Recipe for Steak Salad, a la Raineth
Before I forget... Tramplingrose had a pictor of some tasty-looking steak salad posted on her blog, so I swiped the idea & made it into my own... Arrum, nom nom nom. GOOD. Worthy of doing it again.
Let it be known in advance that I am OK with these types of food touching each other, and I like the hot and cold effects.
Steak Salad, a la Raineth:
Cast iron skillet, or damned sturdy fry pan; TBSP butter; fresh basil, spicy oregano & cilantro; fresh spinach; iceberg lettuce; assorted other greens; tomato; random side dish, such as cole slaw or potato salad or mac salad; optional shredded cheese and croutons. Now that I'm thinking about it, I should totally have used some portabella mushrooms. Oh Well, next time.
For the marinade: 1 medium onion, coursely chopped. 1 clove garlic, smashed with knife & peeled open. 1 2-3" chunk ginger, sliced thin. 1 c. or so of Italian seasoning (I used that & some leftover fajita marinade by La Preferida, that uses grapefruit juice--mmm). Couple grinds of fresh black pepper.
1 pound of steak- I used a nice top sirloin & it worked just dandy. Cut into thin strips across the grain. I had an idea that I would marinate the whole steak then grill it, but I realized I wouldn't have enough time, so-- NEXT TIME.
Chuck steak strips into a sturdy, resealable plastic bag or a bowl, along with marinade ingredients. Seal 'er up & forget about it for a good 8 hours or so.
Drain meat & pat dry with paper towel or clean cloth-- Julia knew what she was talking about-- you must get the meat dry, or all it does is just sort-of boil juicy (in a bad way) in the pan. Discard all remaining marinade ingredients. If you want to eat your steak with fresh onion & ginger, now is your chance to get it going in a different pan (unless you want to go for some delicious raw red or Vidalia onion, mmm!).
Julienne the ginger & chop the onions as thick as you want. Cook onions over medium-high heat with some butter until they are cooked just tender-crisp (or more, if you can't stand onions slightly crisp), then add ginger.
If you feel like adding a swig of sherry, brandy or some other booze to your tum-tum & pan, now would be a good time. Set this mixture aside. Hmmm, come to think of it, the onions would be quite tasty caramelized, wouldn't they? Mmm, the possibilities. Anyway.
Get your skillet hot. No, I mean fricking HOT. The kind that sends your hands to the nearest hot pad, muttering "Shit!" Toss steak strips in and give them 1-2" depending on thickness, then flip them over for another 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat completely. They should have nice, brown sides. Do not overcook. Yucky! If you undercook, toss strips in the nuker afterwards. You cannot repair the deadly dryness of overcooked cow.
Prepare bed of lettuces & spinach on a plate. I liked ripping mine apart with my fingers. So satisfying!
Put onions, ginger (and mushroms?) on top of salad. Place steak strips on top of that. Chop up tomato (I used an entire Roma & sort of squished the juices over the top, too); add to plate. In middle of salad, plop a nice serving of the random side dish (mine happened to be a very excellent potato salad with a lot of dill). I do this to avoid using dressing, but I imagine Ranch or a Blue cheese or something would be tasty. I sprinkled a small amount of cheddar on mine, too. Cheater! I followed up with a good handful of fresh herbs, because I was hungry for them.
Instead of croutons, I had a nice piece of crusty French bread. Blueberries that actually tasted like blueberries were my dessert. I drank a huge glass of water with fresh lemon juice & a sprig of lemon verbena.
Cheers!