- Sometime, I go to the deli counter of my supermarket, I make my first course there.

(bowl clinking) A bunch of different olives, some fresh mozzarella, dried tomato, pimiento there.

I have capers, put oil and vinegar on top, pepper, some fresh herb from the garden.

I mix all that together, put that into a lettuce leaf or radicchio leaf there.

My first course is ready.

I'm Jacques Pepin.

This is "Fast food My Way."

Happy cooking.

Today, I'm going to start my meal with a brouillade.

A brouillade, from brouille, that is scrambled in France.

It's type of scrambled eggs that we serve on salad and, very often in the south of France, with tomato, with mushroom in it.

Today, I'm going to do that with shallots, mushroom, nice mushroom, and maybe a very special thing, I have one truffle here and I'm going to use it.

So the first thing you wanna do is to slice whatever garnish you're going to have.

I think I have enough here for four or five eggs.

(knife clinking) (pan thudding) So a little piece of butter.

I'm gonna put a dash of oil with it, good olive oil, and put that to cook.

(ingredients thudding softly) Now, I break my eggs.

And you can see I have a lot of different eggs here.

I have a farm behind my house in Connecticut.

I remember, once, I did an omelet for my wife.

I had a turkey egg in it, I had a goose eggs, I had duck eggs, pheasant, guinea hen, poulet, tiny one, I forget another one, even regular chicken.

So as you can see here, this is duck eggs, (egg tapping) which I'm going to use one.

It's a deeper yellow, very rich, quite nice.

This is poulet, the tiny chicken.

So maybe we'll put this one in there too.

And then, I have a couple of regular eggs.

As you can see, the color is quite different.

But even at the supermarket, now, you can buy organic eggs.

And it's always better to buy organic, if you can.

Salt, pepper in it.

And I'm going to beat that up with a fork.

Break the yolk with your fork.

(fork clinking) Start beating it.

(fork clacking) And in the brouillade, (fork clacking) what I like to do is to put a bit of sour cream.

Now, notice that when I beat this up.

(pan sizzling) Notice that when I beat this, I don't just go around like this, but it's like a wet mop and the egg white goes around.

You go from one hand to the other, really beat it.

(fork clacking) So that you don't have any string of egg white coming out of it.

And then, inside there, (fork clinking) I put a good tablespoon of sour cream.

It make it very moist.

(fork clacking) Okay.

Now you can do that ahead.

You can even do your garnish ahead, but you wanna cook it just at the last moment.

(pan sizzling) (pan thudding) So when you're ready, this is a nonstick pan.

It's a good idea to use that nonstick whisk in there.

(pan sizzling) You can do that with a fork also, but this is really nice.

Okay, here we go.

You bring it around.

And the more you mix it, in the classic tradition in France, I mix it even more than that to have the smallest possible curd and the creamiest possible eggs.

The more you let it hang around, the larger the curd and a bit tougher it's going to be.

It has a different taste too.

Now, you can see it's still quite wet.

But I think that now, I'm going to remove it.

And the reason here that there is a lot of it still around and it's going to continue cooking.

So see, it's going to continue cooking around.

So bring it around.

And this is about the right texture, I mean, for me.

Now, look, if I feel that it's cooking too fast and too much, you know what I do?

Put a little bit of sour cream in it.

The cold will stop the cooking also.

(spoon scraping) Okay, it's fine here.

(knife clinking) A little bit of chive.

(knife thudding) Little color there.

And that, most of the time, we serve that in a bowl of lettuce like this.

(spoon scraping) So this is a recipe that you do with two tomato in the center, often in the south of France.

And that's served very often kind of, not even hot, lukewarm.

Now, for an extra added special things, if you happen to have one of those, this is a truffle.

The black truffle of Perigord, the southwest of France.

This is a tuberum melanosporum, that the real name.

There is about 50 underground mushroom, which have the right to be called truffle, but there is only a couple of good one.

The tuberum melanosporum is the best one.

Tuberum brumale, winter truffle, are very good.

Then, summer truffle, tuberum eastivum.

Sounds very pretentious to have all those name in Latin, but the etymology is different in any language.

So what I do, I will use a vegetable peeler here to slice a few slice of truffle on top and that bring it to another level.

It's a wonderful, wonderful aroma.

Mm.

I love that.

Now, the best way of doing that, when I was in Perigord and, actually, I was in Carpentras with Claude, and we went to a farm there.

And the little farmer had those tiny mongrel dog, and they were going for truffles.

So we went hunting with them.

The first thing we had for aperitif, she gave us toast like this with butter and just sliced truffle on top of it.

That was heaven.

I mean, just on top of it.

Now, we went hunting with the truffle dog, and it's a mongrel dog.

And I asked the farmer, "How do they know to pick up the truffle?"

And then, she showed me there was a bunch of baby dog and there was the mother there.

And the farmer would show me, she had some truffle oil.

And I have some truffle oil right here, which, in fact, I'm going to put a little bit on top of my eggs here.

She take the truffle oil like that and rub the teats of the female dog.

And the baby would suck on that.

And that's how they get the taste of truffle.

So here, you put a bit of that truffle oil on top, a bit of fleur de sel, that big crunchy fleur de sel on top.

And that's what you have for aperitif.

That's heaven.

(toast crunching) Best way to have truffle.

(toast crunching) And now, I'm not going to throw that away.

I'm going to eat it as I'm cooking.

(toast crunching) I'm going to do quail and potato.

Very classic mixture.

(lid clanging) I'm going to put olive oil in there.

(oil glugging) We'll start with the oil and we'll put a piece of butter at the end.

I have potato here, all cubed, ready to go.

You can peel them ahead, providing you keep them in water.

And if you keep them in water, you don't have to worry about discoloration.

(bowl clinking) (knife clinking) So those are large cube of potato, like this.

(knife thudding) That's it.

(knife thudding) (knife clinking) (pan ringing) Okay.

This, of course, is great, the nonstick pan.

That avoid a lot of problem.

(potatoes thudding softly) See my pan is not even hot enough.

It doesn't matter because it's an nonstick pan.

If it was not a nonstick pan, that could give me a lot of problem.

So this, you wanna drain carefully.

(pan sizzling) (potatoes thudding softly) Good.

(pan sizzling) This is going to cook about seven, eight minute before it's nice and brown and tender.

And at the end, or not, about halfway through, we're going to put 20 clove of garlic to cook with it and finish it with sage.

(bowl clinking) Well, that can go here for the time being.

(bowl clinking) (pan sizzling) My potato starting to brown a little bit.

(lid clanging) I can start cooking the quail.

The quail will take probably three, four minute on each side.

And I wanna season them with salt.

(pan sizzling) And those quail come bone out, as you can see.

(pan sizzling) Cumin powder.

(pan sizzling) I have some cayenne here.

Now, the cayenne, it's very, very strong, but you'll be surprised, like in Cajun cooking.

And I put some pepper.

In Cajun cooking, you mix a lot of cayenne there.

And when you cook directly on hot heat, a lot of the hotness of the pepper goes.

So I turn that on the other side, do the same thing here.

(pan sizzling) Maybe I'll have enough cayenne on the other side now.

I like the taste of cumin and olive oil.

(pan sizzling) Just enough to start.

(pan sizzling) Okay.

Pan's hot.

(pan sizzling) Can put that on top.

So one, two, three.

(pan sizzling) (pan sizzling) I'm gonna cook four quail.

(pan sizzling) Breast side down, it's almost the same from one side to the other.

What I wanna do is to rinse my finger now.

Okay.

(pan sizzling) Potato are getting there.

The quail are cooking.

Now, I have a garnish for the quail.

And the garnish for the quail is what we call a raita.

And the Indians do that, which is a cucumber relish.

It's very, very cool.

(utensils clinking) What you do, cut the end of your cucumber, of course.

You need a good vegetable peeler in one streak again.

(peeler scraping) You clean it up.

(peeler scraping) I mean, you can do this on each side, then do this on the other side, then cut the end of it and you'll be at the same point, but it will take you three times as much time.

So those are the proper technique.

(pan sizzling) Okay, then we cut that in half.

(pan sizzling) And to remove the seed with a small spoon, go to the end, but don't go in the center, cut the edge of the seed, then the edge on the other side.

Then you don't damage your cucumber.

(spoon clinking) Okay.

(pan sizzling) Let me see now whether those quails may have to be turned.

(pan sizzling) Now, look at that, how beautiful they are.

(pan sizzling) In fact, they're great.

(pan sizzling) Okay.

So the raita, you wanna cut that into dice.

So into strip first.

(pan sizzling) Strip there.

(pan sizzling) (knife thudding) I mean, this is a recipe by itself.

You don't have to serve that with quail or actually with any roast.

This is great as a first course.

We do that often in the summer.

Okay.

(pan sizzling) (bowl clinking) Okay, now, we wanna put a little bit of, let's see, that really hot chili oil.

(cap snapping) Hot chili oil, wanna put in there.

(pan sizzling) Like it really hot.

I wanna put some garlic, fair amount of chopped garlic.

(pan sizzling) And even extra hotness, if you want, this is wasabi paste.

And then, the wasabi paste is pretty strong too, yeah?

And of course, the opposite, in a sense, is yogurt.

And if you can get Greek yogurt, a really cool yogurt, which are very creamy.

(spoon clinking) (pan sizzling) And in that mixture, oh, I didn't put any salt.

You put salt in there.

(pan sizzling) And then, the mint.

(knife thudding) That's it.

(knife clinking) There is the mint.

(pan sizzling) (spoon clinking) (pan sizzling) (spoon clinking) That's a beautiful dish.

(spoon clinking) And we can put a little sprig of mint on the top.

(pan sizzling) And now, let's see the quail, where they are at.

(pan sizzling) Well, beautiful on the other side too.

So at that point, they are maybe not quite cooked enough inside, but this will be plenty with the heat.

(pan sizzling) The heat that I have in that pan here.

I just leave them in that heat and cover them, (lid clanging) just to get a little bit of a heat continue inside.

And that's it.

Now, the potato are about halfway to 3/4 of the way cooked.

I think this is the time to put garlic.

I have all of those clove of garlic.

Sometime, I do that with the garlic unpeeled also.

And if you do it with unpeeled garlic, you can start with the potato at the beginning because it doesn't burn with the peel on in the same way.

And we are going to put a little bit of julienne coarsely cut, (knife thudding) different type of sage.

And on that sage here, of course, you don't wanna put it now.

I'm going to leave it until my potato are finished cooking.

(pan sizzling) And that, as I say, is going to take another three, four, five minutes.

This takes a couple of minute more.

My quail, on the other hand, are perfectly beautiful.

(knuckles knocking) Who's there?

- Hi, Jacques.

- Hi.

(lid clanging) - Finally, I found you pear.

- You found the pear.

- Finally.

- Well, it's time to make dessert, you know?

- Absolutely, yeah.

- Oh, good.

- Yeah, I brought you three different kind.

So maybe we choose, I know you're picky, so you have a choice now, okay?

- What do you mean, I'm picky?

- No, no, we have a choice, okay?

- Those are Bosc, huh?

- Yeah, right.

- [Jacques] How long does that take to cook?

- Two hours.

(both chuckling) - Not far.

People always say, "How long does it take to cook a pear?"

Between a minute and an hour, and it's true.

You have those Bartlett, those red Bartlett, very ripe.

You do a syrup, drop them in the boiling syrup.

Cool it on the side, it's cooked, right?

- Five minutes.

- And those, they can simmer for what, an hour?

- Absolutely, yeah.

- Are you going to- - So we choose this one, then?

- Well, I think we have three like this.

I think those are nice, right?

- Yeah, okay.

So let's do those, okay.

- Three, we should have enough.

- Very good.

Yeah, I think so.

- So can I help you there or?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

So what do you wanna do, we peel that?

- Yeah.

- What, you do a vegetable peeler?

- [Jean-Claude] Oh, yes.

- [Jacques] You don't know how to use a knife?

- Ah, well, don't push me.

I mean, hey, this is so nice.

Let me try that one.

- [Jacques] Yeah, it is nice.

- [Jean-Claude] It works wonderfully.

Look at that, I'm finished, you haven't started.

- I'm here.

(chuckles) - Oh, gee.

- Okay, so cut them in half.

- [Jean-Claude] Yeah.

- [Jacques] Or do you wanna cut them in quarter?

- [Jean-Claude] In quarter.

- Take the center out.

Great.

(knife thudding) - You gotta make them equal, okay?

(knife thudding) No.

(chuckles) (knife tapping) All right.

- [Jacques] Okay.

- [Jean-Claude] One more.

- [Jacques] Do I do that one?

- [Jean-Claude] Yeah.

- During the time, you finished yours, you wanna put whatever you need to put in there?

- [Jean-Claude] Okay.

- [Jacques] What are you putting in there?

- Well, I'm putting some red wine.

- Okay.

- Some red wine, about a cup or we have to cover.

(wine sloshing) - That's enough.

- We gotta keep some for us, no?

- You're not kidding.

- (laughs) That's the way we cook, right, with wine?

- And what is that red stuff you just put in it?

- That's what we call grenadine.

- Uh-huh.

Okay.

- I forgot about the name of that.

- We make grenade juice and grenadine.

- Yeah.

And some honey.

- [Jacques] Okay.

- [Jean-Claude] Instead of sugar, that gives it beautiful aroma.

- You use a lot of honey in the country.

That guy eat 10 gallon of honey a year.

When I go to his house, Upstate New York, he buys it in five-gallon pail.

- That's only for my coffee, actually.

- Yeah.

(laughs) All right, we put that to cook here.

- Okay.

- And how long do you think this cook?

Those are pretty tender, huh?

- I'd say five minutes boiling, I think.

- Five, ten minutes?

- Maybe 10 minutes, yeah.

- Okay, so this has to come to a boil.

- Yeah.

- During that time, you're gonna help me here.

- Okay.

- Finish off my potato here.

- Wow.

- Yeah, beautiful potato.

You know what you could do?

- [Jean-Claude] Okay.

- Could you open some wine?

- Geez, why not?

- I got some red wine here.

- Okay.

All right, so let me do that.

I like that job here.

- Good.

And what I'm going to do is to put a piece of butter in the potato at the end.

(knife clinking) And that green, what do you call that again?

- Sage, no?

- No.

- [Jean-Claude] Bar sage?

- Sage.

Sage, you're right, sage.

(cork popping) And you finish it up like this.

And that's it.

- [Jean-Claude] Mm-hmm.

- [Jacques] Are you ready with the wine?

(wine sloshing) - Yeah.

You wanna taste it or?

- No.

(laughs) What am I going to do, send it back?

You just brought it.

Okay, you wanna help me finish that dish?

- [Jean-Claude] Yeah.

- If you wanna come here.

- Yeah.

- I'm gonna put my potato in the center here.

(pan thudding) And if you want, you can arrange, here, I'll give you that.

(pan scraping) - Yeah.

- You can arrange those quail in the center of it.

(spoon clinking) - [Jean-Claude] Yeah.

- [Jacques] Turn them in their juice a little bit.

- [Jean-Claude] Wow.

- Yeah, isn't that nice?

So you have the cayenne on top of it.

All right.

(tongs clinking) - [Jean-Claude] We can pour the juice on top too, no?

- [Jacques] We can pour the juice on top if you want, yeah.

(spoon clinking) - [Jean-Claude] Make them a little shiny.

- One quail, two quail per person, what do you think?

I mean, we do another batch and- - Usually, one per person, but all depends.

(pan clinking) (pan clinking) - [Jacques] Go ahead.

- [Jean-Claude] Okay, here we go.

- Great.

We're ready to eat.

(pan clinking) Those potato are cooked.

They're good.

- That looks good.

(gentle music) - Jean Claude is my oldest friend.

(glass clinking) (wine sloshing) Not my best, but... (both laughing) We cooked together 47 years ago for the president in France together.

And then he got married, then I got married, then he had kid, then I have kid.

We always spend our vacation together, the two wife and us.

And I'll drink to that.

- Yeah, it's always wonderful.

(glasses clinking) - That Merlot is good, huh?

- Yeah, excellent, excellent.

- Okay.

You wanna check on those pear now?

- Yeah, think it'd be a good idea.

Give me a chance to drink my wine.

- [Jacques] Bring it with you.

Okay, let's see.

That's it.

- [Jean-Claude] Yeah.

- [Jacques] I think that's it, right?

- [Jean-Claude] Yeah.

- [Jacques] Let me check.

- [Jean-Claude] Just checking it.

- [Jacques] Yeah, good.

I mean, those cook pretty fast, so yeah.

- [Jean-Claude] Oh, yeah.

Did you see that?

- [Jacques] Okay.

- [Jean-Claude] Amazing, yeah.

- So what you have to do now, you could serve them as such, but basically, you wanna remove your pear, cool them off.

But certainly, you can serve them warm, but usually, those are served cold.

And the syrup that we have in there, you wanna reduce it by at least half, or a bit more, so that it's nice and thick.

(pan scraping) So what do you think, this syrup is reduced enough?

- [Jean-Claude] Yeah, it looks good.

(spoon clinking) - [Jacques] Okay, good.

- [Jean-Claude] Yeah, very syrupy.

Beautiful.

- So I'll give it to you.

- Yeah.

- [Jacques] It reduced quite a lot, but now it's concentrated.

- [Jean-Claude] Yeah.

- And even though you serve it cold, but it's very good this way.

- Look at that, beautiful, huh?

- You're going to serve it?

- Yeah.

- Well, I like it with ice cream.

- [Jean-Claude] You do?

- [Jacques] Yeah.

- [Jean-Claude] Oh, well.

- [Jacques] So we're doing three piece per person?

- [Jean-Claude] Yeah, I think three piece is reasonable.

It's not too much and- - Okay, I have a nice vanilla ice cream.

- So let me put a little juice more.

- Organic vanilla ice cream.

You know what?

You can even put a bit of juice on top of this, no?

- [Jean-Claude] Okay.

Just to see what happen, but I think it's a good idea.

- [Jacques] Great.

- [Jean-Claude] Wow.

All right, a little mint on top.

- Oh, boy, what a finishing touch.

Thank you for spending time in the kitchen with us.

(glasses clinking) Happy cooking.

- Happy cooking.

- Good stuff.