This is inspired by a salad I ate once with my mom at the Neimann Marcus restaurant in St. Louis. I think it was after I tried on wedding dresses. Not sure. But I do remember that there were ladies modeling fashions while we ate, and I do remember this salad! I'm not going to include ingredient amounts, because you can put in as much or as little of everything as you want.
Ingredients:
steak (not too thickly cut)
arugula
corn (mine came from a can)
red onion
cherry tomatoes
blue cheese
S&P
olive oil
white or red wine vinegar
dijon mustard
honey
1) Prepare the salad dressing-- combine 4 parts olive oil to 2 parts vinegar and 1 part each of mustard and honey. Salt and pepper to taste.
2) Prepare the other veggies-- halve the cherry tomatoes, thinly slice the red onion, and chop the blue cheese. Open your can of corn and drain the water.
3) Season your steak with salt and pepper. Heat a bit of olive oil in a pan. Over high heat, sear the steak for about 2 and a half minutes on each side. You could also do this on the grill. Let it rest for 5 minutes.
BONUS TIP: When cooking meat, I find the best way to check for doneness is by touch. Poke the meat. If it's still super soft, it's still rare inside. If it's very firm to the touch, it's probably well-done. The trick is finding the sweet spot in the middle. It should be firm but soft. Hmm. Does that help? Maybe not. It does take practice. It's best to turn off the heat when it is still slightly more soft than your preference, because it will continue to cook a bit when it's resting.
4) Toss your arugula with the salad dressing and spread it on a platter. Layer the rest of the veggies and cheese on top, then finish with thinly sliced steak.
Potchke level rating: low.
