Restaurant Style

Last night we had Chicken Milanese with Escarole Salad and Pickled Red Onion and Panna Cotta with Roasted Figs and Balsamic, all of which was superb. This menu came from Anne Burrell's show Secrets of a Restaurant Chef. I enjoy watching her show and have made several of her dishes; most of them excellent, some of them okay. I started with the Panna Cotta which is like a creme brulee, except it uses gelatin instead of eggs. It is simply heavy cream, gelatin, sugar and a vanilla bean which is heated up and then poured into serving bowls (couldn't be easier). These needed to chill for 2 to 3 hours and came out perfectly. I then moved on to making components for dinner by making the Pickled Onions. I combined red wine vinegar, water, kosher salt, sugar and Tabasco sauce to which I added a red onion, thinly sliced. I let this sit on the counter for a couple of hours and yum, pickled onions. The chicken was next; I butterflied the chicken breasts and pounded them thin. They then got the standard breading procedure of being dredged in flour, dipped in beaten eggs, and then in panko breadcrumbs combined with Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. These breaded chicken breasts sat in the refrigerator for a couple of hours before being pan fried in olive oil. These came out perfectly browned and crunchy on the outside with the inside beautifully moist. The chicken was plated with an escarole salad which had escarole mixed with a combination of toasted hazelnuts, pecorino cheese and chopped parsley which was run through a food processor to chop it all up. The salad was dressed with a little of the pickling liquid and tossed with olive oil. It was a really nice combination. I think Anne Burrell has a gift for wonderful combinations of textures and flavors.

The panna cotta was topped with roasted figs with balsamic. Fresh figs were cut in half and tossed with balsamic vinegar and sugar and allowed to macerate for 15 minutes. The mixture then went on a roasting pan in a 350 oven for minutes until the figs were soft and caramelized. This was a fabulous dessert and one that I will definitely make again.