Beef & Blue Cheese Salad
The use of two dressings works really well with this classic salad.
Preparation time: 15 mins Cooking time: 15 mins
Serves 2
You need
2 x 250g (9 oz) Scotch fillet steaks (or tender steak of your choice suitable for grilling)
1 large, crisp pear
2 handfuls of walnuts
2 baby cos or little gem lettuces, leaves separated, washed and dried
Cheese Dressing
100g (3.5 oz) blue cheese, crumbled
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 bare tbsp white balsamic or white wine vinegar
1/4 cup milk
black pepper
Vinaigrette Dressing
3 tbsp good quality white wine or white balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
sea salt
To Cook
For the blue cheese dressing, place the 4 ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth. Taste and adjust oil or vinegar to your liking and process again. Add a few grinds of black pepper and set aside.
Brush steaks with oil and season with salt and pepper. Pre-heat your BBQ or grill pan and cook steaks to your liking.
While steaks are cooking, make the vinaigrette. If you have a good quality, well-balanced vinegar and a subtle olive oil then I find that equal parts vinegar and oil with a generous sprinkling of sea salt makes a good, simple dressing. So combine the oil, white vinegar and a good pinch of salt. Taste and adjust as necessary.
Toast the walnuts in a dry frying pan over medium heat for a few minutes (being careful not to burn them like I always do). Remove from heat and chop them roughly when they are cool enough.
Wash and dry the pear but don't peel it. Slice it thinly discarding the core.
Place the lettuce leaves in a large salad bowl, pour on most of the vinaigrette and toss. If the lettuce looks like it needs the remaining dressing then add it along with the pear and walnuts. Toss, taste and adjust seasoning.
When steaks are cooked, rest them for a few minutes. The steak can either be served as it is with the salad on the side or cut into slices and added to the salad. In either case, drizzle a little of the blue cheese dressing over everything and serve the rest separately.
