Grated carrots with sweet and sour sauce Recipe Chef Passard

The subtle combination of the acidity of the lime and the sweetness of the honey of this sauce go wonderfully with grated carrots and raisins.

I think this is the first time I’m talking to you about one of the chefs who thrill me. So as I am more and more addicted to vegetables, whatever the variety and preparation, I had to start with the three-star chef, with impressive precision and mastery, Alain Passard.

Have you ever watched the short videos he makes in his kitchen for Le Point? He teems with creativity in all simplicity, his eyes sparkling with sweetness and emotion. A true enthusiast!

It was from his grandmother and his great aunt that he learned “the taste for eating well”. When he was little, he loved making potato salad and he was already doing numerous tests, each time coming up with a new variation with new ingredients.

Alain Passard today combines his two “jobs – passion”: cooking and gardening (that’s beautiful, the notion of “job – passion”!!!). He grows vegetables so he can tell a story from seed to plate. L’Arpège is thus delivered daily with fresh seasonal vegetables from its two vegetable gardens, one in Sarthe with sandy soil and the other in Eure with clay soil. He also has an orchard in the bay of Mont Saint Michel and beehives. According to him, vegetable cuisine is a “permanent discovery thanks to the seasons”, an “adventure in which we are never disappointed because it is generous and provides emotion”.

I slightly adapted his emulsified sweet and sour sauce served with beets from one of his videos, adjusting the ingredients and proportions according to my tastes. You can either make the sauce a bit like a vinaigrette (as in the photo of this recipe), or mix it with a hand blender for a much smoother emulsified result (but it is better to double the quantities so that the blender has a little more substance and the result is better, even if it means reserving a little for another dish). Hence the two variants below.

I offer you this sauce with grated carrots and raisins because at home, without going so far as one of my daughters who puts almost as many grapes as carrots, we often serve grated carrots with raisins, or sometimes even small pieces of dried apricot. Don’t hesitate to garnish as desired by adding a little finely chopped fresh onion, cooked beetroot…