- Hi, I'm Jacques Pépin.

- And I'm Claudine Pépin.

When I go to the grocery store hungry, I end up buying everything in sight but by the time I get home, I don't even know what to cook.

- I think that happened to a lot of people.

You need to learn how to be creative.

- I definitely need some pointers on how to pull together all the things that jumped into my cart.

- Well, you'll be surprised at what a great meal you can make from a mystery basket.

- Next on "Jacques Pépin's Kitchen" - "Cooking With Claudine."

(gentle upbeat music) (train horn blasting) (gentle upbeat music continues) Well, you're cooking by yourself now?

- Well, I knew I wouldn't be doing that for too long.

I went to the market and I bought probably too much food and I wanna make stuffed peppers.

- Oh good.

- And so you're gonna teach me how.

- What else do we have here?

So we have a lot of stuff here.

You have garlic.

- [Claudine] I have a- - Oh, you have a butternut squash here.

Oh, you have pasta.

You have zucchini.

- Yep.

- So what are you going to do with that?

- I don't know.

What am I gonna do with that?

- [Jacques] Well, you started with the pepper, right?

- [Claudine] Yeah.

- [Jacques] Okay so- - [Claudine] I'm gonna do stuffed peppers.

- [Jacques] What is that ground...?

- [Both] Turkey.

- [Jacques] Okay so we can put that with the pepper to stuff it.

- Okay.

- What do you have here?

Oh, you... - I peeled an onion.

I washed the mushrooms.

I washed the broccoli.

- You're not supposed to wash the mushroom.

- Why?

- And you're not supposed to keep them in plastic.

They're gonna get all wet and all that.

Well, we can put that in the stuffing here.

- Okay.

- With this that we have a zucchini.

Maybe the zucchini will go with the stuffed pepper also.

- [Claudine] Okay.

- What else?

You have some pasta.

- I have some sausage.

- Oh, you have?

Okay, so fine.

Here is some pasta.

You want, you have sausage in there?

- Yep.

- Oh two little sausage.

Okay, good.

- [Claudine] Maybe a bit spicy, be good.

- We can put that with the pasta.

What else you have?

Corn.

- Corn.

- [Jacques] Maybe with the pasta too.

- [Claudine] Sounds great.

- [Jacques] Okay.

- Tomatoes have to go with pasta.

- Tomato with the pasta.

Of course.

Garlic.

- Garlic goes with everything.

- Okay.

And what about that butternut squash here?

What do you want to do with that?

- Fix me something neat, fun to do.

- You want it with the pasta?

- No.

- All right.

- No, we have a lot of stuff with the pasta.

- Well, okay, fine.

- [Claudine] Do something.

- We do something else with it.

What do you have?

- Oh broccoli.

- They are clean?

- [Claudine] Yes.

- [Jacques] Pasta?

- [Claudine] Pasta (laughing) - Yeah, okay.

Pasta with that.

And you have raspberries.

- [Claudine] Yeah, I love raspberries.

- Beautiful raspberries.

So we do that with the yogurt.

We'll do something with it, okay?

Well let's start with the stuffed pepper then.

- Sounds good.

- What do you want me to do with those peppers?

- I want you to cut the other two exactly the way I cut these.

- Oh, well you did a pretty good job here.

- Thank you.

- You know when you do those peppers like that, you want to take a hat off and basically cut all around.

Maybe 1/2 an inch from the top.

And then twist the top like this to get your hat out.

And you throw out the inside, I suppose here.

(pepper thudding) Well, that's what you had over there.

And that give you a nice cavity to stuff.

Of course you can have pepper of different color, and of course after that you want to remove the seed here from the top.

Okay and we keep that.

This is our hat, right?

We're going to use it.

Oh you empty that one too?

- Yep.

- Oh good.

So you did three and I only did one.

- That's okay.

- Okay, so let's see.

Now you have those, you say they are washed?

- [Claudine] Yes.

- Okay, so let's maybe put those in the food processor.

- Okay.

- You know, to chop them.

As I say, you know, don't wash them ahead because they get all wet.

Only at the last moment you wash them, and you see they get all soft like this, You know?

- [Claudine] Oh, sorry.

- But they are black so you must- - Well they were a little old, but.

- What they were cheap?

- Yeah.

- [Jacques] Good.

So you saved money?

- Of course I did.

I always save money.

(mixer whirring) - So just go like this, you know, stop and start.

(mixer whirring) Because like that usually makes a good duxelles.

We call that a duxelles.

Sometime if pieces stay in the middle, just break them a little bit like this.

- [Claudine] Oh, okay.

- And start again, you know.

Do you have any bread?

No?

By any chance?

- I have some bread.

It's not particularly fresh, but.

- Well it's okay.

- Okay.

- We can use leftover bread.

In fact, it's just as well.

Sometimes it's even better for that type of stuffing, you know.

Okay.

- How much do you want?

- Yeah, four slices, that'll be plenty.

So again, you know, just cut that coarsely like this and you have fresh breadcrumb.

- Oh, okay.

Good.

- Okay.

So never throw out bread.

- [Claudine] No.

(mixer whirring) - Yeah, you have nice breadcrumbs with this.

(mixer whirring) - [Claudine] Oh, it's good.

(mixer whirring) - Okay, good.

So you know this, how much do you have here?

- About a pound something?

- Yeah, a pound and 1/4.

So we will have enough with 1/2 of this.

About 10 ounce would be more than enough.

So why don't you, you know, put 1/2 of it in there and the other 1/2, you know what you do with it you- - Freeze it.

- Well, yes.

Or you can do a hamburger with it so you can keep it in the refrigerator for a day or so, and eventually do a little patty with it.

- [Claudine] Okay.

- You know?

I'm putting that zucchini in there.

I don't know why, but it's there so.

So I'll put this in there.

What else?

- We want an onion in here, don't we?

- Yeah, well you have your onion, so why don't you put that in there and you can start mixing it.

What you want to do is you put salt and pepper.

- Okay.

- And I'll put the bread at the end.

You know, you don't want to put the bread too early.

Not to mash it up too much.

And in that particular recipe, one way of doing it, you do it without cooking.

You know, some stuffing.

Sometime you, sauté the onion.

You kind of precook the stuffing a little bit.

But there, this is going to cook a long time in the oven so it doesn't have to.

- Should I just mix it?

- Yeah, you want to use your hand?

You can use your hand in that case because- - [Claudine] Yeah, we're gonna cook it afterwards.

- Because it's going to cook a long time, so it's okay.

(knife banging) I just like making a mess.

- You can mash it up and all that, you know, it's good.

Actually, your hand is about the best tool that you have in the kitchen.

I'm putting a lot of onion here.

- Well, you're the best thing I have in my kitchen, so.

- Oh my hand, right?

Okay.

So I'm gonna give you some breadcrumb.

You can add in there.

- [Claudine] Do I mash it this way or?

- Yes.

- Mix it in or?

- We put it at the end.

I think I have enough with this.

You can give the rest to your cat.

- Well, no, the cat won't eat it.

- No, the cat won't eat it?

- No, he's very finicky.

- All right then I'll start stuffing.

Okay, go ahead and stuff when you can start this way.

I mean, this is a main course you know.

- This is gonna be great.

I never knew really how to make stuffed peppers or what to put in them.

Well you can stuff it with rice, for example, if you have some leftover rice, even some leftover pasta.

All right?

No, it's good.

The recipe is fine.

We have enough with that for the four peppers, right?

Well don't lose anything please.

And if your pepper is not straight in the bottom, you know, just cut a little piece from the base so that it sit approximately straight, you know?

Then let's put this back on top of it.

Okay?

This way you press a little bit inside.

I don't know whether I'm putting the right hat on the right one, but.

- Well, that's okay.

- Doesn't matter that much.

At that point, you know what, I want to wash my hand.

You too?

- Yeah.

- Okay, just go ahead and wash a little bit.

(water sloshing) And what we are going to put around this is a little bit of olive oil on top.

- We didn't use any other oil or anything like that so this is- - [Jacques] We didn't use... - [Claudine] This is pretty light actually with turkey.

- With the turkey, yes.

- Yeah.

- And then a bit of water otherwise it would burn, because that has to cook in the oven, 400 degrees, for over an hour, you know.

- [Claudine] Oh.

- Till it's nice and tender and soft.

So we put this around, okay.

This here, we're gonna do something with it?

- Butternut squash.

Yep.

- [Jacques] And then maybe we'll put some garlic with that.

- [Claudine] Okay.

So why don't you put that in the oven?

Can you grab it?

- Yep.

- Okay.

- Pretty coordinated.

- And you want me to open the door for you?

- No.

- No?

Okay.

- No.

- So we are going to do, I think we're going to do a puree of squash here.

The butternut squash does a really very smooth and beautiful puree.

So the first thing that we have to do is actually cut this because the neck is there, and this is where you have the seed really.

See I cut the neck like this.

- Oh, okay.

- And what, see there is no seed there.

- [Claudine] Oh wow.

- All the seed are there.

And we can cut the top.

This is very hard to peel and hard, but why don't you try with the vegetable peeler?

If you know what you have to do, you see underneath there is a green color there.

So just peel it all around like this.

And you may have to go again another time.

- Oh, so you want the green off?

- Yeah, yeah, I think it's better.

And I'll do this one with a knife.

But you know, if you do it with a knife like that, you do have to be careful as I say because those are very kind of dangerous.

Okay so I'm emptying this.

You see, you can even use this other receptacle if you want to do a puree of something.

To do something else and fill that up after.

- Could you just bake that?

- You could just bake that too.

But usually when we bake them, we cut them the long way.

- Yeah.

- Remember?

Okay, are you, where are you at?

- [Claudine] I'm at the green part.

- Okay, I'll cut them in pieces.

(knife banging) Coarsely doesn't really matter at that point because we are going to do a puree with it.

I like the puree of a blended squash.

Kind of creamy and nice.

So I'll put this in there.

I'm gonna put some water.

Have some water here.

- I'm still struggling.

I'm sorry.

- I don't wanna put too much water.

Just enough water so that by the time it's finished cooking, the water is eliminated.

Just enough water left so I can mix it with it.

I don't have to drain anything.

So I have less loss of nutrient and less loss of taste.

You know what I'm going to put maybe a clove of garlic in there.

Just a clove of garlic.

You won't even know it's in there you know.

It's going to be very delicate.

So just crush it a little bit to release the skin.

And we put it this way in there.

My aunt used to do that when she did puree of potato.

That's enough, that's good.

- [Claudine] Okay.

- So this is very solid.

You have more meat in the neck than you have in all of the rest of the squash.

Okay?

But why don't you put a dash of salt?

We need salt in it.

And this basically, that's it.

This now has to come to a boil.

When it boil, you cover it and then you boil it for about 20, 25 minutes until it's nice and tender.

- I remember when I was younger and we'd come to the supermarket, maybe there were 10 oils, now there's 120.

It's difficult for me to know which to use when.

- It's a question of taste you know.

For example, your grandfather didn't like olive oil.

He wasn't used to it.

He used peanut oil.

Olive oil has more taste.

Extra virgin olive oil is the highest in terms of quality.

Of course the most expensive also so sometime you use it just on top of your salad, you know, if it's too expensive.

Then you have a virgin olive oil.

Then you have a pure olive oil.

But sometime you don't want the taste of olive oil frying.

For example, if you do a dessert, you move toward your vegetable oil.

For example, you have canola oil.

They say now is very good for you.

It's very good for your cholesterol and so forth.

But there is no cholesterol in any oil.

But canola oil is the least saturated.

It withstands high temperature so it's good to fry with, so one of the best.

I mean there are others, you know.

Peanut oil is a bit stronger in taste.

I like peanut oil.

You have corn oil.

You have cotton seed oil.

- So give me two, maximum three, that I should have, definitely, at all times.

- All right, so you have a good olive oil, an extra virgin olive oil.

I mean they're really not that expensive.

And then some type of canola or peanut oil would be very good if you want an oil without too much taste or to fry.

And maybe the third one, why don't you buy a sesame oil?

The Chinese one type, you know, with the roasted sesame, which is dark.

Put a little bit of it and you'll be very happy with those.

- [Claudine] Oh, that sounds good.

Great.

- I put your pasta to cook and the sausage- - [Claudine] And sausage too.

- Two of them.

It does take about 10 to 12 minutes over a large pan.

This has been cooking about 10 minute too or 8-10 minutes.

We're gonna put those broccoli in it.

I already cut some.

Why don't you cut those into florets?

What you want to do is to remove that fibrous skin that you have around the stem here.

Otherwise keep the stem.

I love the stem more even than the floret providing you remove that stuff around.

You can do it with a vegetable peeler also.

- But you don't need to do it with these?

- No, no, they are too small.

That's fine.

Okay, so you can add this to the bowl here.

(knife banging) And this, we're going to put that with the sausage because they have to cook for a couple of minutes.

So let's put this in there, you know?

I'm gonna stir it a little bit.

(pan rattling) But there I have the sausage.

You have two small sausage, about six ounces of sausage there.

- [Claudine] It's not a lot.

- We're cooking it.

No, it's not a lot.

And I think I'll put the garlic with that now.

- Okay.

- So I'll have to put the garlic.

You let me do all the work here.

- I know.

- You go to the market and I end up doing all the work.

(Claudine laughing) So here we chop that.

(knife banging) Just coarsely this way and can add the garlic.

Leave it on top so don't put it in the bottom because they have tendency to burn underneath you know.

For the time being just leave it like this.

Let's cover that.

We're gonna cook that for a couple of minutes now.

And during that time, let's check out the squash puree that we did here.

Got it there.

Whoop.

Yeah, it's plenty cooked, you know.

And you see you have that clove of garlic on top.

There is almost no water left.

But you know, just in case, I'm removing a little bit of the water in case I don't need it.

But you see there is like four, five tablespoon of water.

Not even.

- That's not a lot.

- So let's put this in there.

I'm gonna put it here.

You know, put a tablespoon of butter in there.

That's it.

You're generous.

That's it.

- I've always been generous.

- A bit of salt again, maybe a dash of pepper now.

- [Claudine] Oh, okay.

- And you can start turning it.

We're going to put a bit of milk in there and about 1/4 of a cup of milk.

(mixer whirring) That's it.

About 1/4 of a cup of milk.

You could put of course cream in it.

You can have it as rich as you want, but.

And I can add back the liquid from the squash if I think that it needs to, you know?

We like it very light and creamy, you know.

Oh, okay.

You will never know that there was a clove of garlic in there.

- Well then what's the point of putting it in?

- Ah-ha!

- I don't understand.

- See and it's nice.

- [Claudine] Mm, oh, it's good.

- And creamy like this.

Yeah, this is terrific for Thanksgiving too, you know, a puree of... You can do that with a corn squash as well as regular pumpkin.

But I kind of like the butternut squash, you know?

- [Claudine] Me too.

- That looks great.

And you know what, I can smell the pepper.

I think they are cooked.

Maybe I'll go get them.

- [Claudine] There are pot holders if you need them.

- Yeah, let me check them out.

- [Claudine] Oh, it smells really good.

- I'm not going to take the tray.

I'll take just this.

Close the door.

(oven door banging) See, this should be quite tender, you know, after a while.

And you can see.

Maybe we'll serve the big one here.

See that's a nice portion.

And with a little bit of the water, the juices, the natural juice around.

And look at this one.

I'm gonna cut one open and just so you can see the inside.

Maybe I'll take the hat out of it.

This has held pretty good inside.

It's full.

- [Claudine] Oh yeah, because of the breadcrumbs.

- Nice and full, yes.

And the mushrooms.

So it's very moist inside.

- Oh, okay.

Yeah, I forgot about the mushrooms actually.

- So this is going to be a great main course.

And now why don't we sieve the pasta?

- Okay.

- And the broccoli are done.

Okay.

(pan sizzling) You see, always put this upside down when you put it so all the water doesn't go all over the place.

And I cut some tomato.

Why don't you cut those tomato in half?

(pan sizzling) See this is cooked now and lower the heat a little bit.

- I ate one so I didn't have to cut it.

- You ate one.

I know.

Each time I turn my back in the restaurant at what we say, "you eat the profit," you know.

- Oh, well profits taste good.

- Okay, you can get and this.

We want to cut the kernel here.

(knife banging) Just this way.

(knife banging) You don't want to go too deep into the cob, you know?

But I mean, you can still give the cob to the cow in the back when you were small.

That's what you were doing in Hunter, you know?

Okay.

So we put this in there.

We have a lot of vegetable in there.

- Look at all this color.

- Yeah, this is great.

- Okay, why don't you add this and this to it?

And I'm gonna drain the pasta.

- I could use different vegetables depending on what's in season, right?

- Yeah, of course.

And you know what I do there?

I like to put at least 1/2 a cup of the juice from the pasta, you know?

(pan sizzling) And we steam it like that for 30 or 40 seconds.

I'm gonna drain that pasta.

With a large pan, you know?

- You want me to get you a bowl?

- [Jacques] Yeah, we can put it on the side like that to drain.

- [Claudine] Okay.

- Let's see you have some cheese.

- Yep.

- What do you have?

Oh that's good.

- Parmigiano-Reggiano.

- The Reggiano, that's the best, you know.

- Well you know.

- So you will grate some on top.

Let's see.

Put my pasta.

- [Claudine] Mm.

- Right in there.

And all of those different vegetables.

- [Claudine] Oh that looks so good.

- Well we need a big pasta bowl here, you know, to do this.

Okay.

Okay, let me toss some of the pasta on top.

You want the taste.

Well I think we have been very generous here with the pasta.

- We're always generous.

- I tossed it because I know you're going to put it all over the place doing exactly what I'm doing.

So, okay, now you can put cheese on top of it.

- Piece of broccoli up there.

- Yes, that's for me.

- Okay.

You're eating the profits.

- For the cook.

Okay.

- Is that enough?

- I think that's fine.

And you can give some more on the table if people want a little more cheese.

Always put a bit of extra cheese.

And this is the (indistinct) or penne in that case.

Penne with sausage and vegetable.

- Okay, well let's make dessert.

- That's right.

Okay, let's make dessert.

So we have your raspberries there and you see what I did?

- [Claudine] Look at this.

- I pick I think a older one, which were crushed a little bit.

- You want me to throw them away?

- Like this.

No, are you kidding?

This is what you do the sauce with.

We're going to do the sauce with yogurt.

- [Claudine] Oh, okay.

- So here I put that in there.

Put some yogurt in there.

About 3/4 of a cup.

What is that?

This is no-fat yogurt?

- Yep.

Plain.

- [Jacques] Oh, we're going to lose weight today.

Okay.

- [Claudine] Of course.

- Then we put two or three, whatever kind of sugar we planned in and.

(mixer whirring) We put that to a beautiful sauce.

(mixer whirring) - [Claudine] This is gorgeous.

- Yes, that's fine.

Just give me.

Now you don't have to strain it, but I mean it's, I think it's a little bit better because you know you have a lot of seed in there.

- Okay?

- Okay.

To pick up all of what's left.

You don't go with your rubber spatula and do this.

You start doing this because when you go with a rubber spatula, then you block all the hole.

You put one seed, one berry seed in each hole.

- Oh.

- So here the things go through this way.

And only at the end now when you have only the berries, then you can do this because this is the end of it.

Then we put the fresh berry into it, you know.

So it's like a cream.

I mean you could put a little bit of framboise, you know, raspberry brandy on top of this.

- Oh that would be really good.

- You wanna give me that bowl to fit it in?

- [Claudine] I have a piece.

- Don't wanna mess up a glass too much, but okay.

That would be a good portion.

Piece of mint right in the center of it.

Looks absolutely beautiful and good.

This is the cream of raspberry and yogurt.

(upbeat music) - People should definitely go to the market when they're hungry because you know you're gonna come back with seven times more food than you could possibly ever use, and probably nothing to eat for dinner.

- Well, I think we did pretty good with our mystery food, you know, mystery basket, whatever you brought back from the market.

- Oh yeah, definitely.

I like the idea of doing the puree of butternut squash.

I wouldn't really have thought of that.

- Well, it's not really a menu.

I mean, the puree of squash can be served with the first course or an accompaniment for fish or with poultry or meat.

- Oh, fish.

- Yes.

And then of course our stuffed pepper here, it's very moist and nice and it's done with, you know, basically fat-less turkey and that would be very good for it.

And of course the pasta is a main course in itself too.

I mean, you could serve that as a main course.

- So we're eating a lot of main courses today.

- We're eating a lot of main courses.

But you have a nice dessert too.

- [Claudine] Yeah, I like it.

- [Jacques] You know, it's unusual.

It's creamy and flavorful and it's good.

- [Claudine] And it's simple.

- So you're going to have a good time doing it.

- Oh definitely.

I'll do this again.

- I think with that it has a bit of an Italian flavor, the pasta and maybe the stuffed peppers.

So I pick up Chianti Classico, you know, from the area of near Sienna in Tuscany.

- Oh.

- This is done mostly with Sangiovese grapes and even some white grapes in it, the trebbiano.

- [Claudine] Oh wow.

- [Jacques] Which is classic.

2 or 3% of trebbiano.

- [Claudine] Oh wow.

- Which is classic to do in the Chianti, you know?

So we're going to enjoy that with our meal.

I hope you get into the kitchen.

Don't be intimidated.

Go to the market, buy stuff, get into the kitchen, think for a minute and start cooking.

You'll have a ball doing it.

Claudine and I have a ball cooking for you.

Happy cooking.

- Happy cooking.

(upbeat music)