Steak Salad With Sweet Potato Dressing

Steak Salad With Sweet Potato Dressing

The question came up, as it normally does:  What are you making for supper?  Usually, I have a ready answer, but on this dreary evening, with rain pounding the roof and making the garden happy, all I could think of was driving through the downpour and getting a good solid soaking on the race across the parking lot. 

Didn’t fancy a dripping sprint, and besides, my whisky card had been punched.  Twice.

So, it was time to use both my lonely brain cells and dig through the frig like a feverish husband about to fail his supper exam.  

Hope was rewarded.  Salad greens and tenderloin steak.  Funny, I thought I’d eaten the steak last night.  I know I drank the wine that was supposed to go with the steak….

One thing I never keep around the house is salad dressing, but I do keep a blender and olive oil and seasoned rice vinegar, salt and pepper.  Wait!  I also found a small, baked sweet potato.  I’d never made sweet potato dressing and searched my quivering mind to remember if there was a reason.  Couldn’t find one in the mental catalog of things my wife hates.  Disgusting things I’ve tried?  Nope, not there either.

Don’t want to keep you in suspense. The whole meal turned out to be superb and now, kitchen magician that I am,  I’m not only going to reveal how to make the salad and the salad dressing, but also how to cook the perfect steak.

Recipe for the perfect steak:

8 ounce prime tenderloin filet, 2 to 3 inches thick

olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oven to 400ºF or 200ºC

Note:  Yes prime tenderloin is pricy, but one steak fed two people, so dry the tears and cough up the coins!

Note:  This recipe will leave the steak crusty on the outside and pink in the middle.

Rub the tenderloin all over with olive oil, then sprinkle both sides with sea salt and ground pepper.  Set aside.

Oil a heavy frying pan (I use iron) and heat it until the oil is just starting to smoke.  Toss in the steak and sear the first side for exactly 2.5 minutes. Flip it over and sear the second side for exactly 2 minutes.

Put the frying pan and steak in the hot oven for exactly ten minutes.

Take it out and let it rest for at least ten minutes, then slice it thinly.

Now for the salad dressing.

1 small, well baked sweet potato, peeled and chopped

2 tablespoons diced sweet onion

1 cup olive oil

1 cup seasoned rice vinegar

sea salt and ground pepper to taste

Note:  I choose not to make my guests salt and pepper their salad, so instead, I include it in the dressing.

Put all ingredients in the blender and blend until smooth.  Taste and add another toss of salt or pepper as desired.  This recipe will yield more dressing than you need for one salad.  Put the remainder in a jar, cover and keep in the refrig.

Salad Recipe:

2 cups chopped iceberg lettuce (for crispness)

2 cups mixed salad greens

Handful of cherry tomatoes, halved

1 cup diced sweet onion, marinated for a few minutes in seasoned rice vinegar and a sprinkle of cumin 

3 tablespoons roasted and salted pumpkin seeds

Note: pour off excess vinegar before adding marinated onions to the salad, otherwise the salad will curl your lips.

I served the salad with a light, French rosé wine.

Mix all ingredients, add some of the salad dressing and mix again. Don’t add too much dressing!  You want the salad crisp and refreshing.

Place the thin slices of steak on the salad.  Voilá!

My wife was enthusiastic until she found out how much I’d paid for the steak, but by the second bottle of wine she was happy again.

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