My mom has spent quite a few years in South America, doing administrative work for a group of bible translation experts. So, lately she’s just back from Peru, and I wished she would have been able to send me some Peruvian recipes, or cookbooks, or secret ingredients. Maybe she forgot.

SueZ, who is actually my sister, went to visit Mom in Lima, but I don’t think she ate steak in Peru. It didn’t sound like it. It sounded like she and her travelling friend were more concerned with getting a beer. I’ll give her the chance to explain, and maybe she did eat steak. Who knows?

So anyway, with Mom away in Peru, my tastes started to wonder what does steak taste like in Peru? I watched Bourdain eat guinea pigs, tried searching Amazon for cookbooks, and just sort of wandered around the internet trying to put together something.

There’s tons of Argentina info. But Peru is kind of the undiscovered country of cuisine. I’m betting it won’t be for long.

I predict: Peruvian is the new Spanish.

Anyway, this is supposed to have a recipe…

I found something half okay out of an old Gourmet magazine: Peruvian-Style Beef Kebabs, and I’m looking at the 09/06 Bon Appetit which has a Grilled Steak with Fresh Garden Herbs and I think I’ve got it figured out.

I did an Argentine thing at the beginning of the summer, which was a Flat-Iron and Chimichurri.

So here we go.

I’m going to marinate the 1-plus lb. flat iron for just 1/2 hour, in a vinaigrette of:

• the juice of one lime
• a few chugs of soy sauce
• a big pinch of banged up cumin seed
• a fist-ful of chopped cilantro
• red pepper flakes or hot chillis crushed
• enough olive oil to make it into more than enough marinade

Smear that all over the steak, and then roll it up in wax paper or a freezer bag or something and let it sit around while you prepare the grill.

Meanwhile, get some more herbs, green leafy ones, more cilantro, some thyme, some basil, some parsley, a couple more fistfulls, and chop them up into the remaining marinade. Chop in some shallots, or really mild red onion. This is your salsa.

Grill the steak rather quickly so it gets a good char on the edges but stays pink in the middle. Let it rest for five minutes after grilling, and garnish with the Peruvian salsa.

Perfect. Basic. Easy. You probably want more marinade than I’ve specified. More lime. Play with the amounts, cause it’s a marinade and then a salsa, just keep adding herbs and lime and oil and soy sauce until you like it.

Since you’ve got the grill going, you could throw some grilled red onions on the side, maybe some kind of summer squash splashed with the same marinade. It probably should be served with rice, but I’m doing it on a weeknight so it’s all on the grill instead.

I’m not sure how Peruvian it really is, but what the hell? I love it.