I have a big project due in a couple of months and chefs have advised that students start early, so I've been thinking a lot about my project concept. The assignment is to plan and budget a four course meal for eight people. The menu needs to have a focus and it needs to reflect what we've learned about planning menus so far. I don't have to actually cook for eight people, but I will need to make each dish and take a picture. It's not a requirement to write my own recipes, but I'm interested in testing my recipe writing abilities.

The honey selection at Kalustyan's, 123 Lexington Avenue

Every since I visited the Union Square Greenmarket for the first time late in the summer I've been intrigued by the variety of honey available in the city. My intrigue grew when I visited Kalustyan's speciality fine foods market several weeks ago.  I've never seen so many brands and flavors of honey! They even had truffle honey! At $17 a pop, I didn't buy it, but I wanted to... that's for sure. An idea that I've kind of settled on for this project is using a different honey for each course, showcasing a different technique for each segment of the meal. To narrow my focus even more, I'd like to research and develop a Mediterranean menu with seasonal ingredients, which only seems appropriate since I work at a Mediterranean restaurant and I'm already exposed to some of the flavor profiles.

Fresh branzino

Tonight I borrowed an idea from the restaurant and purchased a whole branzino (a Mediterranean sea bass) and roasted it with lemon, thyme, and olive oil. I went to Whole Foods, picked out my fish, and cleaned it at home. I wanted to incorporate the raw clover honey I also bought, so I decided to serve a salad with honey-candied pine nuts, Kalamata olives, red onion, and feta cheese. I made a honey balsamic vinaigrette to dress the salad and roasted some potatoes with garlic, thyme, and olive oil for a side dish.

 

I'm going to continue to experiment with honey and write about my research. Hopefully my project will be pretty well documented by the time it's due. If anyone has suggestions or recipes they'd like me to try, please email me your ideas at laurenbhendrick@gmail.com.