(light music) - Hi, I'm Jacques Pepin.

- And I'm Claudine Pepin.

My friends and I are gonna have a tailgate party next weekend, and I'm in charge of the food.

Do you wanna come?

- Yes.

I love picnic.

But you have to make sure that the food is easy to pack, easy to serve, and easy to eat.

- Well, I'd like to make something more interesting than just sandwiches.

Do you have any ideas?

- Of course I have a idea.

I mean, there is no picnic for me without a chicken and some kind of soup if it's cold out.

- And my favorite cookies?

- Sure.

Join us.

We're having a tailgate party.

- Next on "Jacques Pepin's Kitchen".

- "Cooking with Claudine".

(train whistle blowing) (upbeat music) I love picnic.

Any picnic is a good idea for me to share food with and wine with friend.

And today, what I'm going to do is to help Claudine doing a tailgate party.

She should be here with me cooking, but she's not up yet.

So, I'm going to start the cookie without her.

And I'm going to do apricot walnut chocolate cookie.

So, I have two eggs, a bit of brown sugar.

We have 2/3 of a stick of butter, a tablespoon of oil, and a little bit of vanilla here.

Like half a teaspoon.

And you put that first.

And emulsify that for a second.

(food processor whirring) Very fast cookie.

Then we add flour.

Do like it cup and a third, something like this.

And a little bit of baking powder.

A teaspoon.

That's the base of our cookie.

Again, you emulsify it for a few seconds.

(food processor whirring) And now what we wanna do is to put this into a bowl.

Put that in there.

In any case, what we are here, the base of our cookie.

To this, we add chopped apricot or dice.

Dice about quarter of an inch.

The chocolate.

- Hi, papa.

- And somewhat.

Oh, you're up?

- What are you doing?

- Well, you're finally up, right?

Okay, well, I'm doing the cookie for your party, so.

- Oh, maybe I should help.

- Why don't you put on apron and come and help, yes?

- Okay.

- And you wanna mix that together gently.

Of course, you don't wanna put all of that garnish in the food processor because it would make more of a mess than anything else.

So, this is a non-stick pan, so it's a good way of cooking it.

And you can mold those out with spoon like this.

About two tablespoon.

You know what you could do, yeah?

Use this, and you know, you take it like this and you have about the right amount.

- Oh.

Okay, great.

- You wanna try one?

Okay.

And you put, you want to have about a couple of inches in between, at least, so that they don't stick together too much.

That's it.

Another one.

Good.

What you would wanna do here, if you wanna flatten them a little bit, get a simple cookie, put a piece of plastic wrap like this gently.

You can do them as wide as you want, but we don't really do them too wide.

You can keep that for the next batch.

And then let's put that in the oven.

You wanna put that in the oven?

Okay.

That's it.

- Ooh, you've already made.

- [Jacques] Yeah, I have a batch.

- Oh, thank you.

- When you do cookie, you have to have several tray, and you do one batch after the other.

I have some cooling off here.

Because they do have to cool off, and preferably on a wire rack.

And then what we're going to do is to arrange them in this.

You're good at this.

- [Claudine] Yeah, that's why.

- But you wait, as I say, until they are dry to arrange them in this.

Otherwise, they would get soggy, and it beat the whole purpose.

But then you have a nice box of cookie, and we're ready for the beginning of our picnic.

- Food is an expression of love.

You cook for people that you love the most, whether it's your friends or your family or whomever you happen to be dating at the time.

(Claudine laughing) (light music) - Okay, let's make our chicken now.

- Sounds good.

- I don't really think that I ever did a picnic without a chicken.

And I'm gonna show you how to do the chicken here.

You need a big chicken, about four pound.

And you wanna put the wing in the back like this.

Sometime we trim it.

Here, it's kind of casual.

We don't trim it.

But we wanna truss it.

Otherwise, you know, it goes all over the place.

You want it to be holding a nice shape.

So, the first thing, you push the leg into it to get that shape.

Now, there is four, five different way of trussing, you know, with or without needle.

I'm gonna show you a way without the needle.

You go underneath like this, and you cross above.

- Mm-hm.

- [Jacques] Then you go under the drumstick, like an eight.

- [Claudine] If you can knit two legs.

- [Jacques] Yeah.

And then you push it like this.

And then put your two thumb here to bring the breast up.

Turning on the side.

- Oh, boy.

- [Jacques] And then anchor it behind the wing here.

- [Claudine] Oh.

Oh!

- Or behind the neck.

If you cut the wing, you anchor it behind the neck.

And you know what you do here?

This is wet, so you go one, two, three time.

Because if I do this, he doesn't release now.

- Oh.

- Okay.

So, here we are.

- Okay.

- This sit across chicken, so it has a nice shape, you know?

- [Claudine] Mm.

- [Jacques] Look like this.

- Okay, now what do we do with it?

- Now what do we do with it?

We're going to cut that off.

And you have another piece of string.

You're going to do it.

Yes.

Okay.

- Okay.

- So, where did we start?

(both laughing) Who put this this way?

Okay.

Go underneath.

Go underneath.

That's it.

- Okay.

- Right.

- This way?

- Cross above.

- This way?

- [Jacques] Okay, now you go under the drumstick.

No, no, no, no.

Now you go under the drumstick.

- [Claudine] Oh.

Okay.

- That's it.

So, that's an eight.

Now, you tighten it a little bit, you pull on it a little bit, and then we push that up.

Now, all you do, you know, you bring it on the side now and anchor it.

- [Claudine] Oh, okay.

This is the under the... - Yeah, that's so.

- Oh, that's what holds it.

- Well, anchor it on the side.

Yes.

So, just do a couple of time, so that it won't slide away from you.

That's it.

Is it tight?

- Yeah.

When I was in Belgium, you know, they already came trussed.

You could buy them like this- - Oh, yeah?

- At the market.

- But can you imagine how much you saved?

See, you did a great job.

- [Claudine] Thank you.

- Gosh, next time, I'll show you how to do it with the trussing needle.

- Oh, boy.

- So, what we are going to do here, a little bit in the style of Peking.

We dropping that in boiling water.

- Oh.

- What does that do?

It tighten the skin on the, like a drum, you know, on top of the carcass.

Well, this should really come back to a boil.

Always wash your hand after you cook chicken.

With soap.

(water pouring) Okay.

(sink tapping) And what we wanna do now is actually to do the dressing for the chicken on top.

And here, you can mix this in there.

I'm gonna give you a little bit of honey.

- Mm.

- You know, about, I don't know, a tablespoon or so.

It's not that important.

And a little bit of, we put balsamic vinegar here.

A little bit of it.

So, go ahead, mix it.

I'm gonna push- - [Claudine] The vinegar melts the honey.

- A little bit of Tabasco and a little bit of soy sauce, so you have the salt and paper that you need in it, if you want, you know?

So, you stir this.

I'm going to get the chicken out.

And you see that chicken now?

Yeah, it's about fine.

Yeah, you can give me that rack.

I wanna put the chicken this way so I can empty the water, you know?

And you wanna put it on a rack like this.

Good.

See, it looks good now it's trussed.

- [Claudine] Yeah.

- Yeah?

Okay, so we want to brush it with this.

You want to.

- I'll hold the bowl.

- You hold the bowl.

Okay, so you wanna do that, actually, a couple of times, you know?

Actually, I can even turn and do the other side also.

The back.

Now, you wanna put that into the oven now.

375 degree.

And cook it for 30 minute, breast side up until it really start crusting.

Then you brush it again with the mixture.

And after you brush it again with the mixture, we turn it on the other side and cook it another 30 minute on the other side.

So, here, cook this one for 30 minute.

Side up.

I have one here which has been cooking now for another 30 minute on this side.

And now I turn it.

You see how brown and beautiful it is?

- [Claudine] Ooh, look at all the juices coming out.

- Yes.

And at that point now, it's been cooking for an hour.

30 minute, one way, 30 minute the other way.

So, I'm adding like 3/4 of a pound of button mushroom around.

You know what you could put also here, depending how much juice came out, you could put half a cup of water in the bottom.

Then we put it back there (door shutting) for another 15 minute.

Time at which it would be cooked for an hour and a quarter.

And at that point, I have one which is cooling off here.

Let's bring it here.

I'm gonna cut it.

You cannot cut it when it's too, too hot.

And you really can see this is really dark roasted, you know?

- Mm.

- But now, now it's fine.

It's not too hot because the juice come out here.

And the rack, I don't need this.

(rack thudding) You get like a natural juice here, which can to caramelize, you know, with the mushroom and with the honey that we put in it.

And now you remove your truss, Claudine.

This way.

Now, you cut this inside and break it at the joint here to remove the leg.

- Mm-hm.

- Okay, and you do the same thing with the breast.

You see I put the breast in there?

- Mm-hm.

- And cut at the joint here.

There is a joint somewhere right here.

And I have the whole breast- - Oh, yum.

- Coming out of it.

Here, don't forget that skin, you know, which is really dark.

And you know what?

I serve the carcass also, huh?

- Yeah.

- Actually, if you, if I go to the picnic, if your godfather goes to the picnic- - Oh, my godfather.

- Just think, he's going to eat the carcass.

Now, you see here?

- Uh-huh.

- [Jacques] You push this in there, you know?

Now, hold this.

And you put it, you see, you cut the skin around.

- [Claudine] Mm-hm.

- And all you have is to break it up in here.

- Oh!

- Now pull it out.

You can pull it out with this.

And right here, you know?

Likewise, here, you see if I find the joint here, cut a piece of the breast.

Again, put your knife here, and lift it up.

You see?

- Ooh.

- [Jacques] Nice breast of chicken.

- I'm gonna put it back in here.

- And then you have the carcass here again that we have.

We have the brusche, what we call the brusche, which is really the breast meat here, you know?

All of this.

And the carcass, which is, for me, at the picnics, we're not forgetting those piece.

You know what those are.

- Oh, the oysters.

- [Jacques] The oyster, we call the (speaks French) - Yep.

- In France, so you know.

So, shall we organize that in there?

- Yeah.

- Okay, put your pieces here.

There.

We can keep it kind of a, I like it when it's kind of lukewarm, you know?

- Yeah, definitely.

- Look at that.

Maybe I'll keep that to eat at home with a salad tomorrow.

(Claudine laughing) That's how I like it.

And with the mushroom on top, you could even add a bit more water to get a little more juice out of this.

And basically, this is it, you know?

We're ready for the picnic.

- We have most of these in the garden, but I never know what they're called or what the difference is.

- This year particularly, I planted those Golden Jubilee, you know?

It's a very low-acid tomato.

See, they are very sweet.

- Mm.

- Aren't they good?

Yes?

Sweet and all that.

Then you have your Roma, the Roma tomato.

This is the Golden Roma.

But often, that's what they use to dry tomato because they have a thick wall, you know?

They dry very well, and not that much seed.

And look at those here.

Gonna bring all of the cherry tomato on the market now.

- These are beautiful.

- Yeah.

Those are Sungold tomato.

I mean, that beautiful color.

This is pear-shape.

Then you have the plum-shape.

You know, they have it in red.

They have that in yellow.

They have them in all color.

And of course, you have those small one here, which is the Sweet 100.

And those Sweet 100 there are just like the name indicates.

Very sweet.

- Oh!

- So sweet.

- Those are so good.

- Taste those, yeah.

They're good.

That good, huh?

- Mm.

- Yeah, those are perfect.

- Oh, those are really good.

- Yeah.

I mean, it's incredible, the type of tomato we have on the market now.

- So, today for the potage, we're using these?

These?

- Well, we're using the red tomato.

Yes.

So, you know, to start with, I thought we would do a soup.

But you can serve a soup even if it's cold in a thermos.

- That sounds good.

- I know you like your hot tomato soup.

I thought I would do, and I'm gonna start with a bit of olive oil there.

This is what we had when we were a kid, you know?

Okay, so here, we're going to do, I'm doing the work here.

Why don't you get the two clove of garlic (knife banging) and smash them here while I'm doing this?

Here.

I told you the blade in the other direction.

You put the blade in that direction.

Then just... I mean, you have to put the blade more incline like this, you know, to go on top.

You know, down and forward a little bit, okay?

- Okay.

- You don't have to chop this because we're going to strain it anyway.

- Oh.

- [Jacques] So, let's cut those tomato.

- Okay.

- We have Roma tomato here.

And very often, I use those, you know, because year-round, those end up being very thick flesh and of fairly standout quality in the different market throughout the country, you know?

- So, I don't have to do anything to this because we're gonna strain it?

- Yes.

That's it.

- Oh, okay.

- So, you have about a pound, pound and a half of tomato here.

I mean, we're doing that for four, six people, right?

Okay.

- Mm-hm.

On healthy ears.

- So, it's pretty simple.

Bit of olive oil, garlic, the onion.

Let's put a bit of Herb de Provence here.

- Oh, yum.

- And of course, you have the thyme, savory.

Margarine in it, you know?

- Lavender.

- And lavender if you want.

Add this.

Saute it, and you do that with water.

That's a good vegetarian soup.

You know what you can do also?

Yes.

Put like two teaspoon of flour just to give me (pan clangs) a little bit of thickening agent in the sauce, you know, so that the liquid doesn't separate from the tomato too much.

It gets slightly creamier.

- [Claudine] Oh.

(pan clanging) - Okay?

- Sounds good.

- This is simple soup.

We put this.

We put salt on top of it.

Pepper.

Water.

I can have a cup and a half of water, something like that here.

And that's it.

You bring that to a boil.

And you wanna boil that 15, 20 minute.

- Looks great.

- I have one here, which has been boiling.

- [Claudine] Oh, wow.

- And which is ready.

So, you know what we are going to do?

- Oh, it smells wonderful.

- We are going to strain it.

So, I pour and you turn.

- [Claudine] Sure.

- Wait a minute.

Okay.

Let me give you a hand with that.

Why don't you get me a little piece of butter there to put in there?

- Okay.

- And we'll put the butter directly in the bottom part of it.

- Like this?

- Tablespoon.

Couple of tablespoon is fine, yes.

- That looks like - If you want to enrich it.

If you don't wanna put anything in it, it's fine.

- [Claudine] Whoa.

- Okay, you put it directly in there.

- Yep.

- And as you can see here, you clean up the bottom part because you have thick, thick juice.

But basically, what you have inside, you see, Claudine, is the skin.

- The skin.

- [Jacques] The skin and the seed.

- [Claudine] Oh, wow.

- Okay?

- Looks good.

- So, that's good to use this way.

We stir that together.

- So, here's a bowl.

And you can have some.

- Yeah.

You wanna taste it?

- I'm gonna get a thermos.

Yes.

- Well, you know what it needs in there?

Would need a piece of sugar.

I think of that.

On this one here, I didn't put sugar.

- Oh.

- Always put a dash of sugar when you do tomato to bring back the sweetness of the tomato, you know?

So, that's a simple soup.

You put it in there.

(bowl banging) And those thermos, of course, are great.

Do that.

Do you wanna get me a ladle there?

- Oh, okay.

Hold on.

- Yes.

And this could also be served cold, actually.

You know, that type of soup.

Thank you.

See, serve it this way.

- Mm.

- [Jacques] Be nice.

You see, it's just creamy enough.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, we do a nice, maybe a little piece of basil or something on top.

Those thermos are great.

They all like this.

(ladle tapping) And I think this one hold four or five cup, you know?

(soup pouring) - It doesn't look like it does, but it does.

- It does.

So, you keep filling it up.

Put that thing back on top.

And that's it.

You're ready for the picnic.

Now, I think we should have bread with that, right?

- Okay.

Are you gonna do the spoon bread?

- Okay.

Yep, I'm gonna do the spoon bread.

- Okay, I'm gonna break.

- And what I'm going to do is spoon bread done with the milk and polenta.

Corn there.

So, the milk come to a boil.

I have it here.

Approximately coming to a boil here.

Let me see whether I should, yeah, put a bit of salt in there.

A bit of salt.

A dash of pepper.

In the milk.

And I'll put the polenta.

So, you put it this way.

Just regular cornmeal, you know, corn mush.

Or can call it different way.

And this has to cook.

Of course, first it has to come back to a boil.

And cook a few minute.

- Okay.

- Okay?

So, what are we going to put in it?

- Tabasco.

- Don't let me forget about it.

- Oh, boy.

- Because the milk will have a tendency to go all over the place, you know?

So, we wanna cut some of those.

So, why don't you cut some of those?

This is the knife you like.

Now, just cut a few.

And I'll cut a few.

You'll have two, and I'll do four.

Okay?

- Okay.

Just?

- Now, again, again.

Put your finger this way.

Ah, there.

Fine.

Should know how to do it now.

Just go down and forward.

Down and forward.

Gently.

A bit finer than that.

- Finer?

- Yes.

- [Claudine] Oh, goodness.

- Now, see?

Keep going.

You're doing well.

- Thank you.

- This is coming to a boil now.

And it's thickening.

It's nice and smooth and thick here.

So, this is about ready, you know?

You cook it to that point.

Remember, we're gonna cook that in the oven again.

So, I put it in there.

(bowl banging) Keep going.

Keep going.

- I'm done.

Okay, I'll finish yours.

- What do you mean you're done?

- [Claudine] Oh, I like this knife.

- You like that knife better?

- It's serious.

- Okay.

Good.

So, I have this here.

And occasionally, you wanna stir it so that it cool off a little bit.

In fact, you don't really want to add your eggs for like 10 minute.

I mean, I'm going to add them a bit earlier, but you don't wanna precook the eggs.

- Oh.

- Okay.

Thank you.

Okay, so we make that in there.

And you know what I'm going to do is to break those eggs.

We put three eggs in it.

Why don't you, and we're going to do it in there, why don't you borrow this?

- Okay.

- Oh, and then, why don't you add a little bit of Tabasco to this?

- To here?

- Yeah.

- Is that enough?

- Yeah, that's plenty.

Okay.

(egg cracking) Did I put salt in there?

Yes, I put salt.

- Sure.

- You wanna beat the eggs separate here.

You know, a little bit, so that, like you would do for an omelet, you know?

- [Claudine] Mm-hm.

(spoon banging) - Okay.

This in there.

You know what?

I may even need this on top.

Need the whisk to add this to it.

- Why?

So that it doesn't cook?

- Well, it go, yes.

Especially my polenta is still a bit too warm here for me.

So, I will have to be careful to go fast.

Not to cook the egg.

And that's what I tell you.

You know, just let it wait like 10 minute before you add your egg.

- Is this enough buttered?

- Yeah, that's good.

You just mix it together.

So, this is an easy thing to do, you see?

Okay.

I think it looks about right.

(whisk banging) And we wanna put it in there now.

So, that's it.

- That's it?

- You wanna put that in the oven now.

- Okay.

- You can put it on a cookie sheet or put it like that in the oven.

That's fine.

We have it there.

And I have that other one underneath.

(oven clanging) Okay.

- I got the door.

(door shutting) - And here is our spoon bread here.

You can serve it this way.

You can serve it, you see, with a spoon like this.

- [Claudine] Mm.

- And this is great.

Terrific for a picnic.

- Well, I must say that I'm certainly glad I invited you to my tailgate party 'cause I wouldn't have been able to do this without you.

- Well, I think we have a nice menu.

- [Claudine] Oh, it's gonna be awesome.

- Of course, you don't have to eat that only for a picnic.

But I mean, we have nice cookie, spoon bread, did a great chicken.

Lukewarm, and it's really terrific.

So, what do we drink with this?

- Well, I don't know.

What do you have?

- Well, you have your beautiful glass here.

- Yes.

- This is terrific.

- These are great.

- I can't break those, right?

- No.

- Oh, that's good.

Well, I think I'm going to have some Bourgogne.

You know, Bourgogne, that's where I come from.

So, I need to have Bourgogne with a picnic.

- I need to have beer with a picnic 'cause I was - Oh, you want to have beer with a picnic?

Well, let me show you- - Here.

- How to open.

Give me a spoon there.

- A spoon?

- Yeah, you can open it this way or just put the spoon here, and you just break it open.

You see?

- Okay.

- And this one, you already open it.

I'll open another one for you.

(lid popping) (Claudine laughing) There it go, you know, so- - Thank you.

- Here, you have two beer.

You're ready.

We're ready to go for the picnic.

- Sounds good.

- It was fun cooking with you (indistinct) as usual.

- Thank you.

- I hope you're going to cook with your friend too.

Get your food together, prepare a picnic, and go in the wood or by the water, and have a ball.

You're going to enjoy your picnic as we enjoy cooking it for you.

(light music) Happy cooking.

- Happy cooking.

(upbeat music)