Crying Tiger Grilled Steak with Jaew

Toast Glutinous rice in a dry pan over medium heat, shaking, until the grains smoke, crackle and go deep gold, about 4 min. Tip onto a plate and cool.

⚠ Tip: Keep it moving — scorched rice turns the jaew bitter, and a pale toast gives no aroma.

Grind the cooled Glutinous rice in a spice grinder or pound it to a coarse, sand-textured powder.

Rub the Dried Thai chillies between your palms to shake off loose seeds, keeping just a few. Toast them in the same dry pan over medium heat until they darken and smell smoky, about 1 min 30 sec, then crush them in a mortar to coarse flakes.

⚠ Tip: Open a window. Finger-length dried Thai chillies toasted dry are what make jaew taste like Isan, and they will make you cough.

Crush White peppercorns in a mortar to a coarse crack — you want flecks, not dust.

Smash Garlic flat with the side of a knife and tear it up a little so it releases its juice into the marinade.

Rub Sirloin steak all over with 2 tbsp Oyster sauce, 1 tbsp Thai fish sauce, 1 tsp Palm sugar, the crushed garlic and the cracked pepper. Let it sit at cool room temperature for at least 20 min while you make the jaew — the sugar pulls the marinade in and helps the crust catch on the grill.

Slice Asian red shallots paper-thin.

Slice Spring onions thin on the bias.

Pick the Coriander leaves and keep them whole; mince the tender stems. Pick the Mint leaves too, if using.

In a bowl whisk the juice of 3 Limes with 2 tbsp Thai fish sauce and 1 tsp Palm sugar until the sugar dissolves. Taste: it should hit sour first, then salty, with a sweet hum underneath. Stir in the crushed chilli, half the toasted rice powder, the shallots, spring onion, coriander stems and 15 g Mint. It should look almost like a thin salad — thick, spoonable, glittering with rice powder.

⚠ Tip: Add the rice powder just before serving: it goes gluey and dull after half an hour. Top up with more lime or fish sauce to taste; jaew is never a fixed formula.

Heat a charcoal grill or ridged pan until smoking heat hot. Brush the bars with 1 tbsp Neutral oil. Lay the steak down and don't move it — leave it for 3 min until the crust is dark and it releases by itself, then turn it once and give it another 3 min for medium-rare.

⚠ Tip: Turn it once. Fiddling with a marinated steak over a hot grill just steams it grey. If you like it cooked through, add another 2 min a side.

Get the steak onto a board and let it rest for 10 min — the juices settle and the crust stays crisp.

⚠ Tip: Slicing hot steak off the grill throws the juice onto the board instead of into the meat.

Slice the rested steak against the grain into 0.5 cm thick pieces and spread them on a warm plate.

Spoon the jaew over the steak — let it run into the slices — scatter the remaining toasted rice powder and the coriander leaves on top, and serve straight away with sticky rice. The name comes from a steak so good it makes a tiger cry; eat it before the char goes soft.