- Hi, I'm Jacques Pepin.

- And I'm Claudine Pepin.

Papa, you know, Labor Day has always made me a little wistful.

I mean, it's the official end of summer.

- Well, we'll just have to cheer you up with a Labor Day feast.

We'll start with poached eggs in aspic Gloria for your mom, served with a little celeriac and carrot salad.

- [Claudine] Then we'll have my favorite, broiled lobster, the greatest treat of the summer, with caramelized corn and golden potato pancakes.

- And just for you, some cookie coronet, filled with summer fruit and whipped cream.

Join us for our "Labor Day Farewell."

- Next, on "Jacques Pepin Celebrates."

- Is that the farewell to summer?

- Farewell to summer, but welcome fall.

- Welcome fall.

But we're gonna do something that I really love to do, and that your mother love to do too.

- Really?

- An aspic, an egg in aspic.

- Mm.

- So the first thing we have to do is to poach the eggs, so we have some water here, a dash of vinegar, and you don't need special vinegar.

- Just white vinegar, or does it matter?

- Just white vinegar.

Then you break that in there.

(egg knocks) Go ahead, you can break one.

You fold it on flat, and you want to bring that close to you there.

(egg knocking) That's it, not too high.

It fall high, and you're gonna burn yourself here.

Another one.

(eggs knocking) The water should not boil.

See, just starting boiling again.

I put five, six eggs now we have in it.

You see the eggs are coming to the top, and with the back of this, I'm trying to make the eggs move here.

You see them move in the water?

- [Claudine] Yeah.

- [Jacques] If they start moving, that's it, they're not going to stick to the bottom.

- Oh.

- And then after, they'll be in suspension, and this, they have to go this way, three, four, five minute.

How soon they are cooked, ice cold water.

That wash up the vinegar and stop the cooking.

- [Claudine] Okay.

- So with that, we're doing the aspic.

- Okay.

- I have a stock cooking here, and the process of clarification is the process by which we do a mixture which is going to filter the liquid to a raft or a crust on top and clarify it, and the coagulant in there is egg white that I have in there.

Remember, they also clarify wine, with egg white.

- Yeah, I was just thinking that with egg whites, yeah.

- You know, but the green here, only the green of leek, celery, parsley, and so forth.

We can put a little bit of cracked pepper.

- Is there a reason that it's only the green?

- Yeah, because the otherwise would get it cloudy, and you almost do like you do an infusion that is with tea, you know, just the green.

- Oh.

- Just to give the taste.

We have gelatin here, just gelatin without any flavor.

We do a little bit of cracked pepper here.

(pepper cracking) - I put it in the bowl?

- Yep.

And we wanna mix this now.

Now we put a little bit of that in there, it's hot.

(spoon clinks) - [Claudine] Ooh, look.

- Where the eggs start taking, you know?

So there, you put that back in there.

(spoon clicking) Looks like a real mess.

- Yes it does.

- So this has to come to a boil, and you have to look at it that it doesn't stick in the bottom, and as it come to a boil, all of those will coagulate to form like a raft on top, and then you- - Oh, like a cap.

- Yes, you move it to the side, it boil very gently.

You don't want to disturb that crust, yes, clearly?

- Didn't you tell me a story that somebody came in and it was right at the proper stage, and they stirred it all up?

- Yeah, I was giving a class, and someone wanted to help, take a big whisk and stir the whole thing.

(Claudine laughs) You know me, I'm very calm.

- Yes.

- Almost had a heart attack.

(Claudine chuckles) Now, look at this here.

Now touch the eggs, go like this.

- Hello, egg.

- [Jacques] What do you think?

- I think maybe like- - Poached eggs?

- 20 seconds more?

- I think it's perfect.

- Okay, you asked.

- Yes.

Now look at that one.

You wanna touch that one?

- Oh, it's perfect.

- I think it need 20 seconds, no.

(chuckles) Okay, so you see your eggs are cooked, and this is the way you poached your eggs ahead.

When you're ready to serve eggs, they are poached.

If you have guests at your house, you have all of the eggs already poached.

- Mm-hmm.

- [Jacques] Like this, and- - [Claudine] In ice like this?

- You leave them in ice.

When the guests come downstairs, they take one, lower it in hot water, heat it up, and that's it.

- Okay, now you're stirring that.

- I'm stirring it until it come to a boil, and then I stop as it come to a bowl, you'll see, and that going to be pretty soon because it's hot.

During that time, you know, you can trim your eggs.

You trim the little piece like that.

You see, this is the bottom of the eggs.

This is the top of the eggs, rounder.

- [Claudine] So- - Hup, that come to a boil.

- There we go.

- Now I stop it or do very gently put it on the side, and now that mixture here, you know, it's going to filter through it and clarify.

And I have one here, you see?

The crust is on top, and I wanna strain it through a kitchen, a tea towel, but look at that.

- [Claudine] Wow, it is really clear.

- The crust.

When I was an apprentice, we used to put that back, that mixture here, we used to put that back into the stock, just to give taste to the stock, you know?

- Hmm.

- [Jacques] Okay.

- [Claudine] Wow.

- [Jacques] You see how clear it is?

- [Claudine] Yeah.

- Nice and clear, no fat, nothing, that's what you want.

We're gonna put that on ice, and stir it because we wanna go fast, and stir it because you're going to have a film, you know, forming in the bottom of it.

Now, you don't want to stir it fast like this, move it, because it makes bubble, and those bubble are hard to get rid of.

You just wanna stir it gently like this.

Okay, now the eggs, we can trim the eggs, but when you trim it, we put it on this.

And there is different way of doing the egg in aspic.

Okay, we're going to do them in there.

Conventionally, very often they are done in there.

What you do there, you take, you put a little bit of aspic up to here, put that in the refrigerator, it get hard.

Then you put a couple of decoration in it, a little slice of ham leaves of tarragon very often.

Then you put your poached eggs on top of that set aspic, and when this one start getting slightly oily, you fill it up.

But when you unmold it, the eggs is inside, not in the bottom, you know?

So that's often the way we do it.

But there, I wanna do it in another way, which is just- - It's still bubbling.

- Putting, yeah, that's good.

We just finish the garnish, and what I have here, I have those large shiitake mushroom which I've been reconstituting in water, you know, like this, and then we put our eggs on top.

Often, if you're afraid of grabbing the eggs like that, use a towel like this.

Now, you see, this is the top of the eggs, that the bottom part of it.

You don't see the difference?

- Yes, I do.

- Okay.

- It's crystal clear, like your aspic.

(both chuckle) - We're being a bit facetious there, okay.

This is a nice way of serving it too, with some of the garnish on top.

You could even have some blanched, you know, basil, or maybe chives or stuff on top, you know?

Ooh.

- Ooh.

- Look at the bottom, what touch the bottom of the thing.

- [Claudine] Oh.

- So I have to keep it moving because I don't want it to set.

It's not ready yet.

- So it does, it does set up pretty quickly?ú - Well, it depends.

You know, the aspic was kind of cool already.

In fact, you know, there, theoretically what you would want to do, you would want to put that stuff in the refrigerator now to get it really ice cold, you know?

You see here, the way it's setting?

- [Claudine] Yeah.

- But the bottom part, you know, the bottom part should be hard if it had been in the refrigerator.

Okay, well, you know what?

Put it in the refrigerator.

It has to set, have another one.

Good, and now with the egg in aspic, we're going to do a celeriac and carrot salad.

Here is the celeriac here, (Jacques speaking French) you know, here in France, with a very strong taste of celery, you know?

- This is the one that was already in the refrigerator.

It looks beautiful.

- Let's see?

Yeah, oh.

- Stop it.

(chuckles) - See, now it hold.

- [Claudine] Still makes me nervous.

- Okay, see, I put some chive on this one.

So this, you know, the celery, that's very common in France.

- Yeah.

- During this time.

- It's hard to peel, though.

- Yeah.

Okay, so this, when you cut that in half, you see that the center, touch this.

See, very often it's all cottony sometimes.

- [Claudine] Yeah.

- [Jacques] Much more than some of the time, so you take that piece out.

- [Claudine] Okay, so that's bad, we don't like that.

- So that is bad when it's all cottony, when it's all soft, so you don't use that part.

Okay, and then basically, (knife knocking) you do julienne, you know?

(knife knocking) You wanna cut them in julienne all the time.

So here, we have some, the same thing with carrot.

- But I could use a mandolin or something for this?

- You can use a mandolin, but we want to do the dressing.

You always start with egg yolk, the mustard, so it's a kind of mustard mayonnaise.

Always with the celery, we use a lot of mustard.

- [Claudine] Salt, pepper.

- I put salt, pepper, and then a little bit of vinegar.

You know what, you have lemon?

Bring me a bit of lemon juice, something.

Squeeze it through your very clean finger.

- [Claudine] Mm-hmm.

- This is walnut oil.

- Would you like some?

- And olive oil, yes.

- Okay.

- I put a little bit of olive oil, it takes.

- I'll put a little bit of walnut oil because you said so.

- Go ahead, keep going.

- Oh, more, okay.

(whisk tapping) - You see the way it takes like a mayonnaise?

- [Claudine] Yeah.

- [Jacques] A bit more.

- [Claudine] Ooh look, it's turning white.

That's what you mean by takes, right?

- Yeah.

Some in this, some of the carrot.

Make the whole thing, and I'll let you toss this on your side while I unmold the eggs.

You have to run a knife around here.

Okay, again, you know, I don't move the knife, I move the bowl.

So I have to do this.

- Okay, oh, yeah.

- And this.

What you do usually, you know?

- You knock three times.

- You knock three times.

What you do if you feel that it doesn't come out this way, but it came out.

- [Claudine] Which of course, it did, 'cause you made it.

- No, but otherwise, all you have to do is to pull the side a little bit.

If there is a bit of air going there up, it come down, any type of custard is gonna work out this way.

So this is the classic way.

I wanted to cut this one up just to show a texture of the poached inside, you know?

You see, this is the right texture.

- [Claudine] This is one of your favorite things in the whole world.

- Yes, and your mother too.

So shall we put watercress on it?

What I would do is really cut the top, and I love watercress, so that would go well with it in a whole bunch.

Okay.

- Oh, this looks beautiful.

- And this is our egg in aspic with celeriac and carrot salad.

(pleasant music) Okay.

- More food?

- Yes, lobster.

Yeah, the end of the summer, lobster.

So what we're going to do with that lobster, we're gonna stuff it.

That lobster has been blanched, dropped in boiling water, two minutes, so it basically raw inside, just to seize it, and it's easier after to take the meat out of it, so we just blanch it.

So let's put a little bit of butter in there.

- Okay.

- You're gonna saute some onion.

I'm going to give you the tomalley out of this.

(lobster crunching) So the yellow, the small yellow thing here, is the tomalley which is the liver.

- Okay.

- So here.

- We ready?

- Yeah, just stir it in there, and then after, I'm going to give you some herb.

I have a mixture of chive here, parsley, tarragon.

(knife knocking) - [Claudine] Mm.

(knife knocking) - You know what, I'll put that directly in there.

- Okay.

- That will be cooked enough.

My lobster now, you can see that that lobster is basically raw, but I lift it up and put it back in there.

Makes it easier, leave that there.

Now you see it here?

That tract is the intestinal tract that you would want to remove.

And again, I remove this on the other one.

(pan sizzling) - [Claudine] I think this is good.

- Is it, okay, then put it in your.

During that time, I'm gonna break the foreleg here.

You wanna break this here nicely and try to pull it out, and often if you're lucky enough, that piece come out here.

You're gonna crush this, but makes a mess when you crush it, so cover it with this.

(tool knocking) But you see, crush it like this?

Now that's it.

- [Claudine] Oh.

- We put that back into the body there, which is now totally clean.

You can see that it does come out of the shell pretty easily after you crush the shell, of course, but because we blanched it.

Raw, you could not do that.

Okay, we're going to finish our stuffing now.

I have a standard- - Oh yay, cornbread.

- Cornbread, you know, that I've done, and here, it's corn meal, flour, baking powder, a couple of eggs, some milk, a bit of corn oil, and some corn kernel.

I put some corn kernel in it.

So I'm gonna take some to put in my stuffing.

So look, this is a nice stuffing, you see?

- [Claudine] That's very nice.

- I'm just covering the whole lobster.

The way I put them, one against the other so they hold themselves up.

See what I'm doing here?

I'm covering the tail, also I'm covering the meat all over, so that it doesn't dry out because you're gonna put that in an oven.

- So it'll just kind of keep it moist because the stuffing is moist?

- Yeah, it prevents it from drying out.

A little bit of olive oil on top, and then you put that in the oven, 425, you know, a hot oven, for like 12, 15 minutes.

Remember the lobster is raw, and the heat has to go through the stuffing.

So here, we're going to caramelize corn, and what we do here, just cut the corn kernel.

(knife tapping) You put oil, right?

- Yes, I did.

This is gonna spatter, I know that.

- You have a lid for there?

- A lid.

(pan sizzling) I put the cover right on, right?

Right there?

- Yep, that's it.

Here, what you do here, when you do this, don't lift that up and stir it, stir it with this.

- Oh, like popcorn?

- Yeah, because we want this to caramelize, you know?

But first, let me show you how to do that, our version of potato, this is a potato flat, I call.

- Okay.

- So here is what we're going to do.

- This is very- - A couple of potato in there, you know, raw potato.

- [Claudine] Flour, baking soda, ricotta cheese, two eggs.

- Put a bit of salt in there.

- And some pepper.

- Put some pepper, that's good.

(processor whirring) Okay.

(processor whirring) - [Claudine] Add the chives, right?

- Yes.

One shot, because they all went.

(processor whirring) - There you go.

- So there.

(pan sizzling) So this here, we can see that on top of it, you have those little bubble.

- [Claudine] Like pancakes - Appearing on this side, like pancake from the baking, but remember, the potato are raw there.

- [Claudine] Ooh.

(pan sizzling) - [Jacques] Okay, aren't they beautiful?

- Mm-hmm.

(oil sizzling) I hear it.

- Can you hear it?

- It's like popcorn.

(pan scraping) (oil sizzling) - But you see the way it caramelized?

- Yeah.

- That's really a good taste after I have to put a dash of salt in it.

(pleasant music) Look at that, for my lobster I'll find.

- Whoa.

- Right?

- That is perfect.

- All right, so I'm gonna put them on a platter maybe, so I have two like this.

Okay, maybe I put my corn in there.

They are really not only crunchy, but kind of gooey, you know, so they are so almost leathery, you know, because they get very strong in taste, eh?

(pan scraping) And now my potato, those are beautiful, you see, on this side, on this side.

- [Claudine] They're so nice.

Don't burn yourself.

- Here, maybe the (Jacques speaking French) you know, I can't resist a little more of that olive oil on top, and that's it.

Here we are, the broiled lobster with a caramelized corn and the potato flat.

- [Claudine] And some cornbread on the side.

- So we have to do something to celebrate the end of the summer with berry.

- Sounds good, all right.

- So you wanna do the dough?

- Yep.

- Okay, no, not the flour first, flour last.

Butter, sugar, butter, when you have sugar and butter- - [Claudine] Now, why, why is it?

- Because when you have sugar and butter in a recipe, you put those two first.

- Why?

- Because it's written first in the recipe, sugar.

(Claudine laughs) No, usually you cream your butter, you know, so.

- [Claudine] Well, this is soft.

- Yes.

- Butter is soft.

- Okay, so you know, we turn it, and then you can put your egg white.

I'll put it on low.

(processor whirring) Go ahead, pour your egg white in it, a bit of vanilla.

(processor whirring) Pour it in, pour it in, (processor whirring) and then we pour in- - Lemon rind?

- Yes, I just put the (indistinct).

- How about the flour?

- Then we put the flour, yes.

(bowl tapping) (processor whirring) How long did it take to do those cookie?

- So far?

(processor whirring) 15, 20, 30 minutes.

(processor whirring) - [Jacques] That's it.

- [Claudine] That's it?

- Yeah.

Okay, so there, we can do whatever size you want, but let's say a size about like this, you know, maybe another one here.

(spoon tapping) Maybe I'll let you do some.

This is a nice little spatula here, you know, to kind of flatten it out.

- [Claudine] Mm, so they're thin?

- Well, they are thin, yes.

Did I forget to tell you that, that they were thin?

And that's why, you know, you're going to change a little bit in the cooking, because depending how thin they are, they're going to cook one, two minute less, so depending- - Oh, so this is something you watch, but they can't take too long.

- Yes, about five, six, seven minute.

(laughs) Claudine, I have some in the oven, and I have a timer ready here.

So we're going to have fruit in it.

(timer ringing) - Ah.

- Whoop, that's ringing.

- Go check.

- We check my oven.

(oven tray banging) I'll put that in the bottom part of the oven.

Start cutting the fruit, I'm staying here for a minute.

- [Claudine] Okay.

- It's going to be ready, okay?

(pleasant music) You see that?

So your oven is never also exactly the same.

See, this is slightly whiter, this is maybe a bit dark.

No, this is about perfect.

- [Claudine] All right.

- Now, if I wanted to take them out now, they'll fall apart.

You need, well, 30 second, a minute, maybe- - For them to- - Yeah, a minute to set up a little bit.

We gotta check it occasionally.

Everything is in the timing here, but you know, they are not complicated.

When they are ready to come out, they're ready to come out.

Look at that.

They are still a little, a little, they're still hot.

This one is perfect.

You can roll that other coronet, you know?

Well, if you have one of those mold, you put it inside.

If not, you hold it one second?

Take a piece of tin, you kind of roll it a little bit like a, just to hold it - [Claudine] Just until it cools off?

- Yeah, I mean, you know, this is going to take second.

We have some whipped cream here.

- [Claudine] Why?

- So that I anchor it, won't go anywhere like this.

- [Claudine] Oh.

- And then let's put a mixture of fruit here, Claudine.

You know, it's coming out of the (speaking French), you know, we (speaking French) in France, the hole of the (indistinct).

- Yes.

- We can usually show the bounty of the summer here, bit of grape maybe.

Look at the different color.

- [Claudine] Mm.

- Oh, look at that.

- Are those huckleberries?

- Yeah, a bit huckleberry.

There, did I have everything?

- [Claudine] I think so.

- A little bit of whipped cream if you want around, you know, here, there, a bit coming out of it.

- Very nice.

- Maybe a little piece of green here.

Now a little bit of a, the style of new cuisine now, they dirty all the plate around with chocolate, and to here we are.

(pleasant music) And here, the summer cornet Susie.

So this is the end of the summer.

- This is the farewell to summer.

- [Jacques] This is a great meal.

- Yes, definitely.

- I love the as aspic, anytime, and your mother is terrific at making a crystal clear aspic.

And of course the lobster, you know, I always love lobster, and with the cornbread and- - [Claudine] And the corn.

- [Jacques] Yeah, and the potato flat in it.

- [Claudine] Yes.

- That's terrific, and finally, the dessert, the cornucopia, you know, the horn of plenty.

- And the salad.

- Oh, the beautiful salad, the celeriac and the carrots somehow with the mustard, the mayonnaise it really well.

- And with that, of course, we have some wine.

- [Jacques] Good.

- We're gonna finish the Tavel.

- That sounds great.

- And then we're gonna move on to a beautiful chardonnay from Sonoma.

- Oh yes, chardonnay from Sonoma, I mean, either of the wine would be great with the whole menu, right?

- Absolutely.

- So, let's enjoy the end of the summer, (glasses clink) and your company, tetin.

- Thank you, Papa.

- Thank you for watching, and happy cooking.

- Happy cooking.