- Hi, I'm Jacques Pepin.

- And I'm Claudine Pepin.

- Tonight, we're having a great Chanukah dinner party in honor of all our Jewish friends.

- So we're having pot roast and potato latkes?

- No, not quite.

This is my interpretation of Chanukah.

May not be strictly kosher, but I think they'll love it.

We'll start out with a crystal clear consomme with a colorful sprinkling of vegetables and miniature chicken quenelles.

- [Claudine] Then a silky chicken liver and pistachio mousse with a beautiful garnish set in aspic.

And an elegant veal roast served with buttery braised lettuce is the hearty centerpiece of the menu.

- [Jacques] My golden vegetable pancakes are made with tempura batter, my homage to the traditional Chanukah potato latke.

- [Claudine] For dessert, we'll have a spectacular frozen citrus souffle.

- And a classic rum-soaked holiday fruitcake made with my homemade candied fruit.

Join us for a one-hour special feast of light.

- Next on "Jacques Pepin's Chanukah Celebration."

- I'm cooking, Claudine.

- What are you doing?

- I am doing a beautiful dessert for Chanukah.

- Oh cool.

- Yes.

- So Simi's coming over, gotta be.

- Simi's coming over.

We have a lot of friends coming.

And what I start doing here is a souffle glace.

You know, so I'm doing a meringue.

- [Claudine] Oh, okay, egg whites and sugar.

- Egg white and sugar.

Well, I just put sugar at the end.

I have three egg white here.

Okay.

And into this, I'm going to put vanilla.

And here.

Work.

Fold that in.

(fork taps) The vanilla and the egg yolk.

And finally on top of this, the flour, two thirds of a cup.

So this is like a light mixture, almost the mixture of a sponge cake, you know, but it is ladyfinger.

And for that, it's important to sift it on top or at least sift it deeper and add it gently.

That's fine, Claudine.

Okay.

Good.

Now, I have a pastry bag here.

- You have a helper, me.

- I have a helper, you.

Turn the end of it.

If you think that this is going to be runny, push that piece in there so it doesn't go all over the place.

Clean that, clean that.

Okay, Claudine.

And then, can you give me the... You fold that like an accordion, grab it here, and we're ready to do our ladyfinger.

Yeah, this is up and you come back.

We'll do here, up.

- I can do the up.

- I can sing the song.

- Two.

- [Claudine] But I don't remember the words.

- Three, four.

Okay, doesn't really matter.

We're going to break them into pieces.

- Oh, great.

(chuckles) - (chuckles) Here.

That's why I let you do it.

Powdered sugar on top of it.

- [Claudine] And the powdered sugar will stay even when you cook it?

- [Jacques] It gives a nice crust to the top, you know?

This is what you want.

- Oh.

- And basically what I like to do is to wait a second, put another layer of powdered sugar.

So you know what I want to do here?

I want to start a syrup.

I have a cup of fruit juice here, orange, lime, and lemon, which I want to put in there with the sugar.

This is the syrup for the souffle glace, the ice cold souffle.

And then now you take all of the rind here that I have, which I already did, and you put them into that wonderful little machine here, which is like a coffee grinder, to really have a powder of those herbs, you know?

So that will boil for a couple of minutes.

And then let me put that again.

- This at least I know I could do.

(spatula taps) - [Jacques] You mean you want to do this?

- [Claudine] Uh-huh.

(Jacques speaks French) Now you want a good coating here of sugar to form a nice crust on top, you know?

- Yeah.

- Good.

- Okay.

You want me to like take this outside and blow on it to get rid of all this sugar?

- Blow the sugar?

No, we can, you know, hold it like this a little bit.

- Ah, please.

- And just bang most of the sugar out, you know?

Then you put it into the oven.

- You wanna tell me why the whole thing didn't collapse?

- Why it didn't collapse?

I put a piece of paper in the bottom and I- - Yeah.

- And I butter the paper.

And then you go butter side down on top of the cookie sheet.

Then you turn it upside-down, put it back there so it's buttered on both sides.

- [Claudine] Oh, so everything sticks.

Oh, okay.

- Everything sticks.

Okay, now my syrup here is cooking for a while.

It's about fine.

I have four egg yolks here.

This is the base of the souffle now.

- Do you want- - Now this is two different things, remember?

We are doing one with the ladyfinger, which you may or may not do for that recipe because you can put something else inside.

You can put pieces of poundcake.

Okay.

(mixer whirs) So this, we have to pour that syrup into the egg yolk.

I want to do that on 200 to high speed, you know?

(mixer whirs) And then I increase the speed.

And Claudine, this is going to take about 10 minutes.

You want a thick base, you know?

(mixer whirs) - [Claudine] Hmm.

- Now here- - So this is it for souffle?

- Yes, look at the mixture.

You know, an appareil a bombe we call that.

You know, a bombe mixture.

- [Claudine] Why?

- Because that's how it's called.

We do a bombe, which is a type of ice cream, you know?

- Oh.

- Okay.

Cognac in there.

- [Claudine] Now it's a bomb.

- Now it's a bomb.

The cognac and whipped cream, you know, but you have that strong taste of the citrus fruit.

Okay, here.

And then we have three cups of cream and they are whipped, which give you at least double, you know, in texture.

Now I'm gonna fold this.

See?

Nice.

And now you're going to take about six, eight ladyfingers on that plate.

We're gonna break them in... Well, and first put some Grand Marnier on top.

Put them whole.

- On the plate?

- Yep.

So the Grand Marnier, as you know, is brandy.

So I put some there.

Probably a couple more.

I mean that souffle glace will serve 15 people.

- Or we could just sit around and eat these.

- That's good.

Now look at the mixture here.

Ah, this is good.

Okay?

So- - Okay.

- Let's say our mold, this is about four cups, souffle mold, because the souffle glace is not a real souffle.

It's a faux souffle.

I mean we pretend that.

And that's what I say... Here, you see, we put the ladyfinger, which is really classic.

And I wanted you to know how to do ladyfinger.

But you can put little pieces of pound cake or whatever.

- Oh, okay.

- That should be fine here.

That's fine, okay.

This.

And now I'm gonna fill that up to the edge like this.

- [Claudine] Do I keep ripping these things?

- Yes, and this- - Okay.

(laughs) - [Jacques] Here, a couple of piece in there like this.

And that has to go into the freezer.

And I have one which is hard already.

- Oh, it's like ice cream hard.

- Yeah, you see little the pieces of... And then we put a collar around.

You know?

You want to tighten this around here, hold it.

I'll put a piece of string here.

- You don't want it to seep.

- It won't seep now.

You want it straight.

You want to be careful there is no... And then a triple knot.

Please put your finger there.

You have it?

- Yeah.

- [Jacques] Okay.

That's it.

- [Claudine] Looks very nice.

- And then you have souffle glace.

You want to do that, you can do that certainly way ahead.

But what happen, if you really do it ahead and it gets really hard, you want to take it out of the freezer, put them in the refrigerator, I would say that size souffle, that's a big one, a good hour and a half.

- Oh really?

- Yeah, it has to start getting a bit soft, you know, to serve it.

You can really do it up straight.

Not that it's that important.

The souffle- - No, but it looks nicer.

- [Jacques] The souffle can rise uneven.

Okay.

- Do you put anything else on it or are you done?

- No, no, that's it.

Now it goes back into the freezer.

(bright music) Okay, oh yes, and another thing too, when it's frozen, cover it with a piece of plastic wrap because you don't really want to have any - Have it pick up the smells.

- taste or anything falling on top of it.

Well, let's see here.

- [Claudine] Ooh.

- [Jacques] Boy, that souffle rise, you know?

- Oh yeah.

(laughs) - Let the souffle rise.

- It's the only time where the souffle can wait for you and you don't have to wait for the souffle.

- That's a good point, Claudine.

That's a very good point.

Okay.

We equalize the top like this.

If it had been in the oven, it would get brown, right?

- [Claudine] Ah.

- So you have to brown it.

And sometimes I mark my souffle, you know, like this before it goes into the oven.

So that gives the same effect.

Maybe like this.

That's it.

What you do now, 'cause almost a third of it is outside, you get a wedge like this and you grab that wedge right here.

So you do the whole thing.

You can put a bit more powdered sugar and start dishing into your bowl.

And that's why I put the rest of the ladyfingers in what goes on top, you know?

- I'm putting that right there.

A beautiful place setting for a beautiful dessert.

(light music) - There is another dessert that we've done here, which I love to do during the holiday.

Holiday fruitcake.

- Fruitcake.

- And this is done with, like the citrus fruit that I showed you there, but you take the peel of lemon, orange, tangerine, and so forth, and grapefruit, with the pith, you know the white stuff underneath?

- You always tell me to get rid of- - Yeah, no, but wait a minute.

You cut it into dice this way, then you blanche it, cover it with cold water, boil it like a minute, drain it, wash it, fill it up again, cold water, boil it another minute, rinse it.

You do that two or three times.

That's to take the bitterness out.

And then you cook it with sugar until it's kind of candy.

And in addition to that, what you do, you mix dried fruit with it.

Dried apricot too.

- Oh, like apricots and... - That, and you see here.

Here you are, you know, a pound cake, which is basically free - Wow.

- because when you buy that stuff, it's very expensive.

But when you do it yourself, it is very inexpensive and much better because you don't put - It's beautiful though.

- any junk on it.

So I'm cutting a piece here just for you.

- Thank you.

- And me.

This is our holiday fruitcake.

And here is our frozen citrus souffle with ladyfingers.

- So what is dreidel?

- Dreidel's a gambling game.

- A gambling game?

- Yep.

- Okay.

- [Jacques] Our friend, Maggie, brought her kids over to help us celebrate Chanukah.

We traded stories about our family celebrations.

- Tell me what's going on here.

Alright, what does that mean?

- Gimel!

I get everything.

- Oh.

(children laugh) That's a great way to start.

- Okay, kids, let's go.

- You're absolutely right.

- [Jacques] We're gonna show you one of our traditions here, you know?

And this is when Claudine was small.

Remember, Claudine?

- Yeah.

- [Jacques] When Claudine was a little girl, we loved to make caramel in the snow.

- Do you know what caramel's made out of?

- Sugar.

- To make caramel, you just cook sugar and water until it turns caramel color.

Take it outside and stir it.

It will start to thicken, then it's ready.

Can you see?

Now look at that here.

- [Claudine] Now is the fun part.

- [Jacques] Wow!

Look at that!

We lift up that one.

- [Claudine] This one's good.

Look at this one.

- [Child] Whoa!

Look at it.

It has a bump.

- And you get to eat it.

- Yeah.

Here, you hold this big one.

Wow.

What does that look like?

Look at this.

- [Claudine] Flower arrangement.

- A flowers arrangement.

Okay, let's have a piece of it.

(children laugh) - Jacques, this is really good.

- It is, huh?

That's a while ago.

(lips smack) - Yep.

- We are going to do a consomme.

And I have a chicken stock here.

And if you can see, the chicken stock is a bit cloudy.

You know, we let it cool off, take all the fat out, so it's very lean.

But it's a bit cloudy so we want to clarify it.

And the process of clarification is done with egg white.

I have a couple of ladles of the stock here that I put there cold because you don't want to start with anything boiling hot.

So I put like three egg whites in it.

You know, they also clarify wine, you know, - Wine, yeah.

- [Jacques] with egg whites like that.

I beat my egg whites in this.

- And they filter it.

- And that, the green, the green of vegetable.

This is a stem of parsley.

This is the green of leek.

You don't use the white part of it because what you want to do, it's almost like an infusion with green, with herbs, you know, you do an infusion.

- So it's a taste issue?

- This is celery.

- That's why you don't use the greens or?

- No, the other one tend to get things clouded also.

- Oh, okay.

- I have some - Tarragon.

- [Jacques] tarragon there and some- - [Claudine] Thyme.

- [Jacques] So here is my clarification, - Gooey.

- which I make there.

Oh, and I want to put- - [Claudine] Some peppercorns in there maybe?

- Peppercorn in there, yeah.

Now you can use the peppercorns like that or crush them.

They'll be stronger if you crush them.

But basically, they will seep and be about the same.

- [Claudine] Okay.

- Okay.

So there.

Come here.

No, you don't put that in there.

I'm gonna put some of this in there.

Yeah, come close.

- [Claudine] Ooh, it's foaming.

- Yeah, the egg white, you know?

And here, that will give me a lot of taste.

Now, clarification for... You know, often people are not used to that.

They get scared of it because it's supposed to get very transparent and clear, and it starts by getting really muddy and cloudy, you know?

But eventually, it does clarify.

So, what we have to do here, pour that in there.

And now... - This has to come back to a strong boil.

- At this point... This has to come back to a strong boil and you have to stir it occasionally until it comes to a boil.

The whole mixture, because of the egg white, is coagulating to a crust or we call a raft onto it.

So at that point, you'll pull it off the stove just with a little bit of heat left and it just boils in one corner of the tub to make like a little hole and it will filter through that crust.

This is not the time when you stir it.

This is what I did when I was an apprentice, when I was on guard in the afternoon with a thing of consomme like this.

I was so proud.

It was so thick, nice.

Just before the chef came back, I took a big whisk and stirred it.

I didn't know what it was.

The chef came, it was 50 years ago, he looked at his consomme, he grabbed a knife, looked at me, I took off.

(laughs) I think he's still running after me.

Okay, so occasionally take a look at this, huh, okay?

- Okay.

- And then we are going to do a garnish for the consomme.

We're going to do little chicken quenelles, you know?

So here I have a breast of chicken.

Going to leave it right on top of it here.

And we're gonna put that in the food processor, that tiny food processor.

Have a little bit of cream.

- Do you wanna put it- - No, not yet.

- [Claudine] Oh, okay.

- This goes this way, right?

- Mm-hmm.

(food processor whirs) - Yeah, okay.

Stop.

This goes there, there is a hole, but not enough of a hole, so I'll put it here.

- [Claudine] Only if you have a lot of time.

- Okay, that's fine.

And then in this... Is it?

No, it could be a bit more.

Give me a little bit of parsley there.

To really emulsify it.

Okay.

- [Claudine] You want some more liquid?

- [Jacques] Yeah, no, I want to put that in a little bowl now.

- Okay.

- So you're good at taking this out.

- Yes, I am.

I'll go find a little bowl.

- Whoop, this come to a boil.

- Whoop.

- Now that's it.

- I'll find a bowl.

- Okay, come to a strong boil.

I pull it off the heat there.

It'll form a crust.

And that's going to filter through that hole there.

Okay.

See, I'm taking some to create that hole also and that is going to, to cook the top of my raft.

I can see that it's clarifying.

Here, I can see that it's already, it's broken, but it is clarifying.

- Oh.

- So that, we cook it slowly.

Thank you, Claudine.

- You're welcome.

- So parsley or chives, or... - Whatever you happen to have around.

(knife taps) - Here, you want to make this.

We're going to do it directly in this there.

And we can do that with a pastry bag.

Okay.

- [Claudine] You're doing this in a cold pan?

- [Jacques] Yeah, actually the pan should be cooler than it is.

- Really?

- Well, you know why?

- No.

- If I don't do it, I should butter the bottom of the pan.

- [Claudine] You did.

- Yeah, but it should be colder because if it's warm a little bit, it tends to lift up when you do it.

You know what?

Wet the tip of your finger or a towel or whatever with a bit of water.

- [Claudine] Okay.

- Okay.

- Hands are wet.

- [Jacques] And move the tip down.

You understand there?

- Okay.

And if they were not wet, it would stick, right?

I'm just gonna trust you.

I'm not gonna experiment.

- [Jacques] If your finger were not wet?

Yeah, it would stick to it.

Alright.

- [Claudine] They look like Hershey's Kisses, don't they?

They look like melted Hershey's Kisses.

- Okay, we have a bunch of quenelles there.

This is boiling a bit fast, you know?

That's serious stuff.

Now you can see.

You see the clarification?

- Oh, wow!

Now I really see what you're talking about now.

- But there's still a little drop in that.

You see, in a while, you won't even see that.

It will take a golden color.

I'm gonna cook, so I'm pulling it on the side even a little more.

- [Both] Okay.

- Now this, here we have to cook this.

And you can do it with the boiling water.

You need stock here so I'm putting some hot water right there.

- [Claudine] So essentially... Oh look, they're floating away.

(laughs) You're gonna poach them.

- [Jacques] You're gonna poach them, yes, in water.

Because I mean those will take two, three minutes, you know?

- Yeah.

- You don't even want to boil them because then they expand.

They get rubbery like... So here it is, you see?

See the way they are?

If you do that at your house, what you would want to do is to do that ahead.

You poach them about two, three minutes, lift them up with a slotted spoon, put them in a bowl of water and ice.

And they cool off.

You drain them out.

You're ready to serve with your consomme.

Another garnish we did, because we're doing a really fancy dinner tonight for Simi, is a little bowl of vegetables like this.

So here- - It's a melon baller.

- It's a melon baller.

But you see, there is a hole on top here.

Don't put your thumb here because then there is no air and you cannot push on it.

- Oh.

So that's been the problem.

- [Jacques] So because you have to do this because of air, you go really underneath and you do almost a perfect ball.

You see?

- Oh, okay.

- The same thing with our turnips, you know?

Well, I shouldn't put that in there because those are cooked.

What am I doing here?

Okay, try to do a couple of those here.

Put them here.

That's it.

Good.

Good, so basically, we drop that in boiling water, the carrot, for about five, six minutes.

Oh, that's the one which is not cooked.

The turnips, about four minutes.

And this is maybe one minute.

And then you drain it out, cool them off.

- So you're at a beginning - Look at my- - of a boil.

- Look at my beautiful quenelles there.

They're boiling nicely.

See them?

- I want to see what it looks like on the inside.

- [Jacques] Oh.

- Oh, they're perfect.

- Yeah.

- [Claudine] They're like little spongy things.

Mmm.

- Good, eh?

Very delicate.

- Yeah, very delicate.

- [Jacques] Okay, they are basically cooked.

- Okay.

- So you know what?

- We have to strain them.

- I'm going to let them a few minutes more to cook, and during that time, I'm looking at my consomme.

My consomme will still... Oh boy, it's really clarifying beautiful, you see?

- Yeah.

- [Jacques] But you see the crust is going to start sinking in it slowly, cook slowly and you let it rest.

- Is that how you know?

- Yeah, but you need the, you know, you need a good hour.

And if the consomme is not strong enough or if you have a stock which is weak, then you mix ground meat in the clarification.

Like a pound of ground beef.

- Yeah?

- Very lean.

And then you cook it longer, an hour and a half, so that you get the taste out of the beef.

That will strengthen your consomme.

So we just have to wait until it's finished now.

(dramatic string music) You see how clear it is now?

- Yeah, and it's- - [Jacques] And its beautiful amber color.

- [Claudine] Yeah, and everything kind of fell to the bottom.

That's what's supposed to happen?

- The crust, yes, after a while start going.

So very gently now.

You want to go.

See how clear it is?

And put it through a kitchen towel, you know?

- I think- - You can do cheesecloth.

People do.

Cheesecloth is very expensive.

And you know, a regular kitchen towel, you know, a clean one, that's perfectly fine.

- Between you and me, Mom makes very, very good consomme.

- [Jacques] She does, incredible consomme.

- And I have to tell you, I think it's the patience issue.

She's a little bit more patient than you and I.

(laughs) - You think so?

- I think so.

- You mean my consomme is no good?

- Your consomme is beautiful.

- Okay, well I strain enough to use that.

(Claudine laughs) I'm gonna put that here just to show you how to serve a portion of this.

- Okay, let me get you a bowl.

- Oh, put that back on top.

Now you want to put your garnish here in there.

You know, a couple of those.

Those are warm, right?

- So you would warm - Yes.

- these.

- Well, with two, - And these are warm.

- three quenelles.

This is a very elegant.

- I know Simi is gonna love this.

- Maybe not, but again.

Some base, you know?

Gonna see crystal clear, - Wow.

- you know?

Okay.

And this is the consomme printanier with chicken quenelles.

Okay, you know, after the consomme, we're doing a chicken liver mousse.

For the chicken liver mousse, first you render the fat, and when it's basically all rendered, we have the chicken breast for a few seconds, then add herbs and spice, salt and pepper of course, then shallots, garlic, and eventually cook them one minute or so then add the liver.

Now, you don't want to overcook it, but it has to cook just a few minutes.

And then you put it in the food processor and eventually in a food mill if you want to avoid little pieces that may still be in there.

Then add the cognac and the pistachio and salt and pepper to taste.

Then let it cool off and it will harden and stir it well with a spatula and then you can put it into your presentation dishes.

And then if you want, you can do a beautiful decoration on it.

I have the green of leek.

You just drop it in boiling water for 10, 15 seconds and it becomes wilted.

We do a thing like that here.

There is a little, you know, a thing for the, to put in the pastry bag.

- Okay.

- Make a couple of holes there, so maybe doing that type of thing.

- [Claudine] Ooh, that's very pretty.

- [Jacques] Okay, so we have a vase here.

I mean, sort of.

- I think so.

- This is chives, you know, that you can... Gonna put them in somewhere.

- Okay, I'll make chives.

- Okay, there, I do leaves.

You see one piece like that, I cut triangle here.

I mean, lozenges rather.

- Mm-hm.

- And you can put them as a, you know, a little leaf here, a little leaf there, to do an ivy all around, you know?

You can spend a few hours, you know?

- Oh yeah.

- But, I mean, this is fun.

Okay, now I have to kind of fill up my bouquet in the middle, you know?

I have to do large stem or whatever, you know, coming out of the vase here.

I mean, you can do whatever you feel like it.

You know me.

(both laugh) That's a problem.

Okay.

Maybe I put that thing a bit higher here.

- Oh, so you cover the end?

- Yeah.

Okay, let's do little flowers with this.

This is radish, right?

- Yeah.

I wanted to use the skin 'cause it's very vibrant.

- [Jacques] Yeah.

You use everything.

You see - Yeah.

- the little piece that I cut from here?

I'll put them here.

This is what?

Red... - [Claudine] I think that's pepper.

- [Jacques] Piece of red pepper, that's good.

Maybe we do a notch like this to do a flower like that here.

- [Claudine] Okay, I'm gonna come around.

- This looks incredible, Titine.

We put this here.

Now at the end of this and that, let's do a carrot flower maybe.

- [Claudine] Okay.

- [Jacques] I do one like this, this, this.

You know who loves to do that?

- Hmm?

- Little kid.

- Yeah.

- [Jacques] Well, we put those little dots.

Here, here.

- I wanted something 'cause the white looks so white.

- [Jacques] So you want to turn it on the other side?

- [Claudine] Yes, please.

- [Jacques] Can we turn it on this side?

- [Claudine] I was gonna try and decorate.

Yeah, I like that better.

- [Jacques] Well, those here, pieces of a - Radish.

- Radish.

Nothing is burning, Claudine?

Because when you do that type of thing, you forget about- - It's very zen.

- You forget about the time.

And you know what we are going to do with this?

I have some aspic.

You see the aspic here?

- Hmm.

Yeah.

- It's taking already.

- [Claudine] Oh wow.

- So I have to melt it.

Usually what you do, you melt it.

Remember, this is almost like your consomme.

- Yeah, it's- - It's almost like your consomme.

- Consomme with the - But with the gelatin in it.

- [Claudine] gelatin.

- [Jacques] And then you cool it on ice until you're ready.

It's getting very oily and ready to take, which is close to now.

- Now who wouldn't be incredibly excited to see this?

Mom's gonna love this.

Well, she loves everything.

- She loves her chicken liver.

But that has to go back into the refrigerator, you know?

But then that becomes solid and hard and that's how you present it.

So let's put it here for the time being.

- Wow, it's taking already.

- It's taking, but it would take.

It would take.

That's nice.

(Claudine laughs) It would take, you put that in the refrigerator, - I'm sorry.

- it gets really hard, and then people can help themselves with a little - Nobody will dare.

(laughs) - Melba toast.

- You go first.

- Absolutely.

- You know, piece de resistance here.

The main course is that beautiful veal roast.

- [Claudine] Mm, I love veal roast.

- And you know, I've cleaned up a lot of it, even the silver skin, put all of that to brown in there to create a sauce, you know?

- Ooh.

- [Jacques] So that has to brown a little bit in there.

This is a beautiful piece of meat.

- Mm-hm.

- This is actually the top knuckle.

It's called the round top knuckle.

It's has four, five names, but it's a muscle from the leg, you know, the back leg.

And there is five muscles, top round, bottom round, to the top knuckle.

- So top would be - And that's- - above the knee?

- Just above the knee.

Yes, that's where it is.

- Okay.

- So salt paper on this, on the other side, and we want to brown it again and then we'll put the vegetables in it.

So let me brown this (food sizzling) around here.

This, of course, all of the trimming here, is going to give a lot of taste to my meat.

And if you don't really have any trimming in your meat, you can put some chicken bone or whatever.

And if you don't put anything, it's fine.

You still do a good sauce with the carrot and the onion that's going to go into it after.

- [Claudine] Hmm.

- [Jacques] But... - Yes.

- We have a lot of stuff here.

- We do.

We're gonna make some tempura batter.

You have to fry something for Chanukah.

- [Jacques] You have to fry something in oil, right?

- In oil, yeah.

- Okay.

So we'll fry stuff in oil.

We're going to have some corn.

Now I love to do this because I empty my refrigerator when I do this.

You know, all type of vegetable.

And you can change as much as you want.

- Yeah.

- So we have this here.

I put all of those vegetables in there.

This is spinach.

Have some parsley even.

- Yeah.

- You know, sometimes, I take a handful of basil, you know?

Go into the refrigerator, whatever you have, you know?

I mean, onion there.

- Mushrooms.

- You can mix all of those vegetables.

Mushroom, this.

- You can make soup.

- Yeah, you can cut a little bit of this with the vegetable slicer if you want.

- Do you want like those nice long... Oh no, that won't work for tempura.

- No, not too long.

But just scrape here.

You can always cut them if they're too long.

- [Claudine] That's true.

(knife taps) - [Jacques] I do slice here.

- [Claudine] I am doing strips over here.

- Okay.

This is part of it too.

Remember we used to do that at Le Petit Cafe?

- Yeah.

- Le Petit Cafe was a restaurant we used to have in Connecticut we opened many years ago.

- Claire and Patrick.

Whoa!

Runaway zucchini.

- No, but when your mom wanted a restaurant.

- Oh, that was Gloria's French Cafe.

- Gloria's French Cafe, that was the first.

I think that people in life, at some point, everyone wants a restaurant.

- I think I know better.

- Yes.

Just cut that in two, Titine.

You want bigger pieces, you know.

So those are actually pancakes, you know, 'cause we do them in a pan.

- And we call them cakes.

(laughs) - Look at that, you know?

- Ooh.

- [Jacques] Nice browning.

- Now searing it because you'll put it in the oven afterwards, but searing it just holds all the juice in.

- Searing it, well, it does and it doesn't.

It's for more, it crystallizes the juice, and crystallization of the juice here is very good because it gives intensity of taste.

Remember, from a roast chicken to a boiled chicken, you know, the difference in intensity, that'd be the same thing between a brown stock and a white stock.

- Oh.

- You know, one, you just have the bone and water.

The other one, you brown the bone and you put the water.

Same thing between a boiled beef and roast beef.

I mean, this is veal, but similar, so I put this to brown out a little bit and then we'll put them into the oven.

- Okay.

- We have a lot of stuff here.

So, I have the quick cleaner around me.

- Yes, you do.

- This is really good.

(food sizzles) That smells good.

- Yes, it does.

- You could have some thyme there.

- You want some thyme?

- Hm, you can if you want.

- Okay.

- You want a bit of thyme?

- [Claudine] Do you want some rosemary or sage?

- Put some thyme, put some rosemary around.

Good idea.

And we're going to do the pancake batter here, which is basically a tempura batter.

And you do it with flour, a little bit of baking powder, a couple of egg yolks, and ice cold water.

- Now you're gonna strain - It' important to- this juice afterwards so I can just put it in whole?

- Yes, yes.

That's it.

Be creative.

It looks beautiful, Titine.

Okay, I have about, I have two cups of water here.

- Very cold.

- So, I'm gonna put my egg yolk.

- I'm ready.

- You're ready?

So you go ahead.

So if I were to put all of the water in there, then without any question, I would end up with lumps.

- Sorry.

- Go slowly.

Go around, grab this like this.

Yes, grab this and bring it in the center.

Okay, that's fine.

Here, now I put the rest of the water.

This is a very, very light batter, as you can see.

You're going to see the very liquid like.

- I'll let you finish it 'cause if I do, I'll slosh it all over the place.

- No, there is nothing.

You know, you bring it around.

And that batter.

- Is better.

- That batter is better.

It's a better batter.

You can do that a bit ahead, but you actually want to keep that batter, when we did that at Gloria's French Cafe, we keep that on ice.

- Keep the batter on ice?

- Yeah, and then we take a handful of a mixture of vegetables, do it, and do one pancake per person.

Okay, so this is ready to go into the oven.

I'm going to put it into the oven.

And this cooks about 15 to 18 minutes per pound, you know?

About three, four pounds, so you calculate, huh?

- Okay.

- How about an hour or so?

See the meat ha rested now, still juicy.

But not only do you finish cooking it, but in a 180-degree oven or so, you keep it so that slowly... It's because the meat contracts as you start cooking, you know, and squeeze.

You have to let it de-contract so the juice comes out of it.

- It's very relaxed.

- So that's what it is, it's very relaxed.

Give me the platter we're going to put it on.

You know?

We're going to put it on top.

And eat that carrot.

- Okay.

- And we're going to put some white wine, one tablespoon at least, right?

And a bit of stock, chicken stock.

And that has to cook a little bit, - Okay.

- reduce and all that.

And during that time, we're going to start lettuce here.

I wanted to show you.

Boston lettuce, you know?

You have to take them whole, open them, run them under the faucet to really wash the inside, and you drop them whole in boiling water and you push them so they stay underwater.

And you cook them under boiling water about 10 minutes, and then after, pour out the water gently, fill it up with cold water 'cause you want to cool them up so they stay green and they stop cooking.

But you want to be careful not to destroy them.

You want to grab them by the stem to follow the shape of this - Oh, so you don't rip.

- and press out the juice, you know?

Those were, you know, small Boston lettuce about that big, as they are, you know?

Don't worry if you lose a couple of pieces here and there, you know?

You add it back to it, like this here.

I'll show you what you do with it.

I'm gonna fold them a certain way.

And you want, you know, to remove as much water you can.

We can do two out of this.

I cut them in half here.

- [Claudine] Hmm.

- [Jacques] We spread it here.

See, all of that green I put back here.

You flatten them this way.

You bring that part here.

- Oh.

- And the other part back here and trim the end.

You want a nice little rectangle like this, a little package, you know?

- Okay.

- Let's put some oil and butter in there.

We're gonna start cooking this.

Okay.

Let's see, this one is pretty small.

When I cut it in half, I say, well, give me the piece that you have there and put it back here to make it a bit bigger.

(Jacques speaks in French) And I'm gonna put them to cook here right away.

And you put them on this side because when you want to turn them over, that's how we're going to present them, you know?

- [Claudine] Okay, wait, you put them... - You put them this side - Oh, okay.

- [Jacques] because eventually, we're gonna turn them the other way.

- How many more?

- Well, we're gonna do all of them.

- Okay.

(food sizzles) - Okay, my lettuce are cooking and now we can start our pancake.

Okay, the vegetables.

To here, we get our mixture of vegetables.

It's much easier to do it this way.

- Yeah, I agree.

- Okay, so what we need to do now is to put some oil - Alright.

- in our skillet.

Those are individual skillets, you know?

Oh, that's it, that's good.

And let's see what happens.

I'll do mine here.

One large one like this.

Can I give you this one here?

- Yep.

(oil sizzles) - That's it.

A bit more batter here, maybe a bit more better here.

That's it.

This is a nice things to do, you know?

- This is a very nice thing to do.

- Okay.

- Should we flip these maybe?

- Yep.

I think we're ready to turn this.

See, they just browned lightly.

- [Claudine] Mm.

- See when you do that, this is cold here, so you hold it like this and then after you turn, you don't burn yourself when you do that.

Watch!

Oh, I was- - Stop it, that's so mean.

- I was just kidding.

Okay, go ahead.

This is reducing nicely.

Now I want to taste this.

Yeah.

- Yeah?

- You got a spoon there for you?

- Yeah.

- That's good.

Good?

- [Claudine] Mmm.

- Here is my pancake.

I think your pancake is about ready.

I see it browning more at the edge here.

(food sizzles) - Ooh, nice pancake.

- You see that?

So we used to do that at the restaurant, one pancake per person.

- Well, yeah, I mean.

- It's great because you have all your vegetables ready, everything is ready, and when you have one order, you do one pancake, serve it just out of the skillet fresh, and it's good.

- Yeah, I don't think people would eat more than one.

- I think - You wanna strain that?

- I'm gonna strain the sauce here.

I may put a dash more white wine here.

Just a dash, Claudine.

Or maybe I put a dash in my glass too because, after all... - Well, it's almost, it's almost empty.

- I have to taste what I'm cooking with.

Taste it.

- Hmm, tastes like wine.

- Tastes like wine?

But it's supposed to be maybe, let's... I could split it over, but I'm afraid - [Claudine] Well, I probably put too much- - to splatter the whole thing.

Yes, there was a bit too much oil.

Okay, so there.

That's a good idea.

- [Claudine] Whoops, except for that runaway carrot.

Don't worry.

- You know what?

Pharoah would be very happy with that.

(Claudine laughs) Pharoah is our dog.

But very often, we're doing a very elegant dinner tonight so we strain that, but very often, I mix it right there with the roast, you know?

And this here if I want to thicken it a little bit, yes.

Yeah, I think we can stop the- - Cornstarch and- The lettuce?

- The pancake and the lettuce.

- Okay.

Everything is cooked, I think.

- Here, you know what?

Why don't you thicken it with this and some stock.

- A little bit of stock, okay.

- [Claudine] Because it's not hot.

- That's it.

So after that, it comes to a boil, you know?

You will add a little bit of the slurry.

Once this touch the hot liquid, it thickens on contact.

So what I have here is kind of immaterial.

I mean even if that was full, I put like one teaspoon or one tablespoon, I stir it, It's enough, I stop.

The proportion of liquid to the proportion of starch, it's immaterial because, as I said, again, you put some, you stir it, and then you stop.

Could be a bit darker than that.

I may need a slight more, so.

Okay.

It's barely coming to a boil, that's why.

That's thick enough, right?

- That's perfect.

- Okay.

That's good.

So at that point, I think we're gonna be ready to serve.

Look at those pancakes.

You know they are beautiful.

Beautiful on one side.

Beautiful on the other side.

See?

That's when they are nice to eat, right away.

- Yeah.

- [Jacques] This one is a bit burned.

- I'll eat it.

- When you present it, you present it on this side.

(Claudine laughs) So, now you want to give me the platter?

- I will.

- Okay, give me my roast here.

I'm going to cut a few pieces of the veal.

It's still a dash pink in the center.

That's a very, very lean piece of meat, you know?

- [Claudine] Yes.

- That's the beauty of it.

One slice like that is great.

Okay, you want to present this.

- [Claudine] That's beautiful.

- Now, the lettuce.

You can help me and take one of those.

This way.

This way.

Good.

Beautiful.

- I'll take this.

- I want to put my veal roast, - Mmm.

- here the juice on top of the lettuce.

- [Claudine] And I'm gonna get you a separate plate for the pancakes 'cause they won't fit on there.

- This.

Now.

Big pancake.

- You could even cut them in half and have half of one per person.

- No, too dark.

Okay.

Okay, here.

And here we are, the veal roast with braised lettuce and the vegetable pancake tempura.

So girls, this is the Festival of Lights.

Chanukah is the Festival of Lights, right?

Yeah?

So what does that mean?

- That means that you light the menorah every night and each night there's one more candle.

- Oh yes?

- Yes.

- Okay, so- - Is there a special way to light it?

- You light them right to left and put the candles in left to right.

This is the shamash, the helper candle.

- Okay, this is my part.

I know I'll help light this one.

Now is there anything special you have to do while you're lighting the candles?

- Yes, say the prayer.

- You have to say the prayer.

- Okay.

- Okay, I'll let you both say that.

(children speaking Hebrew) - Wow.

Now can you say it in English?

No?

Okay.

- Nope.

- That's okay.

- It's alright.

That sounds really good.

- Oh, you missed one.

- Okay.

- There we go.

- So now every night, so now we have all of the candles here, right?

- Yes.

- Yep.

- It's the last night of Chanukah.

- That's the last night.

That's why they're all in.

That's great.

- Alright, so we're gonna play some dreidel later and you guys are probably gonna beat me again and it'll be a lot of fun.

- Well, thank you for teaching us about your tradition.

We'll teach about ours later.

(bright music) Wow, Abby, this is terrific.

You write faster than I do.

(Claudine laughs) I thank you very much to write in my book of menu.

This is part of our tradition to draw a menu, or at least to write the menu when we have guests.

- Here, look, we have other ones in here.

- [Abby] That one's on my birthday.

- [Jacques] That was on your birthday?

And look at that one.

- [Children] That's our mom.

- [Claudine and Jacques] That's your mom.

- Yeah, she was there - Alright.

- for dinner.

I think she wrote the menu.

(Claudine laughs) But you know what?

We have all of those there.

I don't think any one of ours is as pretty as the one that you did.

This one is the best.

- [Abby] These are gelt.

- Ooh.

- This is some gelt.

Like this is also gelt.

- No kidding?

Can I eat those?

- (giggles) No.

- This is very nice for Chanukah.

And now we can finish the menu together, which I'm really glad I don't have to write it this time.

Which color do you like?

- You gotta write stuff.

- I want to show you how to serve our beautiful souffle here.

- Mmm.

- And you see it's a third of the, at least a third of the way.

So you go up to the rib.

- [Claudine] So you just cut to the top of the bowl?

- Yeah, and then you cut right to the top of the bowl here to remove that piece.

You can see there.

- Ooh.

- And remember the fruitcake that we have, you can slice it in a different way.

You can even put a little bit of Grand Marnier on top and you can serve it this way.

And you continue cutting it like that all around, which is already one, two, three, about eight portions, at least eight, ten, and then you put a bit more cocoa powder and you start scooping into it.

But I say you do like close to 20 portions that size here.

- Wow.

- And as long as we are serving the dessert, you know, how about a little bit of champagne?

- Absolutely.

- This is certainly a beautiful glass for a beautiful menu - And I'm gonna enjoy- - served with a beautiful woman.

- Oh, thank you, papa.

That's really sweet.

- So that's very nice to cook with you, Titine.

That's great.

Well everyone, Happy Chanukah.

- Thank you, Jacques.

- [Jacques] We're going to have a little bit of bubbly too.

That's part of Chanukah, right?

- Yes.

(guests laugh) - [Guest] It is everything.

- That's what it is.

- Here you go.

(guests chatter) - [Guest] Yeah, I always get nervous I'm not gonna get enough (guests laugh) probably.

- [Jacques] Well, to all of you.

How do we say that in Hebrew?

- [Guest] L'chaim.

- [Group] L'chaim.

(glasses clink) (guests chat) - Happy Chanukah.

- You're welcome.

- Okay.

- Here we go, let's drink.

- Simi, look at that.

- Is that- - I mean, this is- - [Simi] Is that to eat or to frame?

(guests laugh) - It's not to frame, Simi.

We're gonna dig into it.

- Oh, do I have to do that?

- You have to do that.

- Okay, I'm willing.

- [Jacques] I'll dig the first one.

For you, I'll give you - That's looks beautiful.

a nice peak on top, you know?

(guests chatter) - It's delicious.

- Oh yes, please.

- [Gloria] Everyone, dinner is ready.

(guests chatter) - We need the piece de resistance.

- Oh, that's wonderful.

- Roast of veal.

- [Guest] That's gorgeous.

- And this is a vegetable pancake we did with a tempura batter.

- Oh.

- This is my latke a la francaise.

- [Guest] Latke, latke.

- Latke, latke, latke.

- Japanese latke.

- These are our latkes.

- Claudine, you're gonna serve some wine?

- No.

- I'm gonna serve Simi.

- Okay.

(guests laugh and chatter) - So nice to be French.

- Oh, is that what it's like?

(guests chatter) - [Jacques] Okay, what are we drinking, Titine?

- We have a California white that's from Mendocino and we also have a white Bordeaux.

And the red in your glass right now is a Santenay.

You have the Lagrange, the white Bordeaux.

- I got Lagrange, white Bordeaux?

- Well, papa, you know, I really do have to say it's always a pleasure cooking with you and thank you.

I'm so glad everybody got a chance to come here and share Chanukah in our new tradition, so thanks everybody.

- Thank you.

- Isn't this wonderful?

This is maybe the best Chanukah I've ever had, Jacques.

- Oh, Simi, I'll drink to that too.

- Okay.

- Okay.

Well, we are delighted to have you in our house.

- Yeah.

Thank you, Gloria - And - and Jacques.

- thank you all for coming and happy cooking.

- [Guests] Happy cooking.