Bloody Mary steak and avocado
The spicy, savoury flavours of a Bloody Mary are pretty special and needn’t be confined to the famous cocktail. I’ve used them here to underpin a piquant, tomatoey dressing that makes a steak and avocado salad particularly tangy and appealing. If your diet is gluten-free, note that Worcestershire sauce may contain some gluten from barley.
Servs 2
Method
First make up the dressing by mixing all the ingredients together in a bowl with a fork or whisk until thoroughly combined. Adjust to your taste with more of any of the above seasonings. You’ll find you can temper the heat by being generous with the lemon.
Halve, stone and peel the avocado, then cut into roughly 3cm chunks. Place in a bowl with the tomatoes and parsley, add about 1 tablespoon of the dressing and mix lightly.
Heat a heavy-based frying pan over a high heat. When hot, grease the pan with a trickle of oil, then add the steak. Do not touch it for 50–60 seconds, then flip it over, lightly season the browned side, cook for another minute or so and flip again. Continue cooking in this way, flipping and seasoning every minute or so. Cooked from room temperature, a 3cm thick steak will be rare after 3–4 minutes total cooking time, medium-rare after 5–6 and medium after 6–8. Transfer the steak to a warmed plate to rest for 3–5 minutes.
Arrange the avocado salad on two plates. Slice the steak thickly and lay the strips over or alongside the salad. Trickle over any meaty juices that have seeped from the steak while it was resting. Spoon over the remaining dressing and serve.
Ingredients
- 1 large, ripe avocado
- 150g cherry tomatoes, quartered
- Leaves from a small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
- A little rapeseed or sunflower oil, for frying
- 1 rump or sirloin steak, 3cm thick (about 300g), ideally at room temperature
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the Bloody Mary dressing
- 50ml tomato juice (home-juiced or from a carton)
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin rapeseed or olive oil
- ¼ teaspoon celery salt
- 5–10 drops of Tabasco sauce, to taste
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- A good squeeze of lemon juice
- Freshly ground black pepper
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