This is a very graceful dish to serve as a starter for a dinner party. Salad makes a great starter as it’s not too filling and pairs with many main dishes without clashing. The edible bowl makes it a bit of a novelty.

Ingredients
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EDIBLE SALAD BOWL:< p>

Block of parmesan, I prefer to use a brand of parmesan called “Baby Parmesan” because it does not contain ‘rennet’. Grate, on the normal cheese grating side of the grater (not the usual super fine side you would use for parmesan)

FILLING:

A Traditional lettuce, such as a ‘round lettuce’ or similar

Veggies such as:
Grated carrot
Sliced tomatoes
(Though you can add your own favorite salad combination)

Olive oil

DRESSING:
Red wine vinegar
Salt n Pepper

1. Make the dressing, mix 2 parts olive oil to 1 part red wine vinegar and season

2. Prepare the salad ingredients

3. Prepare the parmesan cheese basket.

Heat a frying pan so that it is quite hot, it’s important that it is a good non-stick flat bottomed frying pan.

Using a kitchen towel, wipe a little oil or margarine on the pan surface.

Sprinkle in the grated parmesan so that it covers an area of about 6 inches in diameter, but is not too thick, some of the pan can be seen through the grated parmesan still. It will give it an almost ‘lattice work’ effect.

Wait for about 20 seconds until the parmesan starts to bubble and then slide it out onto the back of a small bowl, press it down covering the outside of the bowl, so that it takes on the bowl's shape and then put it in the fridge to harden further.

Do one of these for each person.

4. Fill the chilled bowls with the salad, put the lettuce in the bottom and top with the veggies, serve with salad oil and let people add their own, or drizzle a tablespoon over each one then serve.

Tip – keep the parmesan bowls in the fridge to the last minute, on a warm day then can lose their shape if they not kept chilled.

Another tip – I did try this with cheddar and it simply does not have the structural integrity that parmesan does, and does not hold its shape well at all. Maybe a very hard cheddar might work, but would recommend you start with the parmesan ones.