- Hi, I'm Jacques Pepin.

- And I'm Claudine Pepin.

You always tell me that when you're looking for inspiration, the best place to go is to the market.

- That's right to think.

Just pick whatever is fresh and in season and the menu will have on itself.

We're going to make a terrific meal from what we found at the market today.

- Spinach and mozzarella salad with a tangy soy vinaigrette.

Our seafood combo is a colorful stew.

- And it's served with a velvety pure of broccoli with garlic and jalapeno.

- Individual chocolate nut pies are one of my favorite desserts.

I think I'll shop for groceries with you more often.

Money can't buy this kind of inspiration.

Join us for the inspired chef next on Jacque Pepin's Kitchen.

- Encore with Claudine.

(soft instrumental music continues) Today we are doing "The Inspired Cook."

This is what we do when we go to the market.

We get inspired by whatever is there.

We come home and we cook.

- We're inspired.

Let's go.

- We're inspired.

Let's go.

What are we cooking today?

- Seafood with vegetables.

- Seafood with vegetables.

We're going to have a lot of different vegetables.

First with the mushroom.

See, this one is kind of open, darker.

- You chose that one.

- Probably cheaper, less expensive, but more taste than the button one.

And you know you have to wash your mushroom.

And people say, "Don't wash mushroom."

Of course you wash mushroom.

The point is that you don't wash it ahead because it will get soft you know if you wash it ahead.

But you wash it when you're ready to use it, you grab your mushroom, you wash them, and use them.

- All right, here.

- That's it.

Thank you.

So we're gonna start with all of those vegetables here.

(knife thudding) We need all of this, you think?

- I don't know.

- Okay.

- You gave me four, I give you four back.

- Okay, here we are.

Into this I'm going to put some broccoli, I floret there.

(pan sizzles) We need to slice a little bit of Zucchini.

Thank you, Claudine.

- I love zucchini.

- Yes, you do.

I know you do.

And it's nice and firm.

You don't want that much onion, huh?

- A half then?

- Oh, just what you have here is more than enough.

- Okay.

- Okay, dice out of this.

(knife thudding) Okay.

We already have a lot of vegetables here.

(pan sizzles) Here we are.

That's it.

That's good.

That's enough.

- Okay.

- Keep the rest.

- I will.

(metal clanking) - Put them in your freezer.

You can make a soup out of this.

(Claudine chuckles) Okay.

- And a tomato.

- Well first, slice a bit of garlic.

Do I slice it or crush it here like this?

It's fine.

- I like sliced.

It tastes different than crushed.

- It does.

It tastes totally different.

It tastes much less strong than if you crush it.

The more you crush it, the more you release the essential oil and it become much stronger.

- And I know we have to seed this.

- You have to seed that, so you cut it in half.

- This way or the other way?

- The skin has been removed.

You always cut it perpendicular to this.

Yes, right.

No, no, no, no.

- Oh.

- Just what you were doing.

- Perpendicular, horizontal.

- Okay.

Why do you do it this way?

- Because you told me to.

- No, because then you can see you've cut all of the little pocket here.

So you can press this in there to remove the seed if you want to remove the seed, which we want to.

Okay.

And then we cut it again into dice.

That's a big tomato.

So that goes in there too.

That's going to give me, as you can see in that recipe, I have probably more vegetable than fish or at least the same amount.

- Definitely.

(pan sizzles) - Okay.

And now we do the fish.

(pan sizzles) - [Claudine] Okay.

You want me to clean this a little bit?

- You can if you want.

This cooks a couple of minutes, - Just little wipe.

Okay.

We have fish.

- Paper towel, all the time having paper towel.

- I love paper towel.

- Okay.

We have shrimp, we have monk fish here.

You could have any type of fish.

We have shrimp and scallops.

- Scallops.

- You see the scallop here?

You see that thing on top here?

This is the adductor muscle, which hold it to the shell.

And that's tough, so you wanna remove it.

- I can save it for Gus.

- You can save it for Gus.

Gus is our cat, you know.

- He loves that.

- Okay, I'll cut that into four pieces.

And you wanna start with the shrimp.

- The shrimp.

Okay.

- Okay.

I'll cut that in two, three pieces.

This is cooked very fast you know.

You do that type of dishes in seconds.

Here we are.

(pan sizzles) - I think that's how you show how to be an organized cook.

- Yes by organizing your kitchen.

- [Claudine] Yeah.

- Okay, here we are.

Now you see this?

This is a machine.

You can take the... - Looks evil.

- You have to extend your shrimp this way and put that right there to the plastic and go right through.

- Oh, that's probably a lot easier.

- Not only take the the the shell out of it, but it also devein it.

You see, take the vein out there.

Okay.

- Okay.

- Good.

You want to cut those in half.

And during that time, I'm going to remove the skin here from my monk fish.

Here, there is that black skin.

The monk fish come, you know, usually clean up from the market with that black skin removed and it's like leather.

But under this you can see the flesh is darker here and you may want to remove a little bit of that darker flesh here (pan sizzles) because this is stronger in taste and some people object to it, so you can remove a little bit of it.

If you leave it, it's okay.

Not like if you go to the guillotine, if you leave it.

- No, I hope not.

- Okay.

- Okay.

- Now I can... - The shrimp is ready.

- Shrimp is ready.

This is about ready too.

And you wanna cut them so that they are about the same size, so that they cook about the same amount of time, you know.

So dice and it's easy to serve.

So here again, this way, this way, this way, this way.

Okay.

We are ready to put it in.

- Yep.

- Okay.

We put all of that in there.

(pan sizzles) You want to put this in there.

You want to put salt and paper in there.

I'm going to, so this will render a fair amount of juice.

But of course, classically here, you want to put a nice half a cup of a good Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, one of those.

- Oh, that smells so good.

- And I'm putting a piece of butter in there too.

- [Claudine] Okay.

- And we are basically ready.

You put pepper in there too?

- Yep, salt and pepper.

- Okay, we wanna cover it.

Here we are.

- And then we wanna wash our hands.

- This has to come to a boil and cook about four, five minutes.

My hands are clean.

- Mine are not.

- Okay.

Go wash your hand.

- Okay.

- During that time, I'm going to start on the dish that we have here.

(water sloshing) (metal clanking) My water is totally reduced here.

I should have some water left in it in the bottom.

You see that?

- Mm.

- Good.

(pan sizzles) What we have here is simply a broccoli puree we're going to do.

And the broccoli, you know, you keep the head of it, you know that.

And then you peel the stem because the stem is fibrous.

So you wanna, you know, peel those long streak like this.

It comes out pretty good.

- Mm.

- Because otherwise this is really tough.

And after it's peel more or less, and you use that part, that part, all of that is cut.

One clove of garlic, a little bit of jalapeno pepper, all of that in there, water, and we bring it to a boil.

And by the time it's tender as it is now, about 10, 12 minutes, you should have about a third, two third of a cup of water left over.

And if you don't, you add a little bit of water because we want to use that in our puree.

And I see now mine was kind of a scolding on the bottom, so I may not use the water from the bottom of the pan.

I'll use a bit of fresh water.

And what you wanna put in there is a little bit of butter, a little bit of olive oil, dash of salt.

- Okay.

- The garlic, everything it in there.

- Butter.

A little bit, just a little bit.

- And puree.

- You have to give me some... - You put some olive oil?

- No, but you have to give me some salt 'cause it's on your side.

- Okay.

A little bit of salt in there, a little bit of pepper, and we are ready.

- Okay.

- Oh, you have this one here.

Go ahead.

(machine clanking) I love broccoli puree just like this one.

(machine buzzing) Maybe a dash of water.

(machine buzzing) Okay.

- Okay.

- Now we put it in there.

You see, when you do something kind of gooey like this, one of the best way of doing it, you put it into your bowl like that.

You know, I'm holding the, I'm holding the... - The knife.

- The knife there.

And especially like if you do a mousse, you know, the knife get really dirty.

So you put it back on top of it, close it, okay and turn it one second, stop it, and your knife is clean.

- The knife is clean.

- Good.

- Here you go.

- Okay.

The rest in it.

- That looks really good.

- Pick up all the rest of it.

And we have a nice puree of broccoli.

(instrumental music) Now let's check our fish, okay.

- Okay.

- This should be.

You can see the way it cooks very fast with this.

- Yeah, it really does.

- You can see the way the meat or the fish is transparent, the color of it too and that indicate that it's cooked.

So basically we're ready to serve it.

- [Claudine] Okay.

- And that would be plenty for four to six people, right?

- Would you serve anything with it?

I mean, you serve the puree.

- You could have a noodle or any one of those things.

- Rice.

- A starch.

Noodle, rice would be very good with it, yes.

That set.

This is our seafood combo shoreline.

Now... - We do a salad.

- We do a salad.

- Really fast.

- What do you have here?

- I have my salad spinner.

I have spinach.

- Your salad spinner.

So I'll do the dressing.

Freshly ground pepper, a dash of salt.

- This is nice and spun.

I even end up washing the salad that I get.

The spinach that I get that's supposed to be washed it's usually not completely clean.

- Oh, yes.

- I end up washing that too.

- You wash it too?

- Yeah, I'm like my mother.

- Ah, yes you are.

A bit of soy, olive oil, and a little bit of vinegar.

Okay, cool.

(utensils clanking) I think, I think... - You want some more oil?

- I don't want to have too much dressing in a salad, you know.

You want to have enough and you want the salad to be really dry because if the salad is not dry, you put like two tablespoon of water in it.

You see what you have in there, like two, three tablespoon of water.

Well, at that point it goes in your salad, you know.

- That's not good.

- You want a well-seasoned strong dressing because that's the only thing that will season the salad.

All right.

- Okay.

- Maybe I'll use this to mix it.

You let me toss it, right?

- Yes.

- You don't like to toss it?

- No.

- I know you don't.

- Because I always make a mess.

And it always goes everywhere.

- Yes, I do too.

So with this, we have some crouton.

Do you have the crouton somewhere?

- I have crouton.

We also have some mozzarella.

- Yeah.

- You have a couple of kinds.

- We have the crouton there.

And this is very simply the slice of baguette.

You put into the oven.

375, 400 degree until it's brown on each side.

You know, fresh like this, so you don't have to put any oil or anything on top.

We did not.

Here and some mozzarella.

And the mozzarella here, this is plastic mozzarella you find in supermarket.

And this is more of a fresh mozzarella, often called buffalo mozzarella and that's of course - I'm gonna get you a plate.

much better in taste and you should use this.

In my opinion, this is the best you know.

- So you wouldn't mix that into the salad.

- You can mix it into the salad if you want, but I think it's nice to put it in garnish on top, you know.

- Okay.

- You want to arrange it in fact.

- Here's... - Okay, I'll give you.

- I'm gonna get some crouton too.

- Yeah, you get some crouton.

This makes a great first course when I come or a lunch, you know?

- Mm.

(plate clanking) - How many ton do you want in there?

- Just four.

That's nice, right?

- Yes.

Four crouton should be just about right.

Okay.

- Okay.

- We are in business now.

This is our spinach and mozzarella salad with crouton.

And now we're going to do individual chocolate nut pie.

I have a nice piece of chocolate I could bite into it here.

Put in my mouth, I give you some more.

So you're stirring the chocolate?

- Uh-huh.

- That's good.

And you're making it the right way.

- Well, yeah.

I don't know why it has to melt this way.

I don't know why I can't just put it in a pot.

- Stir it.

- In a pot it would burn.

Chocolate will scorch very easily.

So you usually melt it in top of a boiling water.

- Oh.

- We are going to do a graham cracker crust with that.

You want to do this and let me, the chocolate is melted now.

It's nice and smooth.

- Melted chocolate.

- Beautiful.

Look at that.

- Okay, so graham cracker crust, five graham crackers.

- Okay, well, do you want me to give you some butter here?

- Yeah.

Two and a half tablespoons, which I'm sure that is.

- One and a half tablespoon B and F.

- Two.

- A tablespoon of canola oil.

- [Claudine] Two tablespoons of sugar.

- Right.

That's about it, right?

- [Claudine] Is there any oil?

- I just put.

- Oh, I was watching my sugar go.

- You were working, okay.

- All over the place.

Okay and that's it.

- That's it.

Good.

- Okay?

- Yeah.

(machine buzzing) Stop it.

What you should have done, but I didn't wanna tell you because (chuckles), you have to break this also.

- Oh, well I figured that's what the food processor would do.

- Well, it start it better when it breaks like this.

Otherwise, the pieces turn around sometimes they don't, go, well go ahead.

(machine buzzing) Okay.

- That's good?

- That's fine.

- [Claudine] Okay.

- Okay, good.

We have about two third of a cup of nuts here.

And I have a mixture of almond.

What are those called?

Pecan and then pignoli nuts.

Okay.

That's good, yeah.

- You wanna get the... (machine thudding) - Yeah, you want, here.

I go with my finger and get you all the rest of it.

- Okay.

- Good.

Here we are.

I'm gonna chop those by hand.

I need them coarsely chop.

(knife thudding) - [Claudine] Give me this.

- [Jacques] Okay.

You wanna give me a little bowl for that?

- [Claudine] Sure.

- [Jacques] Good.

(knife thudding) - You're better than any food processor anyway.

- Yes, I am the living food processor.

- Yes.

(chuckles) - Okay.

So you have your mixture in there and it's perfectly fine this way.

Okay.

And now in my chocolate, I wanna put a teaspoon of cornstarch here.

About a third of a cup of Karo syrup, which I have about, about here.

Teaspoon of vanilla.

I stir it and I wanna put an egg in it.

You wanna put, you want to add the eggs to me?

Okay, let me put that here and we can put the egg right there.

- In, right?

- Yep, in.

(Claudine chuckles) Okay, and this is the mixture which is going to go on top of the nuts, you know.

So we are ready to put that in now.

- Do we put butter in this too?

- Ah, yeah, yeah.

Oh yeah, that's right.

- Okay.

- Put a tablespoon of butter in there.

- Tablespoon, ooh.

Does that look like a tablespoon?

- Yeah, and it will melt, so you can leave it here in a few minutes.

I'll stir it in.

And now we do the mold here and it's easier to do them in the little Pyrex thing, you know.

- Okay.

- So we want to mold this.

Wrong way.

(aluminum crinkling) - Do this.

Upside down.

- Ah.

- Mold it on top of it.

(aluminum crinkling) So when it's molded nicely like this, you can remove it, you know, and you can slide it in.

- [Claudine] This is much easier.

- All right.

You can do it also without the aluminum foil, but it makes it more difficult to come out.

So here it is.

And what we have to do, I'm dividing this now because it's pretty thick, you know, and you can use a spoon like this to start doing the outside, you know, pressing it like this.

And then after, you can finish with your finger, pressing it like this.

Just make a hole like a nest in the center.

You wanna go almost to the top, you know.

I already have done two.

- I'm having technical difficulties.

- Good.

Good thing you know, you don't work in the restaurant with me.

- Isn't it?

- Work in a restaurant, I need you to go fast.

This is what happened in the restaurant.

I'm making a mess out of this one.

Okay, start putting the nuts in it.

You have your nuts.

- Just right on the bottom?

- Yep.

Nuts here, nuts there.

And I'm going to give you that on top.

Hmm, I know you could eat that.

Just like that.

- Ah, yeah.

Should I put more?

- Yeah, practically all of it.

- Oh wow, okay.

- Yeah, that's it.

Maybe that's too much.

Stop there.

So here we put this in there.

Whoop in there.

Okay that goes into the oven about 350 degree for 20, 25 minute.

Can you do it?

- I can do it.

- Okay.

I bring this one here.

And what I wanted to show you Claudine is that the one that we did here, you know, you turn it upside down, this comes out very easily.

- Oh good.

- Then you can remove this.

(aluminum foil crinkling) - [Claudine] Oh wow.

- You can turn it back.

You know, that would be good.

It hold pretty good.

Now this one, we did it on a straight one.

This one we did it without and without the thing, you see it comes out pretty good to, but it's fragile, it may break, you know.

It start breaking more.

- We can't serve it to anyone unless we taste it.

- And I'll give you a little bit of a Muscat here.

A muscat de Villeneuve, which is a sweet dessert wine.

It's perfect with chocolate.

- Men, that looks good.

- Wine and that starts with chocolate, you now?

- Absolutely.

There it is.

Here it is.

Here you are Claudine.

- Thank you.

- Thank you very much.

And this is our individual chocolate nut pie.

Today, we were inspired in the kitchen.

I'm always inspired when I cook with you.

- Oh, thank you.

- So what did we cook today?

- Oh, well, we made this beautiful green salad that we have, the spinach salad in front of us.

- With a tiny spinach.

Really terrific.

- They're beautiful really.

It would be a shame to cook them.

This is I think the best way to have them.

- [Jacques] Absolutely.

- And the fish, the shoreline fish combo is great.

This is wonderful 'cause I know I could do it with a lot of other stuff.

- Two, three minutes, I mean, goes very fast.

- Yeah, and the broccoli puree is wonderful.

- [Jacques] But you don't like the chocolate?

- Well, I could always have the chocolate.

(chuckles) - Anytime we can have chocolate.

So when you need a bit of inspiration, go to the market, see what's fresh, what looks good, and use your imagination.

- Or you can just go to the pantry and get some chocolate.

- That's good and do the dessert with it.

And what do we drink with that?

- Ah, we have a Grand Reserve Chardonnay.

- Yes, and this is really deep too and it will be absolutely perfect even with the salad.

Some people said don't drink wine with the salad.

I drink wine with anything, so Claudine I'll drink wine with you.

I'll cook with you anytime.

- Thank you.

- You inspire me in the kitchen.

- Thank you.

- Until next time.

Happy cooking.

- Happy cooking.

(soft instrumental music)