Darn it, it’s so hard to get the colours right in these food pics!
The food in the pic above looks horrendous but I assure you, the salad was lovely!
Yesterday morning being Sunday, I trotted off to the shop to get my mitts on The Observer, as it was Food magazine month hurrah! I was pleasantly surprised when I got home to see that it was the 100th Issue of The Food Monthly.
To mark the occasion, a list of the 10 easiest, fastest recipes ever made up the bulk of the supplement. The Steak with Warm New Potato and Rocket Salad by Tom Norrington Davies caught my eye.
The pic in The Observer was obviously more beautiful than the one above. And I promise you that on our plates the salad and steak didn’t look as brown and dirgy as they do in the pic above.
This took me about 35 minutes to make because I’m a bit bumbly (new word for clumsy and awkward, just made it up) and can NOT multi-task. Just can’t.
The end result was really delicious and I’d definitely make it again.
What you need for Tom Norrington Davies’ Steak Salad for 2
Two handfuls of new potatoes
1 large, thick slab of rump or rib-eye steak (I could only get round steak and it was grand)
2 teaspoons of capers (yum! I *heart* capers)
2 tablespoons of Dijon Mustard
1 glug of balsamic vinegar
A small bunch of tarragon (I subsituted tarragon with basil and it was perfect)
Rocket (enough for two salads)
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
Boil your new potatoes in salted water. Mine took around 20 minutes. They should be just tender.
Get your steak on your griddle pan or regular old frying pan. I put a bit of salt and pepper on the steak out of habit, and I also added a few finely chopped basil leaves. It gave the steak a really nice flavour, to my pleasant surprise.
Once the spuds are done, drain them and let them cool off a bit.
Tom says leave your steak as rare as you can. I like rare steak so that was cool with me. But you can of course cook it how you like it.
Let it rest for a while before cutting it up. It’ll stay nice and warm anyway, while you add the dressing to the spuds.
Put your still warm new potatoes into a big bowl. Add the capers, Dijon Mustard, balsamic vinegar and a bit of salt.
Carve your steak into thin slices. Add to the bowl of potatoes.
At this stage, you can add your chopped basil/tarragon and your rocket leaves. You wouldn’t want to put them in too early as they’d probably go all droopy and crap.
Serve up with a nice glass of Sunday night red wine and a dollop of whole grain mustard on the side.
Our steak was rare, promise. It’s the balsamic vinegar and mustard what made it go that colour, honest! It were lovely and pink 
Categories: Dinner
July 20, 2009 at 5:03 pm
It looks utterly gorgeous to me. I could do with a big plate of that right this min. I like old Tom Norrington Whatnot too…
July 20, 2009 at 6:17 pm
This looks scrumptious! Lovely food for a leisurely Sunday
(And don’t tell anyone *looks over shoulder* but I can’t multi-task either.)
July 21, 2009 at 10:31 am
mmm capers – the tasatiest little salty flowers on this good earth
July 21, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Oh English Mum and Jen, you’re too kind. You always say my food looks nice when it blatantly doesn’t it! But please don’t stop. Your encouragement is greatly appreciated! It was a nice salad all right. And really easy to make.
And Jen, glad to know there is another lady out there who can’t do more than one thing at a time
Lola-Lu, I do really love capers. I was just wondering today where in the name of jaypers to they come from though? As soon as I finish this comment I’m going to wiki it. I mean, are they grown in little shells, are they from a vine or tree, or are they as you say, a flower???
Be right back with answer
July 21, 2009 at 6:22 pm
So it is kind of a flower! A shrub really. How interesting!
July 23, 2009 at 8:19 pm
So difficult to shoot anything covered in balsamic. I feel your pain. Yet, it looks delicious to me too. Oh how I love rocket!
July 24, 2009 at 9:52 am
I am with you on hearting capers – and you already know how I feel about spuds :). One of my favourite ways with mash is to add a bit of dijon mustard and throw in some capers and chopped flat leaf parsley, so not a million miles from some of the flavours that you’ve got going on here. Lurvely!
July 27, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Love this, I make something similar, I’ll have to try yours – Thanks!
July 28, 2009 at 10:04 pm
Hey Diva – thanks for the sympathy! That’s a particularly bad pic, I must say. But it was yum. Capers rock the house. Love ‘em!
Spud – gots to get me some of that mash, lady! That sounds great.
Hi Becklund – thanks for stopping by the blog
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