If you watch Top Chef as much as we do, then you should very well know that whenever anyone made a salad dish, they were pretty much DOA. However, during our last visit to one of our favorite haunts, The Bristol, we had a salad combination that rocked our world: caramelized parsnips, savory buttermilk panna cotta and mustard greens. To us, it was an unexpected marriage of the culinary kind. Yet, there was something marvelous about the texture of the creamy panna cotta that went incredibly well with the tart vinaigrette and the bite of the mustard greens. The entire meal we had was great, but this salad stuck in our minds.
And of course this now brings us to the next installment of Jared’s Restaurant Recreations! In his version he combines a savory panna cotta and uses baby arugula for it’s bite and a lemon soy vinaigrette for its tartness and added umami. This salad takes a bit more prep work and time but if you get the texture of the panna cotta just right, it’s pure heaven.
Ingredients
2 grams or 1/3 pack gelatine
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup of creme fraiche
1 tablespoon sugar
1 pinch of salt
fresh ground pepper
Optional: 1 bunch Basil
Recipe
- warm the cream in a pot with salt, sugar, pepper and (basil). Do not let it boil
- Simmer for 15 mins and remove from the heat
- Add 1 tablespoon of cold water to activate the gelatin
- Stir in the gelatin and creme fresh into cream
- Mix the cream until the gelatins has dissolved
- Fill the a silicon mold and refrigerate until the panna cotta has set
- Freeze the panna cotta
Ingredients
3 tablespoons of good olive oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 lemon
fresh ground pepper
Recipe:
- Add the olive oil, soy sauce, sugar in a mixing bowl.
- Using a micro plane, grate the zest of the lemon
- Cut the lemon in half and squeeze in the juice
- Whisk the mixture and season with fresh ground pepper
Ingredients
Baby arugula
Parmesan reggiano
Savory panna cotta
Lemon soy vinaigrette
To plate
- Take the frozen panna cotta out of the mold and onto the serving plate (much easier to remove once it is frozen). Let it thaw until the panna cotta has reached room temperature
- Place a handful of baby arugala salad on the plate.
- Drizzle with the vinaigrette
- Shave slices of parmesan reggiano cheese on top
As an added bonus, here’s a fun blurry photo of baby taking part in our photo shoot. Can you tell he eats well based on the number of chins he has? 
The Bristol
2152 North Damen
Chicago, IL 60647
(773) 862-5555
www.thebristolchicago.com
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