We have rather a lot of beef in our downstairs freezer, thanks to the half a cow we buy every couple of years, so any time the urge for steak strikes we tend to go with it. It’s a wonderful excuse to make chimichurri sauce, a traditional Argentinian concoction of parsley, lemon, hot pepper and olive oil. And as it turns out, it’s even better on roasted mushrooms than it is on beef. A little bit spooned into an omelet was a good move as well. Actually, I’m not sure what it wouldn’t be good on.

We looked through quite a few books looking for different chimichurri recipes. Some use lemon juice, some use vinegar. Some are just parsley, but many add oregano as well. All versions are good – you could basically make up your own depending on the ingredients at hand. We just tried a version out of one of our street food cookbooks, and it turned out spectacular. It was very liquidy, though – not a problem as long as everything on your plate tastes good with chimichurri sauce, because it’s all going to get souped up together. You could probably thicken it up by adding a lot more chopped fresh herb and folding it in at the end.

We’re planning on making this quite a lot this summer, especially once we get the grill out. I’m keen to try chimichurri on grilled eggplant. And lamb. And fish. And, of course, more steak.

Chimichurri

Adapted from Street Food by Tom Kime

• 3 dried red chiles
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/4 cup vinegar
• juice of 2 lemons
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 bunch parsley, roughly chopped
• 1 tsp or so dried oregano (or a small bunch of fresh, if you have it)

Stuff all the ingredients into a small food processor and zizz until it’s the texture you want. You could save out some of the parsley, chop it and stir it in at the end for a different effect.