When I wrote my Blue Food entry, I was reminded of this dish, and after a few experiments I came up with the following. If you like your steak well done then you are a philistine and should stay well clear of this recipe.

Ingredients - enough for one person, after trimming the steak

• 8 oz rump or fillet steak
• 4 tbsp soy sauce
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• Juice and zest of 1 lime
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp black peppercorns
• 1 tsp szechuan pepper
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• 1 small shallot, finely chopped
• Salt

Method

1. Remove all fat and sinew from the steak. It really improves the flavour if the meat is well trimmed.
2. Put the soy sauce, oil, lime zest and juice, garlic and shallots in a wide but shallow bowl. Crush the spices briefly, certainly not excessively, in a pestle and mortar. Add the spices to the bowl and season with a little salt.
3. Leave the steak in the bowl of marinade for about 6 hours. This is the optimum time, but if you like the flavour, by all means leave it overnight.
4. Heat a lightly-oiled griddle pan until it is smoking hot¹. Griddle the steaks for 1 minute ONLY on each side. If you are using a thick steak, briefly press the sides to the griddle to sear them also. Leave to rest for a minute before serving.
5. As the name promises, the steak should be blackened on the outside, but still almost raw (bleu if you're French) in the middle.
6. This can be served in a number of ways. I quite like it as a steak sandwich between two thick slices of white bread, with mayonnaise. It would work well as a starter for two, sliced very thinly over a leafy salad. Most traditionally, drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil and serve with thick chips which will soak up the juices.

Back to my recipe book.