Insalata Bianca in a Parmesan Cup

Oh boy, this month's Daring Kitchen challenge really focused on a weakness of mine - creativity. I can take a recipe and replicate it to a tee, and make all sorts of dishes come out great, but I really fail at being creative. Renata of Testado, Provado & Aprovado! was our Daring Cooks’ April 2011 hostess. Renata challenged us to think “outside the plate” and create our own edible containers. Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 17th to May 16th at http://thedaringkitchen.com.

For the bowl, I went with my most comfortable medium - cheese, of course. And the best type of cheese I could think would harden into a bowl is parmesan. That was the easy bit. Then I figured it had to be filled with something cold, as anything hot would too quickly melt the cheese, so salad seemed the obvious choice. But I didn't want to go with a plain, green salad. Instead I made a marinated Insalata Bianca - a white salad with a variety of marinated white vegetables and lemon vinaigrette dressing. 

Source

Salad inspired by similar salads at various restaurants

Equipment

Small saucepan to poach the chicken

Bowl to mix the salad

Baking sheet

Parchment paper

Small bowl to form parmesan bowl

Ingredients

For Salad

• 1 chicken breast
• 12-oz jar Hearts of Palm, roughly chopped
• 12-oz jar Artichoke hearts, roughly chopped
• 4 oz. White mushrooms, sliced
• 3 Belgian endive, roughly chopped
• 1 Fennel bulb, roughly chopped (which I couldn't find, so I substituted celery)

For Dressing

• Juice of 1 lemon
• Olive oil
• White wine vinegar
• To taste, Salt and White pepper

For the Parmesan Cup

•   1/4 cup parmesan per bowl, shredded, plus extra to top the salad with.

Directions

I chose to do this recipe over the course of 2 days, as it really tasted best when it had time to marinate overnight. The second day I made the parmesan bowl and served the salad in it.

Day 1:

Poach the chicken over a very slow simmer.  

Meanwhile chop all the salad ingredients

and combine in a bowl.

 

When the chicken is fully cooked, shred with two forks and add to the salad. 

Make the dressing, combining white wine vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and white pepper. Add enough dressing to coat the salad. Let sit overnight.

Day 2:

By the next day all the vegetables and chicken will be marinated and the flavors will all come together.

Pre-heat the oven to 375.

Place flattened piles of parmesan cheese, 1/4 cup each, on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until it gets bubbly and golden. I didn't get any pictures of that step, as I had to work really quickly before the cheese hardened. There are a lot of ways to get the cheese into the shape of the bowl, but I found the best method was to quickly flip the parchment paper upside down on top of the bowl.

Let it rest for about 10 minutes, so it hardens, and the parchment paper comes right off, leaving you with a perfectly shaped parmesan bowl. Fill with the salad, and top with any extra parmesan.

However, as I learned, if you get impatient and don't let it cook long enough, you will start out with a perfectly formed parmesan bowl, and quickly end up with a perfectly formed parmesan placemat.

Well, lesson learned, and it was still really tasty. I absolutely love this salad, and the parmesan bowl was the perfect vessel for it.