- Hi, I'm Jacques Pepin.

- And I'm Claudine Pepin.

- I love New Year's Eve in France.

It's a perfect excuse to indulge in a little champagne and wonderful meal.

- And in America?

- In America, it's a perfect excuse to indulge in a little champagne and a wonderful celebration.

- Sounds great, where do we begin?

- [Jacques] Let's start with oyster and corn chowder with individual corn bread.

A traditional rib roast makes a dramatic presentation with a fluffy golden Yorkshire pudding on the side.

- [Claudine] Baby greens with pecans, goat cheese, and pears captures the sweet and savory flavors of midwinter.

And for dessert, let's make French vanilla ice cream with lace cookies and spicy cherries and wine.

- Great Claudine, let's get started.

- My pleasure, Papa.

Bonne année.

- Bonne année, Claudine.

- Please join us for festive New Year's Eve.

- Next on "Jacque Pepin Celebrates."

- This is a festive time of the year, New Year's Eve.

And we're ready to rumble, right?

- Yeah.

- We're ready to have some champagne.

- After that snow storm we have to.

- After the snow storm.

But first we have to cook, right?

- Yes, yes.

- We have to cook for the guests, otherwise, at least for us, if they can't come.

- Did everybody accept, do you remember?

- Well, but with the snow, they probably won't come.

- (laughs) Another one.

- So what we're gonna start with is a corn and oyster chowder.

And we have a lot of sliced leek in there that I'm going to put in there with a tablespoon of butter to brown.

- [Gloria] And you didn't put any oil with your butter.

You always tell me to put oil with the butter.

- [Jacques] I need onion.

- [Gloria] Now, why didn't you put oil with that?

- Okay, I've put a little bit of oil in there.

Okay, a bit of oil there.

- So you always tell me the butter will burn, the oil won't or something.

- [Jacques] Yeah, but this here I have a lot of moisture coming out of that, you know, it's not like a dry thing.

So, but fine, I put that little bit of.

So there we have about three cup of milk and a cup of cream.

And we wanna saute that for a couple of minutes or so until they start, you know, softening.

I'm gonna put some salt in there and pepper, it's going to help.

- [Gloria] Do we need some garlic in there?

- [Jacques] Oh, yes, I need some garlic there, but, well, maybe I do the garlic now.

- Chop it.

That way I don't have to.

- [Jacques] Two, three, you think it's enough?

Three-and-a-half?

- It's never enough garlic.

- Oh, yeah?

- That's good.

- There's nothing like too much garlic.

- Not for me.

- [Jacques] And the garlic, if you cook it for a while, you know, the tastes get much milder, of course.

So what do we put in the corn bread there?

- Well, the corn bread, which is, it's such a simple recipe.

- [Jacques] Well, I have a bit of leek for you that I sauteed.

Those leek are sauteed with a bit of butter so they are soft, but- - [Gloria] And we have some, well we have flour, cornmeal, I'm just gonna- - [Jacques] Yeah, that's it.

- [Gloria] Dump it all in.

- [Jacques] Brown meal flour.

- [Gloria] And then we've got some baking powder.

- [Jacques] Well, I'll put the leek in there too.

- [Gloria] Yep, sauteed leeks, drop of sugar.

- [Jacques] Drop of sugar.

- Salt and pepper I'll let you do because I probably overdo.

- No, I don't think, what about the, wanna put the eggs now?

- You want the egg first?

- Yeah, go ahead.

- Okay.

- You're assisting me this time.

- Okay, yes ma'am.

Eggs.

- And the milk.

- [Jacques] And milk.

- And if all goes well, this'll mix beautifully, right?

- [Jacques] Yeah, it will.

Now this is softening okay.

And that part we can do a little bit of ahead, you know, that part here and that part with the milk.

The oyster and the corn goes at the end.

That looks good.

- That's good, huh?

- Yeah.

- And then we're gonna fill these little guys.

- This is incredible, it's new stuff on the market, I mean, if you don't have that, you do that into little muffin pan or it's fine.

But this, nothing stick to it.

- So we don't have to butter it or anything.

- Have to butter it and all that.

I mean, you can put some butter in it, you will have a good taste, but that is not really necessary.

So now this is soft.

This is boiling now, you see my milk?

So I added directly.

- That's full enough, right?

- Yeah, that's great.

So you have enough, you're gonna put that in the oven.

- Pop it in the oven.

How long?

- Okay, this is going to take like 15, 20 minute.

Okay, you can do all kind of oyster, you know?

you did all kind of mais sans plastomie.

- I did a lot, yeah, Got a lot of- - [Jacques] So that's good.

- [Gloria] A lot ahead.

Boy, that's gonna have a lot of oysters.

- Yes.

- That's great.

- [Jacques] Put my corn in it, and as well as the oyster.

Stir it.

You want those oyster to curl up, you know?

All we have to wait now is barely, for it to barely to come back to a boil.

Okay, see that's fine now, that you wouldn't want to do ahead.

You wanna see if the corn are ready?

- The corn breads?

Yeah.

- The corn bread.

- I'll take your pot holder.

- Pot holder.

- [Gloria] Turn that over.

- Okay.

Okay, shall we serve our soup?

Cut some chive for in there.

Yeah.

Okay.

- [Gloria] That's great.

- [Jacques] Beautiful.

- And this is the oyster and corn chowder with the small corn bread.

Okay, and now?

- I have flowers to do, I have a table to set, I have me to dress.

- Oh.

- So I think Claudine is gonna finish.

- Okay.

- Helping you out.

- I'm gonna look for Claudine.

- Okay?

- Thank you, anyway.

- Give me a kiss.

- Okay.

- After all, I helped.

- Okay, so.

- Hello - Mademoiselle.

- Did you bring me any cornbread?

- Well, no I didn't.

- That's mean, that's just mean.

- Are you cleaning my leek?

- Yes, I am.

- This is the leek for, we're going to do a rib roast with a Yorkshire pudding and a mustard and horseradish sauce.

- And I have to go wash this.

- This is for the Yorkshire pudding.

So why don't you go wash this.

During that time, we are going to remove basically all of the fat, because I want to put a kind of a seasoning mixture on top.

And I- - [Claudine] Oh, we have some beautiful, beautiful seasoning stuff.

- Yes, so even that part here that I say you have that fat underneath.

Is that the right side?

No, you'll see it more on this side here.

So even there, I sometimes open this and remove a bit of that layer of fat, which is, you know, quite considerable.

- Yeah.

- [Jacques] Now I'm getting to what we call the silver skin here.

Okay.

So I bring that back on top, I've taken that layer of fat from the inside, and I'll put a piece of string to attach it together here.

So I put one piece here, right?

And another piece, maybe a bit.

That's it.

You are, without a doubt, the best helper around.

- (laughs) Thanks.

Well, I'm gonna put- - What do we have here?

- All this in here.

- I have oregano.

- [Jacques] Yeah.

- [Claudine] I'm just showing you this because in case I made a mistake, I have salt, I have black pepper.

- [Jacques] A lot of black pepper.

- [Claudine] I have thyme.

Yeah, I have paprika, which hope will slide.

- From the other side.

- Yeah, maybe that'd be good too.

There we go.

And I have cayenne and I didn't know if I should use all of that, but it's a big roast, so.

- [Jacques] Yeah, it's actually, and you know, when it's on high temperature like this, it will, you know, the system in New Orleans, like, you know, do those?

- On Emeril?

- Yes, the cooking, you know?

Blackened things, and you'll be surprised even though the amount of pepper you put on a piece of fish or meat, by the time you really cook it at high temperature, it kinda- - [Claudine] So wait a minute, we're gonna be like Emeril and all of those guys, but we have to do it in French?

- Ploof!

(both laughing) - You can't say bam, you have to say ploof.

- [Jacques] We can't say bam, we say ploof.

- Okay.

- You have a roasting pan for me, Claudine?

- There you go.

- [Jacques] This will cook for about, 30 minutes at 400, 425 even.

And then you lower it and cook it for about an hour.

And then you have to rest it, that's very important.

Now, Yorkshire pudding.

- Oh, my.

- You know the Yorkshire pudding very often was done at the end of the roast beef, taking all of the dripping from the roast beef.

You know, with all the fat and putting it in there.

So if you have a little bit of beef fat, sometimes I use duck fat, so I'll use some of that to get the true feeling of the Yorkshire pudding.

But you don't have to have that.

I'm putting some corn oil here, at least a third of a cup.

So you can only put oil which does less flavor, of course, than the- - So I'm gonna put the leeks?

- Okay, yes, we have a lot of leek here.

That's good, that's very, very good.

- [Claudine] That's why I try and use this thing, so.

- We have to cook until it start really kind of softening, melting down.

And during that time we do the batter here.

Okay, so flour, it's almost like a cake batter.

See you don't have that much flour.

- No, it's about a cup?

- No, it's not even a cup, like maybe three quarter of a cup.

That's your salt and paper.

- Here, you break the eggs.

You're just good at that.

Salt.

Pepper.

- So first I would want to make this, 'cause if you don't want any lump, you don't put all of the liquid first.

You put only some of the liquid, maybe a little bit of the milk.

Just enough so that by the time you mix it, it is thick enough for the whisk to do what it does here.

And you do it until it's smooth.

- [Claudine] And then?

- [Jacques] Now it's smooth, you can put the rest of the thing, There is no danger of doing anything.

- [Claudine] All right.

- Okay, you have your- - And then I have parsley.

- Parsley there.

- [Jacques] A lot of parsley.

- [Claudine] Yeah.

- [Jacques] I mean this does make a bigger- - Big pudding.

- A big Yorkshire pudding, yeah.

And you can see this.

- Yeah, it's very smooth.

- [Jacques] Like a cake batter.

- [Claudine] Yeah.

- [Jacques] You know, very thin.

Now look at the leek like this.

All we have to do now, you put your battery in it.

And leeks are fully cooked and go up the side of your pan.

- [Claudine] Do I put it in the oven in this?

We're good?

- [Jacques] Yeah, of course, yes.

- [Claudine] Okay.

- Okay.

- Now what do we do?

- Now we do the horseradish sauce.

- Okay.

- For the horseradish sauce, have a fresh horseradish here, honey, mustard, get a little bowl, and I'm gonna grate some- - Whew, you're gonna grate horseradish?

- Yeah.

- [Claudine] Okay, getting ready.

- [Jacques] It's strong, but it's not that strong.

- [Claudine] No, it's not that strong.

- But when you grate it, that's when it gets strong.

You want, like, at least a quarter of a cup.

Okay, I think I have plenty here.

- [Claudine] Yeah.

(laughs) - I'll give it to you.

In there.

Couple of tablespoon of (speaks French), you know?

- [Claudine] Honey?

- And then your honey.

This a good tip.

Couple of tablespoon of this.

- [Claudine] Let me see, I'm gonna do it this way.

- [Jacques] Yeah, go ahead, keep pouring.

That should be about fine.

- 'Cause then I can do that, it's just a little neater.

- So shall we put that in the?

- Let me put it in something at least.

- Might as well get it ready.

- Yep.

- I mean the roast beef has a while to go.

The Yorkshire pudding has a while to go too.

And that's it.

I wanna do a nice salad tonight.

- Okay, well then I'll make it.

- Nice, kind of a wintery salad.

What are you putting?

- I've got sherry vinegar, I have walnut oil, and I have olive oil.

- [Jacques] Put a bit, I'm going to put pear.

And you know what, I'm going to leave the pear whole with the, you know, we're going to do a salad here with fruit, with cheese, with nuts and with green.

- [Claudine] Well, I just have just this, I'm just gonna give it a quick.

- [Jacques] Are you doing a small portion there?

- Well, you want a little bit more.

- You wanna put some lemon juice on it, of course, so that it doesn't discolor.

And those are Anju pear, and you want them ripe, nice and ripe.

- And I just have mixed greens.

- Oh, it's good, needs salt in there, you didn't put any salt?

- I did, I put a little bit, but not too much because I worry with, I don't know how the acidity in there balances off the- - [Jacques] Oh, that's okay.

- [Claudine] You know?

- And then those nuts have been, a little bit of melted butter on a cookie sheet, and you put them in the oven.

- Hmm.

- You know what I want to put in there too?

Fresh cracked pepper right on the pear.

- [Claudine] May I have the plate?

- [Jacques] Okay, that's it.

That's nice.

- Is that enough?

- Oh yeah, yeah, it's more than enough because, you know, we want to put, let's say two pear like this, two.

- [Claudine] I like the pear with cracked pepper, I think it's really nice.

- And a couple of piece of goat cheese.

Like this, be nice.

- [Claudine] Just have to taste and make sure it's okay.

- A few nuts like this.

This is a nice, you know, salad.

- [Claudine] Yeah.

- [Jacques] Which I would be happy with.

- [Claudine] But at the end of the meal, not at the beginning.

So now what are we gonna do?

- Okay, why won't we do the dessert now?

- Okay.

- I did some ice cream.

- Oh, you're so good.

- Ice cream, I put in the, it's in the freezer now.

- Mm.

- And I want to talk about cherries.

We're gonna do a spicy cherries here.

And those are frozen cherries, you know, of course in summer I use fresh cherries.

So they're just in their own juice without any sugar.

But since we're cooking it, frozen cherries is perfectly fine.

- Oh, yeah, and they're pitted, of course, right?

- Right.

- Yeah.

- So you go ahead, you put it in there.

Yeah, it's easier because it's pitted.

- [Claudine] Yeah.

(laughs) - So in there we have sugar, red wine.

- [Claudine] About a half a cup?

- [Jacques] No, about a cup at least.

- Okay.

- At least a cup.

- That's it.

- That's a cup.

- And vanilla.

- Vanilla.

- [Jacques] Yeah, a good, a dash more of the vanilla.

And I have cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and a bit of cayenne there.

- [Claudine] Wow.

I'm gonna go get a spoon.

- [Jacques] Okay, bring that to a boil, that will render a great deal of juice.

And the juice which comes out, what you do when they are cooked, after four or five minute, you drain the cherries and then you reduce the juice to about a cup-and-a-half.

And then to be sure that it has the proper texture, you can thicken it with a tiny bit of corn starch.

You dilute it with the- - Red wine.

- Wine, you know, as we do.

- And up, you put it in there - And this smells so good right now.

- Yes, and at that point you let it cool off, and that's what I have here.

And in that syrup I put a little bit of cognac.

- [Claudine] Oh yeah.

- [Jacques] And a little bit of port wine.

If you don't want to put any alcohol, it's fine.

Now in addition to that, we're gonna serve that with cookie.

- All right, hang on.

- So I wanna show you how to do those cookie.

This is a very simple mixture of ground nuts, butter, and sugar.

Then you do this about the size of a teaspoon.

- [Claudine] Wow.

- [Jacques] You fill up your whole thing then you put a piece of plastic wrap on top, and you use a thing like that, you know, you press it.

- [Claudine[ Oh.

- [Jacques] About like this.

So you have a circle, this, that size here, about 8, 10 minutes in the oven.

As you can see, those are really- - They're beautiful.

- [Jacques] Kind of transparent, you know, very brittle.

So we can serve this.

- Yep.

- You have a plate for me?

I am going to put the cherry in the middle.

You know, it's a spicy cherry, so you want a nice.

- Just one?

- Ice cream scoop.

- Yeah, that should be plenty right in the middle of it.

And with that we do the cookie.

You could put the cookie this way.

- [Claudine] All right, I'm gonna put rosemary on it, 'cause it's spicy, right?

- Rosemary, because we have a lot of spicy, it's not a good idea.

But this is beautiful.

This is the French vanilla ice cream, in lime twill to live with spicy cherry and wine.

- The Yorkshire pudding?

- Yorkshire is cooked.

Let's take a look at it.

Yep.

- Ooh.

- [Jacques] Let it cool off here a little bit.

Yeah, that's why it's still soft, you know?

Okay, I'm going to get the blackened roast beef, you know?

This has been resting for like 35, 45 minute in the oven.

180 degree.

Now, you know, I want to pour out the fat out of this.

- A little bit of red wine.

- You put a little bit of red wine.

- [Claudine] Little bit more.

- [Jacques] Yeah, you want to cook that for a few minutes.

Maybe with a dash of water or brown stock.

I want it to come to a boil.

I think it's better if you don't leave the string, right?

- Yeah.

(laughs) I'm gonna go with that.

- [Jacques] Okay, let me see that Yorkshire pudding there.

- [Claudine] I know you told me to get this stuff, but I have no idea why.

I just have a plate for it.

- Well, I want to unmold it.

- [Claudine] Oh, I get it.

- [Jacques] I wanna put it on this here.

- [Claudine] Ooh.

- And then I can put my pan this way, I mean my plate, and turn.

- So you just put the parchment paper on there so that it wouldn't, right.

- It doesn't stick, yes.

Now, you want to cut that into thick slice like this.

- [Claudine] Oh, that looks beautiful.

- Let me strain the sauce here.

This has to come back to a boil.

I think that I'm going to thicken it a little bit, so I have a bit of our root here.

In there.

Dilute it with a bit of wine.

- [Claudine] Anything.

- I lower the heat to almost nothing, just drop a little bit in there.

Stir it.

A little more.

Stir it.

Okay, that's fine now.

I need salt in there.

Okay.

And then we are ready.

- All right, let me get a big platter.

I'm gonna be very excited to sit and have a glass of champagne and eat.

- I put that piece of meat here like this, that's enough for you.

And then you can cut a couple of the slice that we can serve here on the side, you know, like this.

- Oh, it's just perfect.

- [Jacques] A little bit of dark glaze of the red wine, you know?

Maybe a little bit on the meat.

Yeah.

So here we are, the rib roast with Yorkshire pudding and mustard and horseradish sauce.

I don't know about you, but I'm famished.

- I'm famished too, it's been a long day.

- Yeah.

- [Jacques] It must be the cold weather.

- Yeah, poor Claude Chevrier.

(laughs) - They're stuck on the (speaks French).

- Oh, they'll make it here, and don't worry, it looks like we have enough food for everybody.

- Yes, well, you know that, I'm looking forward not only to eating that now, but tomorrow.

- [Claudine] Oh yeah.

- With mustard and all that.

And even with- - [Gloria] and a green salad.

- [Gloria] Oh, with this great sauce.

- But then, you know, that soup is great.

I mean the oyster, I like the oyster on the half shell, but just freshly poach like that with the leek and all.

- Yeah, that's not too shabby, I like it like that.

- Me too.

- And- - Oh, and the Yorkshire pudding.

- Yes.

- [Claudine] Which is gonna be beautiful.

- That goes classically with the roast beef.

- [Claudine] With the roast beef, and mom's beautiful little football-shaped cornbread.

- And salad, and the cheeses, all that.

The salad, the cheese, the pear.

You have everything on your plate.

- [Gloria] Yep.

- [Claudine] And my dessert.

Can't forget my dessert.

- [Jacques] When in doubt, start with the dessert.

- I'm very excited.

- All that wine looks very impressive there, I don't know what to have, but.

- Thank you, well, I had some spare time while mom was working, so I got some wines out of the cellar.

We're gonna start with a blut champagne.

- Costing me a fortune out the cellar.

- That's my job, I'm your only child.

- [Jacques] Oh.

- And you're gonna open this and you get to pour for everybody.

- Oh, okay.

- Which I think will be- - That's a blut.

- Yeah.

- That's good.

- So it'll be wonderful.

And I pulled out a (speaks French) which I have to decant.

I have the candle out, which is kind of traditional for decanting.

Mom was gonna put candles on the table, so it would've been very, very dark in here.

So that when you're decanting the wine, which is to do two things, to bring air into the wine.

- [Jacques] That's right.

- [Claudine] And also, I would look through, and then I'll see the sediment on the bottom.

- I'm going to start with the champagne, so I'm opening that one.

- Well, that's a very good thing, and then we have a- - Mm, that smells good.

- We have a beautiful dessert wine, which I'm very excited to have.

- What do we have?

- It's a (speaks French), it's very, very, very- (Jacques speaking French) - [Claudine] Very, very, very.

- [Jacques] You're a real, pretty good.

- [Claudine] Yeah, that's me.

And then also of course- - Here you go, sweetheart.

- Fabulous, fabulous chardonnay from the Gala Ranch in California.

- Yes, that's what I'm going to have next.

- Next.

- But first we're going to have champagne.

- It's New Year's, there's no New Year's without champagne.

(champagne flutes clanking) - [Jacques] And we are going to toast all of our friends for New Year and- - Our missing guests?

- Happy New Year.

- Our missing guests.

- That's really funny.

- And our family being together.

Always great to be together.

- Absolutely.

- And all of you over there, happy cooking.

- Happy cooking.