Steak and Spinach Salad

Recently Tomato Girl, a friend of mine, asked me to come up with a briney dressing to be served with a steak salad.  She also had the amazing idea to add some steak drippings to it.

So, off I went on my research tangent of different French small sauces and sauces that include red wine.  My idea at the time was based on my Balsamic Honey Mustard.  As I researched I looked at butter, like a buerre rouge.  Many of the sauces had tarragon and shallots.

I had formulated, then I started the trials.

I started with Balsamic, but did not find it briney.  So, I ended up mixing it half and half with red wine vinegar.  I also tried using butter to cook the steak, but the consistency wasn't quite right.  Enter the EVOO Extra Virgin Olive Oil.  I really wanted to use that for the flavor.  After many trials, darn, steak again?  I came to this secret formula.  

For the steak for this salad I love a flat iron or london broil.  You could also use a cube steak or a fillet or any other good steak.  The thing is that it needs to be tender.  

This is probably the only time you will see me do something in single servings.

Ingredients for the dressing:

1 T Red Wine Vinegar

1 T Balsamic Vinegar

1/2 T Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1/2 T Stone Ground Mustard

1 t Garlic, minced

1/2 t Shallots

1/2 t capers (include the brine)

1/2 t Tarragon, chopped

Ingredients for steak:

6 oz steak

1 t Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1/2 t salt

3/4 t pepper

Ingredients for the Salad:

4 oz Spinach-prewashed

1 oz Blue Cheese

1 Carrot-sliced

2 Mushrooms-sliced

Directions:

Dressing 

just mix all of the ingredients and let it sit, UNTIL...

the Steak is done.  Once the steak is removed from the pan deglaze it with dressing and immediately pour onto salad.

Steak

Equally salt both sides of steak

I like to jaccard it after I season it, to make certain that it is seasoned inside and out and oh-so-tender.

Coat it in EVOO

Cook it to the correct doneness, let it rest then slice it against the grain.

Salad

Put the spinach on the plate, top with carrots and mushrooms then dressing.  Put the sliced steak on top then crumble the blue cheese on top and serve!

This salad is a full meal. 

Notes:

If you are using this dressing independent of this salad put 1/4 t salt and 1/2 t pepper into the dressing.  

It can also be used as a marinade for pork, beef or game.

If you are curious about a meat tenderizing Jaccard, they are inexpensive and definitely can make the cheapest of steaks tender.  And they are great for stress!  I love using them because it easily makes cheap steaks much better.  You can even use it on roasts.  Unless you have a dishwasher, get one with only a single row of blades.

Here is how to use one:

Here is one on Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Flytt-Tenderizer-Stainless-Blades-Chicken/dp/B01MSSR3J1/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1519426784&sr=8-2-spons&keywords=jaccard+meat+tenderizer&psc=1