MING: This week on Simply Ming, the only and only Jacques Pépin is in the house.

You haven't finished yet?

MING: Well, I had to take these seeds out.

He's a legendary cookbook author, he is a cook for us cooks, and he's also just a wonderful friend.

And today he's going to cook with sole, the fish.

He's doing a onion-crusted sole with an anchovy butter.

Look at that.

Ooh, this looks good.

And sautéed butternut squash.

I'm going to take that same fish and kind of do a beurre noisette, a brown butter with this sole, and a little bit of zucchini risotto.

That looks so good.

You can already tell this is going to taste good, right?

We're cooking here, chez moi, at home, on Simply Ming.

♪ ♪ MING: Jacques, bienvenue.

Merci, merci-- oh.

MING: Always a pleasure to have you here.

It's always good to start at the end of the table.

MING: Yes, always good to start with a cocktail, so I'm going to make a version of a Negroni, which is traditionally with gin, but with tequila.

I'll drink it anyway.

MING (chuckles): Good.

Do me a favor, ice to here.

So we're going to start with a couple of ounces of tequila.

Oops, sorry.

Like this?

MING: Yep, parfait.

And as you know, it just has to be really good, delicious tequila that's 100% agave.

And then we have a couple of... Campari?

MING: Yeah, a little bit.

For color, nice and bitter, which we like.

Bit of bitterness, yes.

MING: Two types of vermouth, both dry and sweet.

So here's the dry.

And a little bit of sweet.

Italian vermouth, that's good.

MING: All right.

If you could do me two lemon flags, that would be great.

All right.

MING: Then just a couple of drops of bitters, like that.

And then... mix it well.

I'll take a, actually a little bit more ice in here, Jacques.

Give me just a touch more ice.

Make this really cold for us.

Merci.

So some mixologists say 100 times, some say 59 times, some say, I just say till an ice cube flies out.

Oh, good.

MING: I know, good.

And what will we do with the big one here?

MING: In the big cup, please.

In the big cup.

MING: I love the big format, right?

Because then it doesn't dilute the drink, right?

Right.

MING: All right, that sounds good.

Ah, parfait.

All right.

Let's start with this.

Parfait.

The twist goes on top?

MING: Just on top.

You're very good at this, aren't you?

MING: Ah, superbe.

Ah, yes.

See, you know what you're doing.

Rub the rim.

Yeah, yeah.

MING: So important.

All right.

MING: Merci-- santé, huh?

To you, merci.

MING: Merci.

To you, happy drinking.

MING: C'est bon?

It's good, yeah.

MING: Is it good?

Terrific, yes.

MING: All right.

Yes, wow.

MING: So now we're going to cook with sole with soul.

Yes.

MING: Let's go.

On y va, come on.

♪ ♪ Okay, mon ami, what is your dish?

This, that thing here, what do you call it?

Butternut squash, okay.

MING: Thank you.

No, your whole dish.

Yes, I'll do that with a sole with crusted onions and so forth.

MING: Exactly-- what can I do for you?

Okay, well, here, I'm going to trim this.

This is pretty hard to peel, you know?

MING: Right.

I'm going to let you peel the hard part of it.

MING: Okay.

Which is that part here, because you have to take the inside out.

And, you know, when you peel it with a vegetable peeler, here-- oh, well, I do, because I'm not as good as you with a knife.

MING: Oh, yes, you are.

You're five times better than me with a knife.

You have to go, like, twice here, to remove some of that grain here.

MING: Well, I like the knife because of exactly that.

Butternut squash peel's so thick, right, so... You know, I used to send those seeds to my brother in France.

He astonished all of the neighbors, because I don't think I've ever seen butternut squash in France.

Okay, here.

MING: Yeah, I don't think I have, either, actually.

Yeah, so.

MING: But you have a lot of squash in France, just not butternut.

Oh, yes, yes, different type.

Okay.

MING: All right, so this is... how you cooking the squash?

Well, we're going to cook it with cider.

MING: Uh-huh.

You know, apple cider.

MING: Right.

A bit of butter, a bit of, a bit of oil, salt, pepper.

We cut that into, like, inch, or maybe slightly smaller, three-quarter-of-an-inch pieces.

Here.

MING: All right.

Here.

Yeah, and you know what?

Sometime at the market, you find them all peeled.

MING: Right, already ready to go.

Yeah, so it, it helps.

MING: Well, it's about cooking at home, and it's not about...

Most people don't like to prep at home, right?

Yes, well.

MING: And no one likes to wash dishes at home.

I've never met anyone who's, like, "I can't wait to wash dishes"-- doesn't happen.

For me... you haven't finished yet?

MING: Well, I had to take these seeds out, mister.

Oh, yeah, yeah, I know.

MING: (laughs).

Okay, so...

Okay, so... MING: I have a pan for you over here that's nice and hot.

Good.

MING: All right.

So this is going to cook with the liquid in it, about five, six minutes covered, you know?

MING: Canola oil's good?

And... yeah.

Five, six minutes, covered... okay, a bit of oil like this.

I'm going to give you a bit of onion.

We have cider right here.

MING: Okay.

(sizzling) And the cider...

I got more here.

Okay... MING: Voilà.

I'll give you a bit of onion, too.

MING: All right.

Okay.

MING: Some sel et poivre, a little salt, pepper?

Yes, salt, pepper.

MING: Okay.

Onion.

MING: Merci.

Oh, boy.

Hand to hand.

MING: Good, yeah, teamwork.

Hand-to-hand combat.

MING: (laughing) All right, a little salt, pepper.

All right.

MING: And how long to you cook this for, Jacques?

About four, five minutes, until it starts getting tender.

Then you remove the lid.

MING: Okay.

And you cook it until it evaporates and starts browning, you know?

Oh, you have there a bit of sugar.

Did you put sugar, salt, a bit of sugar.

MING: Sugar, salt, pepper, I'll put a little bit of sugar.

Just a pinch?

Yes.

MING: Okay.

Wow.

You give a good pinch.

MING: All right, voilà.

Okay, so, now the sole.

I forget where I saw that first, but you can use those onions.

I mean, I have them in cans sometimes.

They come in cans or in bags like this.

MING: They're crispy onions, ready to go.

Yeah, that's right.

I forget where, I think... MING: In Thai... Asian, in Southeast Asian cuisine, we have shallots, right?

Oh, yeah?

MING: We use a ton of shallots.

Yeah, voilà.

Okay.

MING: Okay, I'll get the sole here.

Ah, voilà.

MING: Ah, so you almost make a flour out of it.

Yes.

All right, look at that.

MING: There you go.

Voilà.

You have to remove that first?

That will only listen to you, right?

MING: (chuckling) Okay.

So now we have...

So we have to cover up the sole.

The classic... you know, the classic...

Sometime you do it in flour.

MING: Right, paner.

Yeah.

So here that.

MING: Une fourchette ici.

Salt.

MING: Uh-huh.

Okay.

MING: So, quite often, as Jacques would say, the paner method is flour, egg, and then panko or breadcrumbs.

He's just going to do egg and this fantastic onion coating.

All right, and you put a little bit of oil and butter in the skillet?

MING: Yep.

That... okay.

MING: Oil.

This, we dip it in there, nice and brown.

In there, on each side.

MING: That looks so good.

Oh, yeah?

MING: You can already tell this is going to taste good, right?

Do I put it in there?

Okay, so that...

This one.

Yeah, this is...

So you have enough, actually, I would have had enough with one egg here, so I am being very... too generous, like.

MING: It's okay.

Okay.

MING: You're a very generous man.

I was lucky enough, we got to cook together for Jacques Pépin's foundation, which, I love your foundation.

You help, you help kids.

You give scholarships to kids so they can become chefs.

Yeah, especially to people... homeless people.

MING: Right.

Homeless people, people who come out of jail.

MING: Right.

Veteran people, people who've been kind of traumatized by life, have been disenfranchised.

So, you know, that gives them an idea of starting a new life again.

MING: I think that's... Not to become a great chef like you, first you open a little spot.

MING: No, no, it's the old métier.

Don't give them fish, teach them how to fish, right?

That's what you're doing.

Exactly, yeah.

MING: Okay, so we're going about another four minutes on the squash.

We come back, we're going to get this sole in, because this is going to take how long-- two minutes a side?

A minute and a half on each side.

MING: Minute-and-a-half side, all right.

And then we have to do the butter with that.

MING: Okay, we'll be back.

Stick around.

♪ ♪ All right, Jacques, so six, it gets a nice little color.

Yes, all the liquid, all the liquid is gone.

MING: Yeah, it looks beautiful.

So we put... this there.

MING: So that's about a tablespoon or plus butter, and a little bit of canola oil.

And a bit of oil.

Yeah, it prevent the butter from burning.

MING: Minute and a half each side?

Minute and a half on each side, and now we do...

Okay, here I have a clove of garlic.

Nice clove of garlic.

MING: Okay.

I crush it to remove this, the skin.

MING: Right.

Crush this a little bit.

MING: Okay.

In there.

A little cayenne.

two ounces of anchovies-- good anchovy in oil, huh?

MING: Nice, I love anchovies.

Maybe a tablespoon, a tablespoon of wine.

MING: Oh, white wine, okay.

White wine, yes.

Pepper, this one.

MING: Salt, too?

Or no, maybe not.

Probably not, anchovies, no?

Uh, maybe not with the anchovies, yes.

MING: Yeah, you won't need that.

And then the butter.

To do anchovy butter, you can do a lot with that.

You can serve many things with a sole, all kind of things with that flavored butter, you know?

All set.

(processor whirring) That has a lot of flavor.

MING: Nice.

That looks so good.

Yes.

MING: C'est bon?

Yep.

(processor stops) I think that's about it-- you want to taste it?

MING: I'd love to taste it.

Oh, that's fantastic.

That's a good vegetable, huh?

MING (laughing): That's a great vegetable.

I love it.

Anything I like, I call a vegetable.

Could be a chocolate.

MING: I like drinking my vegetables, Jacques.

Yeah-- okay.

MING: I've heard tequila's a vegetable.

Yeah, so you can use this butter for anything, right?

Yes, any... MING: You can even cook with it, too, right?

Absolutely, oh, certainly.

MING: Okay, let's see how our... (speaks quietly) MING: You think this could be... What do you think?

MING: Looking pretty good.

All right, here, tell me if this is okay, Jacques.

Good?

Yes, yes, that's good.

MING: Okay, parfait.

We have this here.

MING: So that was a minute and a half basically, a side.

Okay.

Beautiful.

Okay.

MING: Okay.

Now, we're going to serve, I'm going to give you a little bit of parsley here.

MING: Oui.

For the vegetable, if you want.

MING: Okay.

So c'est bon, these vegetables are good?

Yeah, I think so.

MING: They look good to me.

This is great, this is...

I mean, this is how you cook at home, right, Jacques?

Oh, yeah, that's it.

MING: Exactly.

That's how my wife taught me.

MING: (laughing) And who taught you?

I mean, I've read... Actually, can I just...

Your book The Apprentice, right?

Yes.

MING: At six years old, Jacques was basically, not sent away from home, but you were given to the farmers, right?

because... Well, that was the war, you know?

MING: Right, the war, you didn't have the money, so... You think it's cooked enough?

MING: Ah, oh, it's so good.

The apple cider, the apple vinegar... oh, my God.

C'est génial, ça.

That would be good with a turkey, you know?

MING: That would be good with a turkey.

For Thanksgiving, another way of doing it.

And... MING: What do you think?

This is pretty close, Jacques.

Should we go?

If you say that it's cooked, I believe you.

MING: I think 30 seconds.

My point is, at six years old, Jacques, the first... in your book, the first night, you were so lonely, so homesick, you're six years old.

You're in your bed, you cried yourself to sleep.

Actually, in your book, you said your pillow was wet from your tears.

But then the next day, the next day you go, you did the cows, the cows came back.

The one woman, you can't remember her name, showed you how to milk a cow.

I remember now, Madame Mercier.

MING: All right, Madame Mercier.

You should put it in your book.

Yeah, she put my hand, yeah, she put my hand on the teat of the cow to show me how to... Never been that close to a cow.

MING: Yeah, and, but the thing I still remember, Jacques, you said, "I tasted that milk, it was so good, so rich, so creamy."

You did not cry yourself to sleep.

Because you knew food was not just for sustenance.

There was more to food than that.

I love that part.

Right, this is... MING: Let's see how it is.

It's the way it is with all of us, you know, so... Good filet of sole.

MING: That looks really good, Jacques.

Oh, my God.

Et voilà.

Put a little bit of that butter on top, right?

MING: Oui... okay.

Yeah.

MING: Oh, yeah.

Look at that, ooh, this looks good.

Butter's also a vegetable, Jacques?

Yeah, oh, butter's also a vegetable.

A piece of lemon, maybe see... Oh, here I have some, a bit of watercress, yeah.

MING: Right.

Some color, a little bit here.

Yeah, that should be good.

We're not going to taste it now.

MING: No, we're going to sit down at a table properly, with a glass of wine.

Oh, okay.

MING: But you have to be my sous-chef.

Ça va?

I'm going to do, I'm going to cook some sole, too.

Yes, good.

MING: Beurre noisette.

Voilà , oh, good, it's going to be great.

Don't go away, sole two, coming up.

♪ ♪ Jacques, that dish looks amazing.

No.

MING: I can't wait to eat that-- oui.

Yes?

MING: Je te jure.

Okay, I'll drink to that.

MING: Okay, here, I'll drink to you, too, cheers.

All right, so I'm doing a little sole dish, as well.

Jacques, if you could just give me a half a minced onion.

Okay.

MING: I'm making zucchini "risotto," which is zucchini cut in the size of rice.

And we're going to make a beurre no isette, I'm going to first... Oh, a beurre noir, or a beurre noisette?

MING: Beurre noisette.

Noisette, okay.

MING: Which, it means, brown.

Noisette is hazelnut in France, so it has to the color of hazelnut, brown hazelnut.

MING: Exactly.

But a beurre noir is a black butter, so it's even cooked more.

MING: So a little salt and pepper.

So we're going to go in a hot pan, just to sear off the fish, and then I'll let it sit.

And we can make the beurre noisette.

You know, I'm only the leading food processor.

MING: You are, you are a great food processor, Jacques.

How much do you want, half a cup?

MING: Just half, half an onion's fine.

All right, so we're going to get this going.

And then in this pan, I'm going to start also with a little bit of canola oil.

And to this, we're going to add just some garlic.

Since you're done, Jacques, mince us, mince this garlic for me, s'il vous plaît.

Crushed or minced?

MING: Uh, crushed... yeah, both, crush, then mince.

And then a little mince, then.

This guy's a machine.

So you crush it first... MING: All right, so here we have our sole.

Seasoned-side down first, right?

I know you know, Jacques.

Cook this seasoned-side down.

And then you can season it just a little bit more.

You don't need that much more.

All right, so that's going.

Look at that.

I love that technique, Jacques.

I love how you rock.

It's unbelievable that people...

Here, please, ici.

So you want the, the garlic in there?

MING: Oui.

You want the onion in there?

MING: No, onion's for the beurre noisette.

Okay, oh, okay.

MING: But how about some zucchini risotto?

Meaning brunoise.

Une brunoise, Okay.

MING: Brunoise means really, really, really small dice.

And I call it "risotto," in quotes, right?

You've seen this before.

You can do it with potato, sweet potatoes.

We just cut really... the zucchini's super-small.

And we're going to add just a little bit of chicken stock, and that's going to be the starch veg.

So, "risotto," in quotes-- no rice in this risotto.

But highly flavored with this Chinese flavorings of garlic and ginger and scallions.

And as you know, I'll use, I'll use the white... How is your Italian?

MING: Uh, prego.

Prego?

MING: Yep, that's about it.

But your French is very good.

MING: Oh, merci.

But you know, when I go to Italy or Brazil or Portugal, I just speak French, and I add an O or an E. Like, "Bonjourno."

Yes.

MING: "Comment ça va-o," which doesn't quite work.

But half the time, it does.

Yeah, sometime it works.

It really does, it's crazy.

So the white... all right, so that's looking good there.

So now we have our garlic, ginger, scallions.

That's going to be for the risotto.

We have our sole here.

(pan sizzling) All right.

Oh, that's got a little caught there.

All right.

And a little sole there.

Good.

So that's looking good.

Yeah, that cooks very fast, right, the sole?

MING: So fast.

I have a warm plate here.

Because sole can froidir, or get cold, so fast.

So I want to put this, because I know this is going to cook so quickly.

So on this hot plate, I'm going to add this sole.

Like that.

And then take this sole... Like this.

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

Perfect.

Then, in this same pan, I'm going to add a lot of butter.

How much?

A lot.

Hi, Julia-- how're you doing, Julia?

MING: Right, Julia, that is like Julia.

By the way, one of the best shows ever.

The first time I met you, do you remember?

No.

MING: First time I met you was at Julia Child's house.

You were doing your show.

Oh.

MING: And it was a sandwich show.

And Julia had an ice cream sandwich, chocolate wafer, and you had a baguette with chocolate.

And the show started, Julia goes, (imitating Child): "When I was an itsy-bitsy girl..." (in normal voice): She was never an itsy-bitsy girl, she was six-three.

(imitating Child): "When I was an itsy-bitsy girl, I ate ice cream sandwich."

(chomps) (in normal voice): Jacques goes, (imitating Pépin): "When I was in the south of France, I ate a baguette chocolat."

(chomps) (in normal voice): They were, like, "Cut, bad movement, bad camera, re-take."

You're, like, "Sandwich," and Julia's, like, "No."

(chomps) Oh, yeah.

MING: I saw her eat three ice cream sandwiches.

It was unbelievable.

Like, you were my hero.

All right, so now this.

Can that go with the...?

MING: Yeah, this can go right here.

Yeah, you can...

I'll take all your zucchini.

You want me to bring this here?

MING: Voilà.

We bring this here.

MING: Go down low-- merci.

Okay.

MING: So now we have zucchini going here.

You have enough zucchini, or you want more?

MING: No, that's parfait.

Good.

MING: So now, this butter's got to brown, we go to medium.

You don't want to burn the butter, right?

So let's go a little bit slow So now I can drink, then?

MING: You can drink.

This is going to take about six to eight minutes to get nice and brown, and then we'll add Jacques's perfectly cut onions and then Chinese vinegar for the sauce.

Wow.

MING: And this will also take about six minutes to come together with a little bit of chicken stock.

She would be proud of you.

MING: Julia would be proud of me.

That's a lot of butter.

So in six minutes, we're going to put this together.

Stick around.

All right, Jacques, watch that, no?

Oh, you have a beurre noisette.

You have a beurre noir, almost.

MING: Almost.

So we add onions, right?

So, obviously onions add liquid, so stir it, because you don't want it to go over.

And that cooks the onions.

And then a little bit of vinegar, not too much.

Parfait.

This is great.

Chinese vinegar, huh?

MING: Chinese vinegar.

With all that sweetness and all that, it's pretty nice.

MING: It's like balsamic vinegar with five-spice and a touch of soy.

Yeah, yeah.

MING: A little chicken stock here.

Here?

MING: For the risotto.

That's perfect.

All right.

Okay, Jacques, I'll take one pat of butter in that, please.

Oh, yeah?

MING: In the zucchini.

More butter?

MING: Just one pat.

So you know what?

I'll give you some olive oil.

MING: Oh, yeah, even better.

We don't have the butter.

MING: Perfect, parfait.

That's it.

Okay.

MING: So we get our beurre noisette.

Another bit of parsley on top of it, if you want.

MING: Yeah, I'll take some basil, too.

Basil, okay.

You want basil for the sole?

MING: Basil for this, we'll just put this, add.

And we'll take the parsley, as well.

Parsley in here.

Okay.

MING: No, parsley there.

Voilà, oh, yeah.

That looks awesome, you can hear that snap, crackle, and pop.

And this, Jacques, I'm going to have you plate up for me.

Okay.

MING: And this I'll plate up.

So Jacques's got the vegetables, zucchini risotto.

Here we have the beurre noisette with parsley and basil and those nice little pieces of onion.

Oh, yeah, baby.

Okay.

I think we're close, Jacques.

Yep, we are.

MING: There we go.

We are ready.

MING: I think we have our two dishes.

Good.

MING: À table.

You did a good job.

MING: Ah, merci.

You did a good job.

MING: I couldn't have done anything without Jacques.

Drink to you, thank you.

MING: Okay, let's go eat.

Okay, Jacques.

Mmm.

MING: A little Côtes de Provence?

Yes.

MING: Grenache-- cheers.

It's so nice to be with you again, you know.

MING: It's my pleasure.

Thank you for inviting me.

MING: Oh, come on, Jacques.

I have a little gift for you.

For you and Polly.

MING: For me?

Yeah, one of my painting.

This was an homage to Matisse I did, well, a few years ago, so... MING: Oh, merci.

Very fine.

MING: That's fantastic, Jacques, oh, my God.

I don't, I do not deserve that-- all right.

Of course you deserve it-- so now... MING: But I'm going to serve you.

Here, I'll serve a little bit.

I'm going to serve... MING: Et voilà.

Of this.

A piece of this.

MING: Parfait.

Oh, and I want a little bit of that.

MING: Oh, anchovy butter.

Butter, anchovy butter on top.

MING: This is the best part of eating.

Eating family-style.

Yeah, good.

MING: There's no better way-- here.

And now I'm giving you that one.

MING: There's that.

I have that one.

MING: I'm going to try yours first.

I love the anchovy butter on this.

Oh, anchovy butter, you can't miss it.

MING: Oh, mon Dieu.

Wow.

That, that butter's unbelievable, right?

Yes.

MING: That really makes it.

And the onions in your crust, genius.

Okay, I'm going to try that one here.

MING: Oh, my God, Jacques.

Mmm.

MING: Fashionable, huh?

The beurre noisette, you know.

Noisette is hazelnut butter, it tastes like hazelnut, you know, roasted hazelnut.

MING: Right.

That's why it's called hazelnut butter.

MING: Oh, my God.

Jacques, thank you for the painting.

You're very welcome.

MING: And... you're not retired, because I know you're still working, and your foundation is amazing, right, helping, helping kids that don't, didn't have it as lucky as we did.

That's right, we are lucky.

MING: Because... you need to work.

And cooking... cooking is one of those things that, for me, it's about what, how you can make people happy, including yourself, through food, right?

And it really doesn't matter, the type of food that you use.

MING: Right.

I was just as happy eating at Le Bernardin, a great meal, than eating a tacos with a beer.

MING: Right, I know, that's exactly... Food is good, it brings people together.

MING: Right, and then the funniest thing is, especially when you reach a level like Jacques Pépin, like you said, sometimes a burger, a taco, or an eggroll, is better than the best foie gras terrine.

Absolutely.

MING: Yeah, by the way, this, this butternut squash, unbelievable.

I like how the cider vinegar, the apple cider comes through.

Jacques, you're the best.

I'll drink to that.

MING: Vraiment.

(glasses ring) And by the way, this is the Jacques Pépin way of toasting.

When you do... Not straight... MING: Not this, that makes no noise.

Get it bowl to bowl.

(glasses ring) MING: Thank you so much for watching.

Thank you.

MING: Jacques, you're the best.

And you guys are the best, as well.

As always, peace and good eating.

Cin cin!