STEAK WITH BABA GHANOUSH

My husband Pascal loves a steak but he always likes it plain whereas I love a bit of sauce or something on the side. My ideal is steak with a blue cheese crust or sauce - I so need to make that some day. Anyway I had ripped this recipe out of delicious magazine last year and when I suggested it to Pascal he wasnt particularly impressed but I thought, tough bananas, I am going to cook it anyway!

Here is the recipe for 2 people - it took about 35-40 minutes.

Ingredients for 2 people:

2 sirloin steaks

2 pita or flat breads

2 large aubergines

1.5 tbsp tahini

2 garlic cloves crushed

Juice of half a lemon

Some green leaves

Start by making the baba ghanoush. You can do this the day before if you fancy - just keep it in the fridge until you are ready to eat.

Push a couple of metal or wooden skewers / sticks into the aubergines length ways. Put over the barbecue for 25-30 minutes turning occasionally until charred all over.

When cool enough to handle, peel the skin off with your fingers. We were impatient and hungry and so ran them under cold water to cool them down. After removing the skin (we used a knife when it was tricky), roughly chop or pull apart the aubergines into a bowl with the tahini and garlic cloves. Then squeeze in the lemon.

Mix all together and season well.

Barbecue your steak according to taste - about 2 minutes for Pascal and about 5 minutes for me! Then serve with a toasted pita bread, your baba ghanoush and some green leaves.

Like Pascal, I was a little dubious about this - I thought maybe this meal might be missing something….like cheese! However it was actually really good - the baba ghanoush was delicious and it all went together perfectly. The aubergines were a bit fiddly to peel and cut - just make sure you char grill them enough and leave them to cool so you can handle them easily. If you dont have tahini, you can substitute it for a slug of olive oil. 

We had some leftover baba ghanoush so I had it the next day with some tabbouleh and feta - it worked really well then too and I think it would be fab with some lamb. A recipe that keeps on giving ;-)

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STEAK AND BLUE CHEESE SALAD

Sorry for the silence however my daughter is away with her father and my husband has been in France and so I have been home alone. Despite the fact I LOVE food, cooking for one is hard - firstly because I become so unmotivated and secondly most recipes are for 4 people which means you end up with tonnes of leftovers. Although I did make my quick pita pizzas one night and they were very good.

Anyway Pascal is now back and so it is time to cook again. As it was super hot today we wanted a barbecue but we also wanted something quite light so this recipe card from Waitrose was the perfect option. It took about 20 minutes in total.

Ingredients for 2 people:

Around 350-400g beef sirloin steak
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
75g Roquefort 
5tbsp soured cream
100g fine green beans, chopped into bite size pieces 
4 thick slices of mixed olive ciabatta
1 tbsp olive oil
1 sweet Dolce Verde Romaine lettuce, roughly torn (you could use iceberg if easier)
2 tbsp snipped chives

Crush the garlic cloves and rub one on to each steak.

Roughly mash the Roquefort in a bowl and then stir in the sour cream. Place in the fridge until ready to serve.

Boil the beans for 3 minutes (or according to the packets instructions).

Drain and cool (I rinsed them under cold water). Cut into bite size pieces.

Brush the bread with oil.

Cook the bread and steaks on a barbecue or in a griddle pan for a couple of minutes on each side (you may want to cook the steak longer if you prefer it more well done).

Place the lettuce and green beans in a large serving bowl.

Slice or cube the steak and add to the salad.

Tear or cut the toasted bread into pieces and add to the salad.

Add the blue cheese dressing and mix well.

Serve with a sprinkling of chives.

Wow this was really good! I am a big fan of the steak and blue cheese salad at Sophies Steakhouse in Chelsea but this was even better. Very simple but full of flavour. I never realised it was so easy to make blue cheese dressing - I will definitely be making this again and / or variations of this salad starting with an iceberg wedge with blue cheese and bacon - another favourite of mine!

You can enhance this recipe by marinating the steak in a couple of tablespoons of Jack Daniels whiskey for a few hours or even overnight.

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