- Hi, I'm Jacques Pépin.

- And I'm Claudine Pépin.

Sometimes I work late, and I get home and I'm tired.

Can you teach me how to make a quick and easy meal?

- Yes.

I think you've been ordering out for pizza too much.

I'm going to show you how to make a fast, easy, and inexpensive meal.

- Well, I usually have potatoes and onions.

- That's a good start.

I will also show you how to make a quick bread.

- A quick bread, are you kidding?

- It's no big deal.

We'll make an easy shortcut supper.

- Next on Jacques Pépin's Kitchen- - Cooking with Claudine.

- Today I am going to show you an easy shortcut supper.

- Okay.

- You know when you come home after work, do you make bread?

- No, no.

- I see that.

So the longer thing to do when you make soda bread, she's a real classic British bread, you put the oven on, because it'll be ready to go into the oven before the oven gets to 425 degrees, which is where you want it.

- Oh, wow!

- So this is a great recipe.

So I have a teaspoon and a half of baking powder I'm putting here.

You know why I'm putting baking powder?

Because I'm using milk.

If I were to use sour milk or a buttermilk, something acidic, then I will use baking soda.

- Okay.

- Baking soda plus cream of tartar, equals baking powder.

So this is what I have here, baking powder, about the same amount of salt.

And- - How much flour?

- Well, I have three cups of flour here.

- Okay.

- And about a cup and a half of milk.

You just mix it gently.

A little bit like when you mix... you know, when you do biscuit?

Stuff like this, you don't really want to ever, and you don't really want to do that ahead too much.

The reason is that if you do it ahead, you know, the action of the baking powder kind of disappeared, you know, after a while.

So we just get it together.

And that's it, you see, it's pretty easy to do.

So you know what?

- That's it?

- That's basically it, because see, contrary to the yeast where you have to let it proof a long time, here, you don't let it proof.

Meaning that it's ready right away.

You know?

- I hope you turned the oven on.

- You turned the oven on, yes.

Of course I did.

This is what I did first.

- Yeah.

Let me oil this.

- So, yeah, oil this a little bit too, yeah.

(Speaking French) A little bit of flour for me so I can grab it out of there.

And you know, bring it here.

Putting the dough right on top here.

- Whoa.

- And you know what you can do is actually to mold the dough.

See, we don't even dirty the table here, which is good.

What you want to do is to mold this into a nice moon shape, you know, like this?

A nice roundish shape.

Okay?

- Mhm.

- And then for the decoration on top, which is really the classic where we put a little bit of flour on top, and we make a cross, we top it with a cross.

So you see, you run this.

Don't go with the point, you just run it on top of it this way, here, try it.

Don't do it deep across, let it run.

That's it.

That's it.

And we put that in the oven.

But before that, you know, we have a bowl here.

We put that bowl right on top of it.

Like a recipe I read in an old book and it says to do it this way.

I've tried it and it worked quite well.

So 400 degree, 425 degree oven, very hot.

For 30 minutes.

We have one here which I've been cooking that amount of time with this on top.

- Now you remove that, look how beautiful it is, You know?

- Oh, look at the steam coming out.

- Yeah, the steam.

And it's not cooked yet.

Close it, Now another 30 minutes at 425 degree.

And I have one which is cold here, which we are, as you can see here.

Well this one is cold now, and we want to cut it.

I wanna show you the inside.

You see this is really a classic bread.

I mean, by the time this is cooked, - Oh wow - Normally I tell you, the other one would not even be proofed.

So this is your classic English soda bread.

And now we are going to start the meal with a green and sardine salad.

So I'm gonna show you how to do this- - Ooh, that sounds good.

- Okay, so this is a shortcut meal.

You know, you have to look in your cupboard and you have this, that, we have sardine.

We always have sardine at home.

As you know.

- Everybody always has sardines.

- Well, I love sardine.

So we have the regular sardine in oil and the sardine with the tomato.

Which one you like the best?

- I think in oil.

- In oil?

- Yeah, because I'm- - I like the tomato better.

- Well then why did you bother asking me?

- That's true.

So which one?

We putting the oil?

- Yes.

- Alright, you see the way you are?

Okay so this is about - How could you have tomato?

- six ounce can of sardine, be fine for four.

We're gonna put that in the bowl after.

For the time we are going to do a dressing.

- Alright.

- So let's put like two tablespoon of oil in there.

- Olive oil, regular oil?

- Yeah, olive oil is fine.

A little bit of salt.

That's fine.

Give me the vinegar.

Go ahead.

Put the vinegar.

Okay, that's enough.

We have like half a cup of red onion there.

- Mm.

- Put in it.

And about a cup and a half, two cup of diced, like one inch cut tomato.

- Mm - This is the base, you see, of our salad.

That could marinate for a while and then we want to put the sardine on top of it.

And you know what you do with the sardine?

All you do is to cut them.

You can cut them in half, you know, depending on the size.

Sometime they are small, sometimes they are bigger.

We add that to the thing.

I put them on top, you don't want to stir them too much because you make a mess out of it.

- Oh, okay.

- And then we're going to serve that on green.

- Let me get you a plate.

- I'll show you how to serve one portion here.

Okay, put it right here.

And we put a little bit of green.

So you want put a little bunch of green just for one person.

Yeah.

About here.

You wanna spread it out nicely.

And then you can scoop a little bit of that tub on top.

That's it.

That's going to season your- - Oh.

- your salad.

And the sardine, you could have anchovies, you could have other things with it.

You could have tuna, in fact, pieces of tuna in the same way.

- Oh.

- And this is a great quick first course.

- Okay, well you know, whenever I go to the supermarket, I always get very confused when I buy beef.

I know how to buy filet, but if I want an inexpensive cut of meat, I really don't know which one to buy.

- You mean you don't want to pay for filet of beef?

- There you go.

- Or a New York strip.

Well there is a lot of other place which are pretty tender.

Look here for example, this is a chuck roast.

The chuck, you know chuck roast?

That's part of the shoulder or neck that the continuation actually of the rib roast.

But look at that piece.

That piece has a lot of fat, you know around.

But that will be very good roasted but too fatty on that one.

Look at that one.

You have a much better value here.

Most of it is beef.

Actually, you know the one that I like the best is this one for me.

Now this is what we call in New York and you have had it many times.

We're going to have it again.

Chicken steak.

- Oh, okay.

- You know what that is?

This is the shoulder blade part of the shoulder underneath.

They call it the flat iron on the west coast in New York.

Chicken steak.

I mean, in different part of the country they have different name.

But this is that piece here.

You can roast that, you can boil that.

You can do like a braised beef.

Fantastic.

And you can do steak.

You recognize it with that nerve that you have in the center.

That piece, you know when you cut those steaks, you will see in the middle of each steak you have that little piece of nerve.

This is not fat, you know, it become gelatinous when it's cooked.

But this is a very good piece and I love that one.

(Folk music) - Steak and potatoes is, it's basic.

It's good food.

I mean it's... it's everything you want.

It's steak and potatoes, it's American food.

- As our main course we're going to do a shoulder steak with herbs.

We're gonna serve that with roasted potato and roasted onion.

- Oh good.

- And this is a beautiful piece of meat.

It's part of the inside of the shoulder.

And this one happened to be quite large, you know.

Beautiful.

And what we want to do, you see remove the silver skin that we have on top here.

See the way I hold my knife up, you know, just to get this, you know, with the least amount.

Then after you pull it this way and you get the other side, you know, to get the least amount of meat.

On top of it.

- You gonna tell me I have to save this for stock, now?

- Yes, exactly.

- I knew it.

- You save that for stock.

Though, I take that piece of meat.

This we keep for stock.

- Right, I have my stock pot right here.

- And you see we cut it across like this.

And... when I cut it this way, you see that large sinew in the center of it.

- Mhm.

- This is kind of tough.

But it's gelatinous, you know, and it's good to eat.

I mean I love to show on top of this.

If you wanna do it another way, we can remove it from that piece of meat.

You have to have a sharp knife when you do this.

You know?

- You wanna teach me how to do that?

- Yeah, here you have a sharpener here.

Now take a small knife like this.

When you sharpen knife to start with, what you do, look at me first.

People do this and very fast and it does nothing at all because you cover like one inch from the center of the blade.

So the first thing, you start at the heel, finish at the top.

No, no, I'm doing this way here.

No, like this, this, this, this, this, this.

So this is what you're doing, you're doing right.

You're covering the whole blade.

The second thing, you are applying pressure.

And the third thing, which is even more important, don't turn your wrist like this because people do this and they scratch all of the teeth, you know, at the end.

So you have to keep that angle- - What do you mean, teeth?

- Well the end of the blade, if you look at it with a microscope it's made of tiny teeth.

But when you bang the knife and cut it, it get out of whack.

That's why you run it on two or three roll of steel and that realign the teeth.

It does not actually sharpen the knife, it just realign the teeth on the blade.

And occasionally after six months or eight months, you're using it, you have to sharpen it professionally that is on a stone to grind it again and create a new edge.

Alright, now you see that large, that muscle that we have in there, that kind of sinew.

- Uh huh.

- If you want, you know you can cut right on top of it.

- Oh, wow.

- And if I cut right on top of it, I make a more elegant steak, of course, Because I'm removing... that white, that center.

Okay, here is the steak and here is that big piece that I had on top, which I remove now from the other side.

And frankly you know, you see you have that large sinew in the center of it, which is in the center of each steak, So we could do it this way and remove almost all of it here.

So here I have a nice steak this way.

Maybe one like this, one like this, and one of that one?

- Yeah.

- What do you think, okay?

- I think this is wonderful.

- And that, you can keep that you could freeze it.

You know, you could arrange it, you could do stock, you could roast it, you could do a stew with it.

And that'd be very good.

- Oh wow.

Yeah.

- So what we want to do there is to put... put a little bit of salt and pepper on each side and a dash of oil.

I mean, you know, look.

Barely enough because it's like if you were going to put that on the barbecue in a sense, just rub the oil on top.

We're going to do a sauce after with it.

Okay?

You put pepper?

- Yep.

- On the top.

- Okay, do the other side the same way.

And I have enough oil, you see, for the other side here.

- Oh.

- Okay, just put a bit of salt and pepper on top of it, and we are ready to cook that in a very hot, I have a very hot pan here.

There is no fat or anything in it.

You want to seize it, you know, just like this.

Okay.

So shoulder steak as you would do at home, you know, very simple type of thing.

And this, the thickness that it has has to cook a couple of minutes on each side to have it medium rare.

I like it.

So let's do the potato.

- Okay.

- Potato and roasted onions, I like this.

You see those are all Idaho type potato, you know?

That is baking potato.

You're used to those.

You see when you do those here, you want to look if there is any damaged spot.

You see I cut this one, look underneath.

- Ah!

- See the way it is?

- Yep.

- Okay, so this, now you have to remove that, and that happen very often with potato.

So see if there is any dark spot, you know, or the eye, the eye of the potato is not particularly good.

If you have the eye of the potato and a little sprout coming out, it's actually poisonous, you know.

- Oh.

- So what we are doing is to cutting that in half.

So you want to do this?

Here is your knife.

I know this is the knife you like.

And we do the same thing with the onion, just cleaning the outside a little bit.

But I'm leaving all the shell, the skin if you want.

And cutting it in half.

Also, just like this.

This is a very simple recipe.

You do those in the oven in a nice way.

So we have one large onion per person here, - I'm gonna put some tin foil.

- and one large potato per person.

So you want to put some tin foil so you don't have to clean up your pan, right?

- Yep.

- That's a good idea.

Yeah, it's a good way to avoid having too much work to do at home.

Okay.

Now what we do there is like a tablespoon of oil or so just spread it out with your hand a little bit.

- How about if I use a potato to spread it around?

- That's fine, That's very good.

- So I don't have to wipe my hands again.

- Alright.

And then I'll put the salt in directly on top of it.

- On top of the oil?

- Well yeah, because we are going to put flat side down.

- Oh.

- Arrange them just flat side down this way.

Into the hot oven, you know?

- Like soldiers.

- Like soldier.

Potato the same way.

- The onions.

- And then you want to put that into the oven for like... - You put- - a good 40 minute at 400 degree, no?

- You put salt and pepper on top or no?

- Well that should be enough here.

You can put a little bit on top if you want.

So let's put those in the oven.

- Okay.

400 degree.

- Mhm.

- Okay, I have one here.

- Okay.

- Which cooked.

And as you see, - Mm.

Oh it smells great.

- It's really hot, and it's really cooked.

- Oh, it smells wonderful.

- So we have it here.

Yeah, it's soft now I can see, you know, I can touch it and feel how soft it is.

I can see this is cooked.

You, you check it out.

So let's see our steak here.

Take the steak.

We're gonna turn them now on the other side.

You see the beautiful... - Now I know you can't eat a hamburger rare anymore.

- Yes?

- Because of, what is it?

- Yes, there is different problem with the salmonella and other thing, and you know, it's a question of... it's a question of choice there.

In that case, you know, you would have to cook that well done.

And people have to do their own choice at home, you know?

I would want to get meat from a reputable source, you know, from a good butcher shop.

Even the supermarket, I mean usually you get good quality, but you know, some people will tell you still you cannot eat that rare, so then cook it well done, you know?

- But it's different in hamburger than it is in regular steak.

- Well, in hamburger it will have, because the meat is grounded and handled more, it have more chance of contamination even.

- Right.

- But it can exist any other place.

- Oh, okay.

- So it is true that it's worse, you know, with hamburger.

So, you know, why don't you cut this.

So cut that in half so that it's flat and it doesn't slide under your finger.

And then we want to do some shucked onion.

All right?

You doing okay?

- Oh yeah.

- See the shallot, I love the shallot here.

We are going to put that in the pan, in the dripping pan, rather, and we're going to do a sauce with that.

- Hmm.

- So we have about, we have plenty shallots here and I have herbs.

So I have chives, I have tarragon, I have parsley.

I'm gonna put a bit of tarragon.

We're going to do an herb, like an herb sauce, you know?

Put a lot of it, about... For the steak here.

Maybe, at least four, five tablespoon, of herb, you know?

So here we are... - Mm.

Oh this is great.

- Good.

Put it there.

And if you want to give me the platter, I think the steak are ready now.

- Okay.

See the steak?

Those are beautiful.

I tell you I like that better than the New York strip, you know?

Which is much more expensive.

- Really?

- Yeah.

Better taste to me.

Okay, put the shallot in there for me.

- Any herbs?

- And then, no, no, We wanna put a piece of butter now.

Give me the butter over there.

- Yes.

- You wanna put one tablespoon of butter for the whole thing.

The sauce, actually.

Okay.

You see the way it deglaze?

The crystallization of the juice there?

- Yeah.

- So now I add water.

You know, like a third of a cup.

You have to have a good pan.

And I have a good pan here.

Now put the herbs in it.

- Could I deglaze this with wine?

- Yeah, you could do it with wine.

Wine would be very good, yeah.

I think that... A dash of salt we need in here.

And that's it.

I put that directly on my steak.

- Mm.

- Comme à la Maison, you know?

- Yeah.

Really.

- Like home.

- Definitely.

- You're used to that, yeah?

- This is home.

- Okay.

(Speaking French) Okay.

And we can serve that.

And with this, of course, we're going to serve the potato.

- A friend of mine got me these.

- Oh, that's good.

Now look at the color of those.

They are cooked.

Go ahead, help me put the... put the potato on the other side there.

And you know, you could shell it, but it's perfectly fine this way.

- How would you?

- Oh, we don't even have to put all of it.

A bit too much.

What are you putting herb on?

- Oh these are... - I was going to put, oh, this is Oh, yeah.

- British garlic flower... Thing.

- This is British garlic flower.

- But I wanted it for the steak, I thought it would look... - For the steak.

Oh, it looks terrific with the steak.

With the potato.

And this is the roasted potato with onion and the shoulder steak.

Now we need to do dessert.

- Sounds good.

- Let's go to dessert.

And you see what I have here?

Blueberry.

Very simple dessert.

Again, 1, 2, 3, 4 people.

Four of those.

Put this in there.

You wanna mix that with maple syrup.

You like maple syrup?

- I love maple syrup.

- And maple syrup, But you could use honey, you know?

The same way, and of course.

Lemon.

I strain the lemon into the best strainer in the world, with my finger.

Okay, you need about two tablespoons here of the... Now you can stir that a little bit so that make a good base.

You know the acidity of the lemon, and the... The maple syrup.

And that's it.

Put that in there, let it, and you can marinate that for a little bit.

Okay?

Just stir it.

- Okay.

- I'll give you this to put that on.

And here you got a- - Oh!

- This is, you know what that is?

- Geranium.

- Geranium.

Yes.

Or you can put any of the eatable flowers if you want.

You know it make your food a little more festive.

Look at that.

Should have let you do that.

And putting them on the... making a mess here.

So I put that flowers on top.

- Here?

- Yeah.

And these you can just put here.

Oh yes.

With that borage.

And here is the blueberry au citron.

- Well papa, once again, you've taught me how to make a beautiful, simple, easy and pretty economic meal, I have to say.

The soda bread- Facile.

Facile.

- Yeah, the soda bread is great.

I don't know if I would come home from work and make soda bread, but on a Sunday or something, this is- - Yes.

- a wonderful thing to make for friends.

It look really, you know, like a professional chef almost.

- Timing is everything in the kitchen.

- Yeah.

- You know, and the first thing you do if you do that bread is put your oven on because as I say, it'll be ready before you even get to 425 degree.

Likewise with the potato, you know, first you put that oven on because that takes about 40 minutes.

It doesn't take long to put them on the treble, it takes a while to do it.

So that's how you have to do it.

Think about it.

Then you prepare.

And the steak you do at the last moment.

The blueberry take a couple of minutes.

- Yeah.

- So this is like great easy meal to do when you have friend coming, you know.

Surprising you or whatever.

- Definitely.

- In any case, we're going to have a Shiraz with that from South Australia.

- Sounds good.

- And this is the Syrah, what we call Syrah in the United States.

It's Shiraz there.

And it's probably the most widely planted grape in South Australia.

It's very deep, very light, a bit like the one of the Rhône Valley.

I'm sure you're going to enjoy this sitting.

So even if you don't have much time, you get home, you put the oven on, look at what you have in your refrigerator and start cooking.

I'm sure you can create a great meal just as Claudine and I did for you.

We enjoy making it for you.

Happy cooking!

- Happy cooking!

(Folk music)