Suggestions for Company from out of state

[Jeekinz]

Originally Posted by big daddy cornbread

pork roll eggplant and blueberries are the only known foods from new jersey

BWAAAAHAHAHA The first thing I thought was pork roll or sausage and peppers when I saw this thread. LOL

When I think of chowdah, I think of Nantucket.

[Adillo303]

The dinner is in the history books. Thank you EVERYONE for your help. From this thread I have ideas for the dinner just served and several to come.

I settled on the clam chowder. Everything was fresh. Clams from the fishmarket, fresh spices. It tasted great and was aell recieved.

I served salad as suggested and for bread I made sourdough. My first time out on the classic sourdough. Made it the old way, no yeast & sour starter just sour starter. Got great reviews on that too.

Again, thank You everyone.

AC

[quicksilver]

Thanks for the follow - up. Sounds delicious. Red or white?

[Adillo303]

Originally Posted by quicksilver

Thanks for the follow - up. Sounds delicious. Red or white?

The Chowder? - White.

I wanted to follow up, because, it is noce to ask for and recieve ideas and all to often, we never get to know how they work out.

AC

[suziquzie]

Adillo will you share your sourdough recipe?
I tried it a few times, I wasn't too impressed.

[Adillo303]

Yup! Absolutely no problem. I wish that I could say that it was exotic, but it is not. I ordered 1 oz of starter from King Arthur flour. With the starter comes the recipie and directions. I followed them pretty close. I made one mistake, which I think I fixed. I forgot salt. I discovered it about 15 minutes afte it stated the first rise. I took it back to the board and worked it in. My first rise was slow, but OK. I punched it down and formed loaves. The second rise was going slow. I might have gotten more rise if I waited longer, but, I was an hour away from company and I needed the bread done. Here is where I strayed from the directions. I put a pie pan of water in the bottom of the oven 20 min before I put the bread in. This makes steam and lowers the surface tension of the dough for a good oven spring. I brushed the loaves with water using a pastery brush for the same reason. I got a great oven spring and a good rise. When I sliced the bread I had some larger holes, not too big, and the rest was like yeast bread. All in all pretty happy. the aroma was spectacular. the crust was a bit crunchy. In the middle of the loaf it could have risen a bit more, but I was the only one that noticed.

All told, I was extatic. I did use the classic recipie, no yeast. It takes time. Saturday noght, I "fed" the starter. I let it sit till saturday morning. Then I made the "sponge" I let that sit for 3 1/2 hours. It said the longer it sets the better the sour flavor. they were right. The rest is as described. I bake on stones, or at least I used to, I burned my fingers on a hot stone and dropped it about 3" it did not break, but, when I opened the oven to take it out, it was broken. My other stone is halved by a "helpful" Labrador.

Hope this helps. If you want any other specifics feel free to PM me.

AC

[Michael in FtW]

Originally Posted by Adillo303

The Chowder? - White.

I wanted to follow up, because, it is noce to ask for and recieve ideas and all to often, we never get to know how they work out.

AC

Thanks for the follow up, AC! As you said - all too often we get asked for help and never hear back as to the results.