Auito! Auito! (La Festa al Fresco)
This was the cry from the wonderful Lisa and Ivonne, and so how could I not hearken to their call? They had planned a wonderful outdoor feast and forgotten the food! With the call for help put out to the blogging world, I began to eagerly flip through my cookbooks, looking for a nice, simple recipe that would incorporate some fresh flavours as well as being easy to make. After searching for awhile, I stumbled across a recipe I’d written in one of my notebooks (no idea where from!) that looked like a good starting point!
So here you are girls, I’ve brought my dish to the table for La Festa al Fresco - hope you enjoy it 
Fresh, tangy, sweet and slightly spicy, this dish incorporates some of my favourite flavours
Red Wine Beef and Avocado Salad
Ingredients (to serve 4)
4x 150g thick lean rump steaks
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tsp grated ginger
1/3 cup red wine
3 thai/birds eye chillis, deseeded and finely sliced
1 small onion, either grated or pureed
1 tbsp castor sugar (superfine sugar)
1 large hass avocado, sliced
1 lebanese cucumber, sliced
1 punnet cherry tomatos, halved
1 tsp olive oil
1 1/2 tsp red wine vinegar
1. Marinate steaks with garlic, ginger, sugar, red wine, chilli and onion in refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
2. For the salad, combine avocado, cucumber and tomatoes in a bowl. Add the olive oil and red wine vinegar, then toss lightly to coat.
3. Drain each steak then cook on a hot grill or frying pan till medium-rare inside (unfortunately I slightly overcooked mine, but it still tasted great!)
4. Slice up each steak on an angle, arrange over the salad and enjoy!
A lovely blend of textures and flavours - the soft avocado, juicy tomato and beef, cool crunchiness from the cucumber with a slight tang from the red wine vinegar! This goes down a treat with a glass of red
There’s still time to get a dish together for the party as the deadline isn’t till the 5th September! Check here or here for more details, and I’ll see you at the party 
Technorati Tags: avocado, beef, salad, red wine marinade, la festa al fresco
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Comments
Seriously.. you’ve read my mind. I come home every afternoon to let the kids out and while they are doin’ their business I either make myself a quick lunch to take back to the office or figure out what I can pick up quick on my way back in.. today I decided I wanted to pick up a steak salad somewhere and came to the PC to do a search on local restaurants.. and I saw your e-mail - you made a steak salad!! HA! You rock! I’d like it right now and can not possibly wait until the festa, my friend! Thank you soooooooo much for a beautiful addition to our party table 
It looks beyond yummy! *hugs*
Hi Ellie: I´m also gearing up for the festa al fresco. Re: the chutney , sorry to be unclear, here goes
Th. is short for thermomix, a food processor I use to make the chutney. varoma is one of the buttons.
you don´t have to use it, just put everything in a pot and let it simmer for 90 minutes, stirring every now and then so it doesn´t stick.
I use the Th. because it heats as well as stirs, so I just program it and go away. but it really is a breeze to make without it, you just have to watch it a bit more.
Yet another beef recipe of yours I want to try . . .
Question: What is a lebanese cucumber? I don’t think I’ve seen one before.
Kalyn - It made for a very nice lunch, and even better for me as I’m trying to cut down on my carb intake at the moment
Lisa - You know what they say about great minds You should give this a try if you have a few rump steaks around - you can marinate them, then use one and freeze the rest to use later! This marinade is one of my best, if I do say so myself
Ximena - Ahhh, thanks for the clarification! Can’t wait to see what your dish for the feast will be, and I’ll let you know how my chutney adventures go!
Tanna - Cheers, thanks hon
Bea - Ahh, hopefully you’ll have dinner soon then 
Emily - Hehehe, I’m a bit of a carnivore, aren’t I? As for lebanese cucumbers, it’s a variety of cucumber that’s very common in Australia, they’re a smaller cucumber growing no more than about 15cm in size, they have a thinner skin than other varieties and quite sweet seeds which give the flavour in this variety You could probably use any variety of cucumber so long as it was a young fruit (the older fruits of other varieties that I eat I find are a little on the bitter side)
Ellie,
You shall be sitting right by me for the festa! This way I can eat up as much of your dish without having to share. (Aren’t I a terrible hostess?!)
Lovely dish and I love the combination of meat and avocado. Well done! Thank you for joining us at the festa!
Hi Ivonne - thanks Glad you liked my contribution, thank you for running this lovely event and I can’t wait to see what other lovely dishes our fellow bloggers are bringing to the party!
Jasmine - Let me know when you land, I’ll have it sizzled up by the time you get here
Paz - thanks hon
This looks sooooo good. I love beef and avocado but I rarely have them together unless they are in Mexican food.
Peabody - Thanks hon I actually usually spread avocado on my burger bread before I have a steak sandwich, I think the combination works wonderfully!
Kat - if you can get your hands on some fresh avocado, give it a try I think you’d like it, the marinade is a nice cross of some Asian and Western flavours!
I really like the sound of this recipe. Yum.