Shellfish, butter and honey

Photo by Dan Ryan

Dan created a fabulous dinner for us tonight inspired by Boston chef Barbara Lynch. It was shellfish in a butter broth with a honey emulsion. The pale yellow honey emulsion slowly dripped over the seafood like a delicate, sweet molten lava. Dan bought little neck clams, king crab legs and lobster, and cooked those treasures from the sea in an aromatic mirapoix bath, which didn't go to waste after the business was done. Dan enjoyed a cup of the broth afterwards. Then he shucked everything, made the butter sauce, and combined the two. Shellfish and butter are good friends of course, and this particular marriage was heavenly. Then came the honey emulsion... the pros must have better emulsion blenders than we do because our honey emulsion was less of a frothy foam, and more of a sauce, but it was still delicious. Bear in mind that this recipe at Lynch's restaurant, Menton, serves 10-12 appetizer portions. Dan cut the recipe down to less than half and it it made 2 modest portions for each of us, so even though it was dripping in butter the small portion size seemed like a very light dish. I added the bling—the orange flower blossoms (marigolds perhaps?), bought earlier today from our monthly pilgrimage to a Whole Foods Market. Lynch garnishes her meal with black caviar and chive blossoms. I wish I had time to make faux orange caviar with tapioca pearls because it would have made a perfect garnish... next time! We also had a salad of frisee, mache, bacon lardons, goat cheese, and viola blossoms—Johnny Jump-Ups. I made the dressing using meyer lemon juice, grapeseed oil, along with the usual diced shallots, a little dijon mustard, salt and pepper.

Photo by Dan Ryan