Flat Iron Steaks with Date Infused Barbecue Sauce

A fantastic barbecue recipe featuring a new beef cut - Flat iron steak. The barbecue sauce is made with onion, garlic, tomato ketchup, honey, cayenne pepper, dates and lemon juice.

Prep Time: 10 mins

Cook Time: 50 minutes

Serves: 4 people

Ingredients

  • 4 x 175g lean flat iron steaks

  • For the Date Infused Barbecue Sauce:

  • 4 tablespoons olive or rapeseed oil
  • 1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
  • 4 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
  • 4 tablespoons tomato ketchup
  • 150ml good, hot vegetable stock
  • 1 tablespoons runny honey
  • 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 4 stoned dates, finely chopped
  • Juice of 1 lemon

Method

  1. Heat the oil in a small saucepan and gently cook the onion and garlic for 10 minutes.
  2. Add the ketchup, stock, honey and cayenne pepper. Simmer for 5-8 minutes until thickened.
  3. Add the dates and simmer for a further 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat, add the lemon juice and seasoning, stir gently and set aside. Divide the sauce into two bowls.
  4. Place the flat iron steaks on a chopping board, season and brush on both sides with the contents of one bowl of sauce. Cook on a prepared barbecue or under a preheated moderate grill for 3-4 minutes on each side (medium rare) or 5-7 minutes on each side (for medium). Cover with foil and leave to rest for 5-10 minutes.
  5. Serve the steaks with the fresh sauce and accompaniments.

Tips:

For extra speed make the sauce the day before. Flat iron steak is best when cooked either medium rare or medium. Resting time is crucial If preferred replace the flat iron steaks with sirloin, rump or rib-eye steaks and cook according to you preference using the timings below: (Based on a 2cm thick steak): Rare: 2½ minutes on each side Medium: 4 minutes on each side Well done: 6 minutes on each side.