Blackened Steak and Asparagus Salad

Spice Rub

I like to think of steak salads as “gateway salads”, a way to initiate people who do not usually like salad into the ways of lettuce eating. What better way to trick a carnivore into consuming lettuce than by putting  a piece of meat on top of it? This salad from Kosher by Design Entertains has the added bonus of including asparagus.

 

Ingredients:

onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, white pepper, black pepper, paprika, dried thyme, dried oregano, dried basil leaves, London Broil OR filet, olive oil, asparagus, white wine vinegar OR apple cider vinegar, fresh parsley, lemon juice, fresh garlic, dried basil, crushed red pepper, dried oregano, mesclun lettuce

Spice Rubbed London Broil

 

The Process: 

Blackened Steak in the Sautee Pan

The large list of dried spices gets mixed together to form a rub for the meat. The recipe gives you the option of rubbing both sides but I opted for only putting spice rub on one side. I then seared the meat for ten minutes per side and allowed it to rest for ten minutes. There was a hilarious incident where a sizzle of oil full of cayenne pepper made my eyes water but otherwise this was uneventful and went exactly as described.

I then cut the meat, although I couldn’t quite achieve the paper thin slices the recipe asked for. I added additional olive oil to the pan and seared the asparagus. They did look bright green as described.

 

I then whisked the dressing ingredients together, tossed them with the meat and asparagus and served the dish. I was careful not to put the dressing on until immediately before serving so as not to have mushy wilted lettuce.

Cooking Green Beans

The Results:

London Broil is excellent for this type of dish: it comes out moist and flavorful. The cooking was easy it was a crowd pleaser. I will say it can be a bit spicy for kids. The recipe also specifically calls for mesclun mix that contains radicchio. I elect to not include this as I find radicchio extremely bitter. As mentioned above and seen in my photo it is difficult to get the meat “paper-thin” like the photo in the book.

Bonus: kosher for passover.

Blackened Steak and Asparagus Salad

Hasselback Potatoes

Potatoes are a staple in many households. They are available in winter and summer, inexpensive and filling. They are also a little plain looking, and groans of “potatoes again” can be heard when I put the same dish of cubed, baked potatoes on the table again. This recipe, from Kosher by Design Entertains, gave me a way to dress up potatoes for special events and did not seem overly difficult not did it involve too many strange ingredients.

Ingredients:

Idaho or Yukon Potatoes (I used Idaho), garlic, sea salt, black pepper

Slicing the Hasselback Potatoes

The Process:

I preheated my oven to 450 and set up a chopping block with scrubbed potatoes. Then I sliced each potato into thin wedges, without slicing all the way through. It took some practice to avoid slicing all the way down without wimping out and not slicing through enough. Then I placed the potatoes on a baking sheet, placed garlic in between the slivers and drizzled the potatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper.

The potatoes baked for one hour, with continuous basting. Then they were ready to eat!

The Results:

Hasselback Potatoes Ready for the Oven

There definitely no strange ingredients which is a plus in my book. After some practice, slicing the potatoes was easy and drizzling them with garlic and oil took all of two minutes. The major hardship here was basting the potatoes and making sure the oven did not burn. This helps them stay moist and prevents burning.

They were a huge hit at the table and disappeared in minutes! I would definitely make it again.