Spice-Rubbed Flank Steak with Cucumber and Charred Onion Relish

Deep Run Roots

This is a good late summer grilling recipe; everything that needs to be cooked is done right on the grill!

This recipe happens to be one that is available on the preview in google books online: https://books.google.com/books?id=jRTyCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT424&lpg=PT424&dq=spice-rubbed+flank+steak+with+cucumber+charred+onion+relish&source=bl&ots=XA8nmCJHMR&sig=ACfU3U2o79pMTAWN0VeBHnqYgr3aaM3AJA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiklLrO8ezjAhXtc98KHQU7AVcQ6AEwBHoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=spice-rubbed%20flank%20steak%20with%20cucumber%20charred%20onion%20relish&f=false

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:04]: hi and welcome to cooking the books with
[00:07]: Heather today we're going to be making
[00:09]: spice rubbed flank steak with cucumber
[00:12]: and charred onion relish from the deep
[00:15]: run routes cookbook and I'm just going
[00:17]: to get into it today because we've got a
[00:18]: lot to do so what I'm gonna do right now
[00:22]: is I'm gonna show you how she says to
[00:25]: chop the cucumbers I went ahead and
[00:27]: peeled them pretty easy but she says to
[00:33]: slice basically around the edges so you
[00:39]: leave most of the seeds I don't know
[00:43]: exactly how well I'm doing with that
[00:45]: I've never done that before if I usually
[00:47]: usually if I don't want the seeds I
[00:50]: slice them in half and then just scoop
[00:56]: out the seeds with a spoon so we're not
[00:58]: going to use this part right here and
[01:00]: these parts we're going to cut into a
[01:04]: half-inch dice and I'm just going to put
[01:19]: those that I've sliced into this bowl
[01:22]: right here for what we're going to do
[01:25]: with them later so I'm gonna keep going
[01:27]: with all of my cucumbers and get those
[01:30]: done and I'll show you what we do next
[01:35]: okay I'm all done cutting up all of my
[01:38]: cucumbers and now all I have to do is
[01:42]: toss this with some salt so I've got
[01:50]: some salt here and we're gonna toss this
[01:52]: and then we're gonna set this in a
[02:03]: colander to drain for at least 30
[02:08]: minutes so these will give up some of
[02:12]: their water and it'll drain off so I've
[02:14]: got a colander sitting in my safe and
[02:15]: I'm just gonna put that in there the
[02:18]: only other thing I need to do for this
[02:19]: cucumber and charred onion relish is cut
[02:22]: up the red onions peel them and cut them
[02:25]: up into 1/3 now 1/4 inch slices how that
[02:33]: goes and then we're going to do all
[02:35]: those I don't think we're gonna show you
[02:37]: the grilling step but the point is to
[02:43]: keep the slices intact you keep the
[02:51]: slices intact the whole onion slices
[02:56]: intact because it's easier to sort of
[02:58]: manipulate them on the grill that way so
[03:05]: this is a lot like what we did with the
[03:08]: [Music]
[03:10]: the charred squash and onion from pools
[03:17]: diner except slightly thinner slices and
[03:24]: I think that we'll just have to do for
[03:26]: that one
[03:30]: it's fine so we're gonna go ahead and
[03:33]: Grill these because they need to cool
[03:34]: off and then we need to go ahead and
[03:36]: make our relish and it needs to sit for
[03:39]: about two hours so even though we're
[03:40]: grilling our meat later we're gonna go
[03:41]: ahead and Grill these now so we'll be
[03:44]: back like I said I'm not going to show
[03:45]: you the grilling step so we brushed
[03:47]: these with oil and put the rest of the
[03:50]: salt on these and we grill them until
[03:53]: they're nicely charred and limp so
[03:55]: basically you want them pretty much done
[03:56]: so I'll show you what they look like
[03:59]: when we're done
[04:04]: so grilled my onions and took a picture
[04:06]: of those so you should have seen that my
[04:09]: soup zucchini
[04:10]: not zucchini cucumbers have been
[04:14]: basically not really marinating but
[04:19]: salted and draining for quite a while
[04:21]: now and now we're ready to put together
[04:23]: the relish the cucumber and charred
[04:28]: onion relish so I've got some garlic
[04:32]: that was graded on a microplane in this
[04:34]: bowl that I'm gonna put everything in
[04:40]: we're just gonna combine everything into
[04:43]: this bowl so I'm gonna go ahead and put
[04:48]: my cucumber oh um we're gonna put our
[05:15]: onions in here she doesn't say to cut
[05:16]: these up and the pictures look like they
[05:18]: are just like this so we're just gonna
[05:20]: put them in like this it's just gonna be
[05:25]: a small bowl for what we need but
[05:26]: everything else is small so that's
[05:28]: alright we've got oregano all of this
[05:33]: stuff is is minced we've got parsley
[05:37]: which I always choose flat leaf Italian
[05:39]: parsley
[05:40]: we've got mint we've got lemon juice oh
[05:51]: yeah let's go ahead and do let's see
[05:54]: some chili flakes here these are just
[05:59]: red pepper flakes and some sugar and
[06:07]: then we've got some
[06:11]: sherry vinegar and olive oil and that is
[06:17]: it for for this relish we're just going
[06:21]: to mix it all up and hopefully not put
[06:25]: more of it on my countertop when we do
[06:28]: but she does say that you should let
[06:31]: this sit for at least two hours before
[06:35]: you serve it so that is what we're doing
[06:38]: that's why we're going to go ahead and
[06:40]: get this all ready to go for dinner
[06:46]: tonight I'm gonna call that good for now
[06:56]: and I'll probably put this in the
[06:59]: refrigerator I don't remember if she
[07:01]: says that's what you should do or not
[07:04]: but I'm gonna go ahead and do that and
[07:06]: keep it cool and it'll be ready for our
[07:11]: flank steak right later tonight
[07:20]: so we've gone ahead and made our
[07:22]: cucumber relish and now we're gonna put
[07:25]: together the spice rub for our flank
[07:28]: steak and let's see we've got some salt
[07:35]: and some sugar just regular white sugar
[07:47]: [Music]
[07:51]: so we've got paprika this is just plain
[07:54]: and a sweet pepper egg they're not
[07:56]: smoked if you ran out of smoke actually
[07:59]: some paprika some cumin some ground
[08:06]: cumin seed garlic powder granulated
[08:19]: garlic looks like I need to there we go
[08:31]: [Music]
[08:33]: I guess not I thought cayenne was in
[08:37]: this but I guess not and then some
[08:41]: pepper
[08:45]: [Applause]
[08:53]: I think it's worth it to like grind out
[08:57]: your pepper and know exactly how much
[08:59]: like is a teaspoon but I've never
[09:01]: actually done that so we're just gonna
[09:02]: mix this up and this will get put on
[09:08]: onto our flank steaks you want it to be
[09:11]: at least 30 minutes before you cook them
[09:15]: but it could be you could rub them and
[09:19]: then put them in your refrigerator and
[09:21]: leave them overnight and then just take
[09:22]: them out 30 minutes before you cook them
[09:26]: to sort of come a little bit up - it
[09:30]: doesn't really come up to room
[09:31]: temperature but it does sort of take the
[09:33]: chill off so it'll cook a little bit
[09:34]: quicker and a few little balls of
[09:43]: paprika in there but it'll be fine so
[09:47]: that's our rub for our flank steak so we
[09:51]: made our rub and we've got two flank
[09:54]: steaks about a pound and a half each
[09:57]: this should serve six people and we're
[10:00]: going to rub this all of this all over
[10:03]: them so I'm not going to worry about too
[10:06]: much about you know contaminating my
[10:08]: bowl of stuff
[10:15]: I'm just gonna get these rubbed down all
[10:20]: over the place there's a lot of rub here
[10:22]: so I'm not being being pretty generous
[10:32]: [Music]
[10:36]: they are all covered and now I'm gonna
[10:41]: it's gonna be a couple hours at this
[10:44]: point before we cook it so I'm just
[10:46]: gonna put it in the refrigerator and
[10:48]: bring it back out about 30 minutes to an
[10:52]: hour before we cook it so it'll not be
[10:55]: too cold so we'll come back when we're
[10:58]: ready to cook so now we're ready to cook
[11:03]: the flank steak got the grill on really
[11:07]: high I'm going to brush these with
[11:13]: vegetable oil so they don't stick on the
[11:16]: grill and again I poured some out so I
[11:20]: don't really care about
[11:23]: cross-contamination here we're gonna
[11:26]: only do this on the uncooked both of
[11:30]: them all right go ahead and put them on
[11:39]: the grill and we're going to try to cook
[11:44]: at least one of them medium-rare
[11:47]: probably this larger one and then the
[11:50]: smaller one we're gonna try to get a
[11:51]: little bit more done because my
[11:53]: father-in-law is here and he likes his
[11:56]: more towards medium so I brush the other
[12:00]: side with and you let these go for about
[12:07]: three minutes
[12:08]: she says before you turn them over
[12:11]: do that for about three minutes and then
[12:14]: she says to move them to a cooler side
[12:18]: of the grill but as you can see I have a
[12:21]: relatively smaller grill now don't get
[12:24]: me wrong it's a great girl it's a great
[12:28]: grill it um it just gets really good and
[12:32]: hot which is nice really like it is
[12:36]: attached to our smoker but I only have
[12:40]: one side so all I'll view is turn the
[12:44]: heat down and let it cook for about five
[12:47]: minutes five to ten five minutes per
[12:51]: side I think she said I'll check again
[12:53]: afterwards so I'm gonna try to get these
[12:55]: about three minutes and we're probably
[13:00]: faster
[13:05]: it's been three minutes now I'm gonna
[13:20]: take this inside and be back in about
[13:23]: three minutes for the other side to turn
[13:25]: it down it's been another three minutes
[13:27]: I rinsed off my wash off my tongue so
[13:32]: that say to do this but just to be sure
[13:57]: that they cook through and I'm gonna go
[13:60]: get a temperature probe so that I can
[14:03]: check to see that it really does get to
[14:05]: a good temperature so I'm pretty good at
[14:07]: judging if it's sort of medium rare
[14:09]: medium is a little bit we don't
[14:13]: generally cook things medium very much
[14:14]: so just to verify I'm gonna go get a
[14:17]: temperature probe it's been about four
[14:20]: minutes and I felt like it was pretty
[14:22]: good on that side so I'm gonna let it
[14:24]: finish cooking on this side and
[14:27]: wanna check to see where we are I'm
[14:31]: smoking
[14:34]: yeah we're not quite enough to
[14:36]: medium-rare yet on that one
[14:47]: for this one
[14:50]: yeah I think I'm gonna leave the lid off
[14:54]: plan to finish cooking that other have
[14:57]: these little yellow flies that have all
[14:59]: of a sudden decided they'd really like
[15:01]: it here when I'm grilling and I don't
[15:02]: know what's going on with those and they
[15:05]: apparently like my phone too anyway so
[15:10]: we're gonna let this finish cooking
[15:12]: until we get it to our desired
[15:13]: temperature and then once it's to your
[15:16]: desired temperature you'll let it sit
[15:18]: for about ten minutes before you slice
[15:22]: it and then you slice it very thinly
[15:24]: across the grain it's really easy
[15:26]: especially on this other side here to
[15:30]: tell which way the grain runs and I know
[15:33]: that both all of both of them go sort of
[15:35]: this way so you just slice them very
[15:38]: thinly that way and serve spices with
[15:42]: the relish and you'll get pictures of
[15:44]: what it looks like at that point
[15:55]: on this episode of cooking the books
[15:59]: with Heather we made spice rubbed flank
[16:02]: steak with cucumber and charred onion
[16:04]: relish maybe see a picture of that in
[16:09]: the deep run roots cookbook from Vivian
[16:12]: Howard we made it for guests and it was
[16:19]: pretty easy let's see it does require a
[16:26]: few steps like charring the onions and
[16:29]: cutting the cucumber sort of off of
[16:32]: their seeds which is a different method
[16:36]: than I've ever used before and then
[16:39]: salting them and letting them drain so
[16:41]: there's a little bit of thyme there a
[16:43]: little bit of extra time there you make
[16:45]: your your spice rub
[16:50]: bringing the stakes up to temperature
[16:52]: but the stakes themselves cook very
[16:55]: quickly and you can have all of the
[16:57]: cucumber relish done and ready you know
[17:01]: well before that and it will be fine
[17:04]: in fact it lasts in the refrigerator for
[17:07]: quite a while because there's a lot of
[17:08]: vinegar in that it's kind of like a
[17:11]: pickled relish because there is let's
[17:14]: see some some sherry vinegar in it so
[17:16]: you know it it was relatively easy and
[17:20]: you can you could definitely time it to
[17:21]: have guests like we did mine didn't turn
[17:25]: out quite as beautiful beautifully red
[17:28]: inside as that but yeah I didn't require
[17:32]: any extra well I say that it doesn't
[17:36]: require any special tools but you know
[17:38]: you are supposed to cook the steak on a
[17:41]: grill but you could easily do that on a
[17:44]: grill pan or maybe even in a broiler if
[17:47]: you don't have a grill or have access to
[17:49]: a grill so you know I think everybody
[17:52]: could probably make this and it was
[17:54]: relatively easy and my my father-in-law
[17:59]: who does not like cucumbers
[18:01]: still ate the cucumbers so that was good
[18:04]: they were a little bit more like a
[18:05]: pickle which he will eat so so that's
[18:07]: good
[18:09]: however the there's there some red
[18:13]: chilli flakes in it that really did come
[18:15]: through and make it a little bit spicy
[18:16]: so if you don't like spice
[18:18]: I would definitely cut that down if not
[18:24]: completely out but two teaspoons it was
[18:26]: a little spicy so if you can handle a
[18:28]: little bit of heat it was fine but if
[18:31]: you can't handle much at all you know
[18:32]: one teaspoon would probably be good
[18:34]: enough but that's it I think that was a
[18:37]: good recipe and something that we could
[18:39]: we could do relatively easily without
[18:41]: too much advanced warning so I hope you
[18:46]: guys enjoyed this episode of cooking the
[18:48]: books with Heather and please remember
[18:51]: to Like and subscribe if you did and
[18:54]: come back and see another video with us
[18:57]: next week
[18:59]: [Music]