Steak Salad

Gerry loves to concoct a big salad for lunch sometimes so I knew he would enjoy this salad for dinner.  It had a lot of the components of a steak dinner with a salad except for the potato.  There was the grilled and sliced flank steak, roasted asparagus, grilled mushroom, sauteed onions and shallots, baby spinach and radicchio tossed in a balsamic vinaigrette and sliced tomatoes.  The salad was finally topped with a slice of baguette spread with a mixture of blue cheese and butter.  The contrast in color, flavor, texture and temperature made this dish.  Gerry put this meal in one of his top three so far this year, so I was right in my guess that he would enjoy it.  I personally thought it was a little to busy for me.  Since I am leaving today on a cruise I wanted dinner to be something out of the ordinary, but still healthy and this worked perfectly.  I won't post anything on my blog now until Monday, the 11th.

Steak Salad
Makes 2 salads

12 asparagus spears
1 pound flank steak
1 portobello mushroom, stem removed
3 cups spinach
1 cup radicchio, torn into bite-size pieces
4 tablespoons vinaigrette dressing
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 each pearl onions and shallots
4 cloves garlic
12 rounds Roma tomatoes
4 slices toasted baguette
4 tablespoons blue cheese
2 tablespoons butter
4 scallion fans

Rub the asparagus spears, steak, and portobello mushroom with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Grill until done and set aside to rest.  While the steak, asparagus spears and mushroom are grilling, prepare the scallion fans by cutting off the top part of 4 scallions so that a 3 inch piece is left.  Cut 3 to 4 vertical slices from the middle to the cut end and soak in ice water. 

Caramelize the onions, shallots and garlic by cooking in the olive oil over low heat for 20 minutes.  Toss the salad greens in your favorite vinaigrette (I always use a balsamic vinaigrette). 

Slice the steak across the grain into thin slices and cut the grilled mushroom into 1/2-inch pieces. 

Assemble the salad by fanning the steak slices out on the edge of the plate and tuck some asparagus spears under the steak.  Mound the dressed salad greens in the center of the plate.  Arrange the sliced tomatoes and caramelized onion mixture on the plate.  Next fill in the gaps with the grilled portobello. 

Cut the baguette diagonally.  Toast both sides.  Cream together the crumbled blue cheese and butter and spread it on the toasted bread slices.  Grill until the blue cheese mixture is softened.  Arrange two slices on each salad.  Garnish the salad with the scallion fans.

From Cuisine at Home, Mar/Apr, 1997

Gerry's rating:

My rating: