some Herbes de Provence.

- I wanna put 'em.

- In there.

We put a couple of sausage in there.

- I always forget to put Herbes de Provence in soup.

- Yes.

- It's a great addition to soup.

- Nice, good, yeah.

And you see here?

I'm peeling the top of that sausage, not to pull the skin, just break it in there in two pieces, okay, yeah?

- Just like little meatballs, or?

- Yes.

- Just like- - I mean, they're going to separate in there.

You can do that one.

I'll cut some onions for you.

Here we are, Claudine, you can't put that in there.

I'm going to do that for you.

- Okay.

- Okay.

Garlic, we crush the garlic.

You don't have to chop it very carefully because it doesn't really matter.

- I don't have a pastry strip.

- Okay.

- But I'm gonna be like you.

I'm gonna use the knife.

- All right.

- Because that's how you do it and I like that.

- Here we are here.

Carrot, we have two carrot.

You can put turnips in it.

I mean, you know, if you have other vegetable in your refrigerator, it's time to use them.

Even if you have a piece of salad leftover, you know, half a salad, half a lettuce.

I slice it, I put it in there.

Okay here, and leek.

Now you see the only part of the leek that we don't use is that part right here.

And if you really see that the first part is very fibrous and tough, you may want to remove it.

But for a soup, I may remove a little bit of the end here.

That's about it, you know?

Use all the rest of it.

And that, even that, I will wash and keep for stock.

Okay, this has to be washed.

- I'll wash it.

- Okay.

Here, I'll open it for you.

And inside, as you can see here, there is always a lot of dirt inside.

So you wanna wash that?

- Yeah.

- Nicely under water.

And let's see what we have now.

Did you put any salt in there?

- Nope.

- Okay, so I make this.

- I only put what you gave me in there.

- The lentil are really going to expand a great deal here.

So I put the salt.

Okay, I'm waiting for my leek now.

- I'm getting there!

- Doesn't take that long to clean a leek.

- I want it to be done right.

- Good.

- 'Cause then you'll make me- - Good point.

- do it again.

- I wouldn't do that.

- Here.

Would I do that?

- Yes.

- Oh, okay.

All right, so the leek.

- Here.

- And we are about done here, you know?

- Yeah.

- This.

Bring it to a boil.

And I would say you would have to boil that a good hour, hour and a quarter, and you'll see it will thicken.

Occasionally as it's cooking, stir the bottom in case it sticks, you know?

It may scorch in the bottom.

Okay, and here we are.

Now let's see that lentil.

- [Claudine] Hmm.

- Now, like we're after, you see that get quite thick?

- [Claudine] Ah!

- But you see what happened here.

- It smells really good.

- The liquid is a bit thickened.

It could be slightly thicker.

So you know what you want to do with that?

- I get to use my machine.

- You get to use your machine and put a little bit in there, just in a corner, so that some of it get, you know, creamy and it will thicken the whole thing.

You don't want to emulsify the whole thing, just a little bit.

- That's pretty good.

- It should be about, let's see, yeah?

You see, it has a different look.

- Yeah.

- It gets creamier and all that.

So that's a good trick.

You can do that with other type of soup.

Okay, so now you want to serve it?

- Yes.

- And I love that.

Oh, wait a minute now.

We have Tabasco in there.

- Okay.

- Okay.

- With a stir?

- Yes.

- Here we go.

- Now you have a big soup like that with a nice bread, a salad, piece of cheese.

We're in business, huh?

- Sounds good.

- You took only the bottom here.

You like the thick part of this?

- Yeah, I do.

Hold on, let me make it look nice.

- Okay, and a little bit of a Swiss cheese if you want on top.

- Okay.

- Yes.

- Here we go.

All right, what's next?

- Fish, all right.

- Okay.

- So we're going to do, what are we going to do today?

- Catfish with zucchini and peas and stuff.

- Okay.

- Mushrooms.

What we are going to start with is the zucchini to cut here.

I'm going to cut that into four piece this way and we're going to use that for the garnish, you know?

So I start cooking the zucchini just like this in there.

- With nothing?

- Oh, no.

I'm going to put a little bit of butter in there.

Maybe half of this, yes.

And maybe a little bit of oil.

Okay.

- Sounds good.

- We start cooking this and in a little while, we'll cook the rest of the vegetable.

I have some fresh peas and we have a mushroom here.

But why don't you get the fish in the refrigerator?

- Okay.

- Okay.

Here it is, the catfish.

- Catfish.

- Now it is rare that you are going to get catfish in the market with the whole catfish like that skin, you know?

The skin is very difficult to remove.

I've cut the side already here and this side here just to show you at the end, you know?

- Here, use this one.

- The skin, you have to remove the skin by pulling it out, you know, this way.

And it's like leather, you know?

- Wow.

- You see?

This is really tough to do.

- Yeah.

- So I don't think you wanna do that.

- No, I don't wanna do that.

- All right, let's throw it out, okay.

But we have the fillet in any case.

In any case that I say it's rare that you would want to get it.

But if you get it, this is the way to take it out.

Now here is the four fillet of catfish.

This is raised catfish and it's beautiful quality, you know, you have now in the market.

Under the skin here, you can see a comparison between this one and that one.

You see it's black here?

- Yeah, what's that?

- The black flesh, you can leave it if you want.

But that black flesh is really, really actually fatty tissue that you have just under the skin and those fatty tissue are very strong.

So here, we remove it and that'd be fine.

Otherwise, I bet you you taste that, you're going to say this is a bit strong.

So let's, a dash of oil in there and we're going to start our fish.

Salt, pepper.

- Salt, pepper.

- We could if you want.

You're not doing anything here.

- No, I'm watching.

- You're watching.

Well, why don't you move on this side and you put them in the skillet?

- Okay.

- And show me whether you put them properly in the skillet.

- I've learned.

- Okay, go ahead.

- I put them going away from me.

- Going away from you, it's a good idea.

Well, put them where we have a bit of the oil here.

Okay, then I'll do the peas during that time.

- Locking out the splashes, okay.

- Okay, well that's almost perfect.

Well, you put those three pieces here on one side and this is on the other side.

- Oh!

- So it has a different look.

- Nobody will ever know that!

- Okay, put the mushroom with the zucchini to cook.

See the mushroom marker?

Just in pieces like this.

And you know what?

Put a little bit of water in there.

- Okay, got it.

- Just a touch, you know?

- Just a touch?

Give you a little more of this.

Okay, a touch, a touch more.

- So, a touch?

- A touch more.

- So water will eventually disappeared anyway.

No, that's fine, it doesn't brown too much.

And now we do some peas.

- Do you want me to put salt pepper in here?

- So with our fresh peas.

You can season it if you want.

It's nice to have fresh, but if you don't have fresh pea, you can really use the frozen ones.

- Okay, wait, look.

- What are you?

- You can do this.

- Wow!

You do better than me, you know?

- Can you do it?

- I didn't do that since I was in apprenticeship.

- You taught me how to do that.

- I know, but I was younger before, you know?

- Not bad, not bad.

- Not bad, huh?

I'll eat that one.

- Me too.

- Okay, that's about fine.

- Do we have enough?

- Yep.

Here we are.

We're going to add that to it.

And I think that I can tell my- - I put 'em in, you get to turn them, ha ha!

- Look at that.

- [Claudine] Because they were laid in so beautifully.

- Can you see that this one has a different look?

- Yes.

- All right.

- It looks much better than all the rest.

- Here, did you put salt and paper in there?

- Yes I did.

- Good.

You know what?

I'll use that lid here to cover that.

And during that time, let's do our salad.

- That sounds good, okay.

- What do we have here?

- We have blanched bean sprout.

- It was just dropped into boiling water.

30, 40 seconds, take out.

Otherwise, they look this way.

You see the difference?

- [Claudine] Mm-hmm.

- Okay.

- They're both good.

So we're doing a sauce there.

- We're doing the sauce?

- So start mixing your stuff.

- Okay.

- In there.

And I'm going to cut some scallions for you.

- [Claudine] Some sugar.

- [Jacques] That's too much!

- It is not.

- All right.

- [Claudine] Some Tabasco.

making a lot of- - But oh, oh, yeah.

It is a lot of Tabasco!

- I'll eat it.

You don't have to eat it.

- Okay.

- Oil, canola oil.

- Okay, I'll mix it.

- And vinegar.

- [Jacques] I get this.

- And some sesame oil, which I really am a big fan of.

Sesame oil is usually very strong though, right?

- Did you put the other oil?

- I put some other oil in there 'cause I know sesame oil is very strong.

- But what we have here.

- Sesame seeds.

- We have three types of sesame seeds, yeah.

This one is roasted.

This one is the same, unroasted.

And this is a black sesame seed.

Put a little bit of that, like a tablespoon in there.

Yeah, a good tablespoon.

A little more.

Then you can put, - Can I put some of the other kind in?

Can I put some of the black kind?

- Put a bit of the black.

I'm going to stop my fish.

I think it's cooked enough.

Yeah, I think it's about cooked.

I think this is about cooked too.

I'm just going to stop it, that's it.

And it can rest and continue cooking on its own.

- Okay.

- While we finish the salad, okay?

- All right.

So I'm gonna dump this in?

- Okay, you go ahead.

- Give it a little mix.

Oh, that smells so good!

- Then, you mix it.

I'll get you that to present it.

- I like using both colors.

- Have nice green here.

- Know what those are?

- No.

Mm, no, I still dunno what they are.

It tastes good.

It's spicy, isn't it?

- Yeah.

- This is radish top, you know?

Sometime when the I plant radish in my garden, we do a salad with the radish top when they are nice and fresh like this.

- Ooh!

- So, you probably had it - I knew I had it.

- when you were a kid, but you don't remember it, okay.

No, I just know that I know it.

- Okay.

- Okay, this is fine.

- Okay.

- All right.

(gentle bright music) - [Claudine] Should we go finish the fish?

- Yeah, let's finish the fish.

- Okay.

- But it's ready.

- I have a plate.

- All right.

Now I have a beautiful array of vegetable here.

Now you see what I want to do here?

You have to move that out of the way because this we do, we are doing little both with that.

I cut it this way.

Not quite to the end, you see?

Give me the plate.

Now we put that on top.

This is where you put your vegetable.

- Ooh!

Oh, that's so pretty.

- Now put your vegetable in there.

Maybe a little fillet here.

Maybe I'll put that fillet here that you turn because it looked the best.

I have to say, it looked the best.

All right.

Put my vegetable here.

- [Claudine] Oh, that is so nice!

And that's really just simple.

- Bit of chive on top.

- Okay.

- Bit of that juice here.

I should cut it, right?

- No, no, no, no, no, watch.

It's very cool.

- You think so?

- I think it looks very cool.

- All right, fine.

- It's like hip and styly.

- You can have it this way, right?

- It's hip and styly.

- Not crazy about it, but.

- Well then, when you come over, I won't do that.

- Okay.

- Let's make dessert.

- Good.

And the dessert is one of my favorite here.

We are going to do apple bonne femme, you know?

And I'm going to put bread underneath too.

How about an ounce of bread?

That's all.

That's all I need here.

I'm gonna put that to use that as the base as like a cushion to put my apple on top.

That's going to soak all of the juice of the apple and that's really good.

- Oh, that's gonna be good.

- For the time being.

Okay, do you have your apple?

- I have two, which means we need two more.

- Two more, here is one, here is another.

- Here's the thing.

- Okay, well first, first we take the stem.

You see this way?

And sometime I keep this, I put a little bit of lemon juice.

- Oh, I kept- - You can keep it for decoration.

- All right.

- Yeah, you kept the other one.

Now even though this is the top of the apple, do this.

Now this is the bottom of the apple will be wider like this.

- Ooh!

- I'm taking that piece also.

And you want to go straight here.

You know, you want to come on the other side in the right place?

- Hmm.

Should I try it?

- Of course, you should try.

Here it is.

- Okay, upside down, right?

I start upside down?

- Yes, you start this way.

Did that, huh?

Yeah, you did very good.

And we're gonna peel.

We're gonna peel the top of the apple here.

Well, about a third of the apple.

Okay, you can arrange them on the thing.

Now what you wanna do in there is to put a little bit of butter inside.

No, first, a little spring of mint inside and a little piece of butter that you push on top of the mint.

- Okay.

- You wanna bring this here?

- Yeah, that'll be easier.

- That'd be easier, during that time, - Here, you make the sauce.

- I'll do the syrup, which is grenadine, water.

- Mint, you washed this mint, right?

- It's super clean.

And apricot, so I have an apricot jam or apricot preserve here.

Grenadine and mint, that's my syrup.

We're gonna put some sesame seed.

- Mm-mm, pignoli nuts.

- I mean, pignoli.

Pignoli nuts, thank you, Claudine.

You know, pignoli nut or pine nuts.

A little bit of sugar, like a tablespoon or two in this.

The juice on top of this here.

And we put that in the oven, like 400 degree.

- Mm-hmm.

- For close to an hour, you know?

- Sounds good.

- And all the juice coming out of it should be absorbed into the bread.

And that's really good.

- Okay, I'll be right back.

- Apple are high in fiber.

Good antioxidant, but choose the right apple.

I have different type of apple here.

As you can see, this is a Rome Beauty.

That wouldn't work.

What if you use McIntosh, Rome Beauty, Stayman, any of those are white flesh apple and they will fall apart.

They are too mushy for that.

Well, that looks good.

- Yeah.

- So let's see the, oh!

This is still lukewarm, the way you want it.

We'll serve it with the bread, you see?

That's the way I like it here - I hope so.

- When you, and the bread is full of the juice, you know?

Gonna put this one here.

- Looks nice, I have little flowers.

- Oh, you want little flowers?

- Yeah.

- Decorate that one.

- Just looks nice.

- And with a dessert like that, you know?

We have a Muscat here, a Muscat from the lower part of Cotes du Rhone, which is a very sweet wine.

And I think you're gonna enjoy that with it.

- Oh, I'm sure I will.

- Hmm, smell of a dry fruit.

Apricot.

- Apricots.

Do you like to always start with dessert?

- Always, you know?

When in doubt, start with dessert.

I give you a little piece here.

- Okay.

- And I have a little piece.

- All right, well, I gotta go set the table.

- Okay?

- Thank you, that's good.

- Well, today, I'm gonna taste some Zinfandel with Jeff Dawson.

And this is gonna be fun because he's actually gonna explain to me how to pick out the different tastes that exist within the Zinfandel.

- Well, when we're trying to pair wine with food, we really know need to know what flavors you have in the wine and what aromas, what do you smell, what do you taste?

Because those are the same things you're looking for in the food when you pair the two together.

- Okay.

- So today with the Zinfandel, we are going to first taste it.

And we'll swirl the wine around so that we can get it in contact with the air and release the aromas.

- Okay?

Hmm.

- And then by smelling it, you can find out what flavors are held within the wine.

- It's fruit, it tastes, it smells like berries.

- Berries are a predominant flavor in Zinfandel, strawberry, blackberry.

- Hmm.

- Now you taste the wine.

- My favorite part.

- Oh, mine too.

- Hmm.

Oh, this is like deep, rich, earthy kind of taste.

- Right, you taste a little bit of the tannin, a little bit dryness on the tongue.

But there's also that berry that you smelt in the nose, comes through onto the palate.

- Yeah.

- And for me, strawberry is really predominant.

Prunes or plums?

- Prunes, definitely, yeah.

- Dried fruit.

Blackberry's very common.

There's many Zinfandels that have just a very intense blackberry flavor.

- Oh, wow!

- The spiciness usually can be related to a peppercorn, peppery flavor.

- Oh yeah, okay.

- Also.

And then, there's some floral flavors that translate into rose.

Usually in the aroma, sometimes when you get your nose in there and you take a big sniff, rose is one of the predominant floral qualities in the Zinfandels.

And because you have that tannin, earthy flavor, this goes really well with earthy foods.

- Oh, wow!

- Such as eggplant, beets, beans, bean dishes are great with Zinfandels.

- Oh, like chili and stuff.

Oh, great.

- Exactly.

- Perfect, oh wow!

Well, I think we should eat now.

So, happy eating.

- Happy drinking.

- Well, today we are doing comfort food, something gratifying, something which fill you up, something which make you feel happy.

That's what we are doing today, right?

And look at that soup.

You know, a big soup like this, I mean, that could be a whole meal, you know?

- Well, maybe with some cheese and some bread.

- That's right.

- Yep.

- And what else?

- Absolutely.

Well, I mean, with this particular meal, we also have the salad with the bean sprouts and the sesame seeds and the catfish with the zucchini boats.

- You have two different meal in a sense here.

You can have a whole meal with the soup, cheese, even the apple bonne femme.

You know, with that, I would drink that Zinfandel, you know?

This is that deep, strong, heavy wine that would go with it.

But with the fish, sesame oil, that other type of thing, you know, maybe you would want that Chardonnay.

- Yeah.

- That you have there.

- Yeah, I'm excited.

I'll just drink it anyway.

- So I'm thinking I'm going to have some soup, so I'm going to help myself with this one.

- Okay, and I'm gonna have some soup too.

And I'm gonna have some of this.

- Well, we'll exchange.

Actually, you know what?

I'm gonna drink both.

- Okay.

- And I hope you enjoy cooking that food with your family also as we enjoy cooking it for you.

- Happy cooking.

- Until next time, happy cooking.

(jazz playful music)