South American steak, with all the trimmings

I bought some lovely rump steak at Borough market the other week: it had been hung for 45 days, so it had loads of flavour and was really tender. I marinated it in some olive oil and crushed garlic for a few hours before slapping it onto the griddle.

I served it with some chimichurri sauce, an Argentine relish. I haven't given specific quantities, because it's the kind of thing that needs to be balanced according to your tastes, and it also depends on how many people you're feeding.

To make chimichurri sauce, mix together:

olive oil
lemon juice
fresh parsley, chopped
fresh coriander, chopped
hot red chillies, chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper

I served the steak and chimichurri with some corn on the cob (Mark got some butter mashed up with lime zest to spread on his). I also dished up a salad based on quinoa, a kind of nutty-flavoured grain. In my own mind (but possibly nowhere else), this creates a kind of South American flavour to the meal because I based this salad on something I ate in a restaurant in Chile a few years ago. I've been making variations on the theme of nutty grains, herbs, tomatoes and chillies ever since.

Quinoa salad for 4:

a punnet of cherry tomatoes
olive oil
250g quinoa or pearl barley (I used quinoa this time round, but have used pearl barley with great success in the past)
1 chipotle chilli
1 red onion, halved and sliced finely
a big bunch of fresh coriander, chopped
1 ripe avocado, peeled and sliced
a couple of limes
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 100C. Tip the tomatoes into a roasting tray and sprinkle lightly with olive oil. Roast the tomatoes gently for at least a couple of hours, until they've completely softened and have started to caramelise. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Make up the quinoa or pearl barley acccording to the instructions on the packet and set aside to cool.

Soak the chilli in boiling water for half an hour or so, then chop finely.

Mix the quinoa/barley with the tomatoes, chilli, red onion, coriander and avocado. Drizzle with olive oil and the lime juice (start with the juice of one lime and taste before adding more juice). Season and serve.