The Chef’s touch: Raisins marinade

Live from the Culinary Institute le Cordon Bleu, the doubled starred Chef and best worker of France Eric Briffard is here to tell you all about his marinated raisins to enhance your salads or side dishes.

How to choose and store grapes?

To help find beautiful grapes, Less Saves The Planet recommends that you look closely at the grapes, which should be firm, unwrinkled and unblemished. Be sure to check the freshness of the soft, brittle green stem. Some varieties of black grapes may be covered with a light white veil. This is called the bloom, a waxy dust secreted by the fruit to protect it from heat and bacteria. Its presence is a real guarantee of freshness!

Be careful with grapes, they are very sensitive. That’s the reason why they must be eaten them the same day of your purchase. If not possible, you can easily store them up to 5 days in the crisper of your refrigerator. We recommend to get them out 30 minutes prior to eating because the cold neutralizes their flavours.

What about the raisins used by the Chef? Good raisins must be soft. They should crush easily between your fingers. You can buy them in bags or canned. They can be stored at room temperature and out of light for one year in an airtight container. To extend their shelf life, you can put the container in the refrigerator or freezer.

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We enjoy grapes every hour of the day – sweet or savoury. Chef Eric Briffard has stepped up his inventiveness with a Smyrna raisins marinade that is easy to recreate at home. All you need is to boil a quality olive oil with lemon juice, water, a little sugar and some spices (bay leaf, thyme, black pepper, coriander seeds). All you have to do is add the raisins and you’re done!