Steak with Asian chimichurri

Traditional chimichurri sauce, originating from Argentina, combines fresh herbs, garlic, chilli flakes, spring onion and citrus into a zesty, fragrant sauce. This cross-cultural adaptation, enriched with Asian herbs and fish sauce, beautifully accompanies Asian-style dishes, especially steak. It can enhance roasted vegetables, sandwiches and eggs, and the flavours taste even better the day after it's made.

Credit: Jiwon Kim

• serves

  4

• prep

  15 minutes

• cook

  5 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

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Ingredients

• 4 thick beef steaks (250 g each, rump, scotch fillet or sirloin)
• 2 tbsp neutral oil (e.g. sunflower or grapeseed), plus extra for greasing
• sea salt flakes and black pepper
• 2 lemons, halved
• chilli flakes, to taste

For the chimichurri

• 1 long green chilli, roughly chopped (deseed if you prefer less heat)
• 30 g roughly chopped eschallot
• 2 garlic cloves, sliced
• 15 g coriander leaves and stalks
• 15 g mint leaves
• 15 g Thai or Italian basil leaves
• 15 g flat-leaf parsley leaves and stalks
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• ¼ tsp caster sugar, plus more to taste
• 8 tbsp neutral oil (e.g. sunflower or grapeseed)
• 1 tbsp lemon juice, to taste
• sea salt flakes, to taste

Resting time: 5 minutes

Instructions

1. Place all the chimichurri ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. Taste and season with extra salt, sugar or lemon juice, if needed.

2. Rub the steaks with oil (about 2 teaspoons per steak) and season generously with salt and pepper. Heat a large heavy-based frying pan or chargrill pan over high heat and lightly grease with oil. Once hot, add the steaks and cook for 2 – 3 minutes per side, or until cooked to your liking.

3. Transfer the steaks to a chopping board and rest for 5 minutes. Slice thinly on an angle against the grain, about ½ cm thick.

4. Brush 1 teaspoon chimichurri onto the cut side of the lemons. Don’t clean the pan or griddle; you want to soak up the steak flavours when you cook the lemons. Return the pan to high heat, then add the lemons, cut-side down. Cook for 2 minutes, then remove from the heat.

5. Transfer the sliced steak to a serving plate. Sprinkle with salt and chilli flakes, to taste. Spoon over the chimichurri sauce and serve with the grilled lemon.

Photography by Jiwon Kim.

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Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.

Stream free On Demand

Steak Out

Watch the full episode here

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Watch the full episode here

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