Entertaining with THE CHARLESTON SILVER LADY

Ihave spent many of my new year celebrations at Edisto trying my best to get away from the madness of the holidays! I grew up “running away” with my great aunt and grandmother to their place on Edisto, so it seems only natural for me to do the same as an adult. I remember walking the beach for hours, bringing home grocery bags filled with just about more shells than the bag or I could manage. This is still something I look forward to every new year.

Although this was a more casual location than our home in Charleston, silver was still present and still in use. One of the most elegant things we had for dinner was shrimp bisque. I can still see it’s beautiful light pink color pooled inside a large, white, porcelain soup plate. It was the first course for a formal New Year’s dinner. This course was set with a larger than average, heavily-starched dinner napkin held with a silver napkin ring.

This is the only time I remember using the large, round spoons I learned were “Gumbo spoons”’ made in sterling near the turn of the century.

The second course would be any sort of fish that was available locally. We had special silver fish forks and knives for eating this. They are specially crafted for ease in removing bones. The fish would be brought on a huge Limoges porcelain fish platter which was handpainted with a fish. The fish would be served on smaller plates, which were also handpainted with fish. All of this on a white linen table cloth was truly beautiful.

My collection of gathered sea shells would have been scrubbed clean and strewn down the center of the table, a dramatic wasyof enhancing the theme of the day.

Dessert on this day was always lemon sorbet or lemon ice. If my great-grandmother was in town, she would ask for “ice milk.” The lemon ice was served in short champagne flutes with a thick gold rim. Along side was a silver ice cream fork used just for eating this wonderful dessert.

Gathered around the table were the most interesting group of “Edisto people” and “Downtown people.”’ I can still hear their lowcountry accents and remember their comments about how the world was changing.

I am happy to share with your their recipe for shrimp bisque and their lemon sauce for seafood. I think you will love them, too.

Shrimp Bisque

2 lbs. medium shrimp

Reserved cooking water 2 sticks salted butter 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. pepper 2 cups heavy cream 1 cup regular milk (skim will NOT work)

Clean, cook and de-shell shrimp. Take them out of the water, keeping them hot in a little of the cooking water in a separate bowl or pot. Add one stick of salted butter-allow to melt. Pit everything into food processor or blender and process until smooth. Add more milk as needed to get the thickness you like. Adjust salt and pepper as you like it. Squeeze a lemon into the finished product and mix to combine.

Serve hot with Carr’s crackers.

Lemon Sauce

Melt one stick of salted butter in a large flat sauce pan. Add the juice and sliced rinds of two lemons (remove seeds to avoid bitterness). Mix together well.

Whisk in 2 tablespoons of regular flour. Whisk until there are no lumps. Keeping everything warm, now whisk in 2 cups of heavy cream and cook until thickened.

Add salt and pepper to taste. Remove the lemon rinds if you like. Zest another lemon and sprinkle this over the dish once it is plated.

This sauce is great over anything—pasta, vegetables or any meat.

I hope you all enjoy this light meal from my Charleston Family to yours!