I went to the butchers this morning to see if anything struck my fancy. The tri tip and the andouille spoke to me and I picked them up.
I was going to go the nice basic salt, pepper, garlic route on the tri tip but I then remembered Adam Perry Lang had a recipe for a honey garlic glazed tri tip in his Serious BBQ book, so i decided to go that route.
I peeled both the tri tips I bought. You can see one is clearly a lot better looking that his brother.
I then made the chili powder paste and seasoning blend.
Flavor Paste -
1/4 mild chile powder
1 tablespoon Worchestershire sauce
1 tablespoon Soy Sauce
1 tablespoon beef base in paste form
Seasoning Blend -
1 tablespoon garlic salt
1 tablespoon lemon pepper
1 tablespoon course ground black pepper
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
I let the tri tips sit and I went to get the kettle fired up. I remembered reading that California Tri-tip is typically done over oak wood fire. So I took some branches that I was seasoning and burned them down over a bed of kbb.
APL does the typical sear then indirect cook, so that is what I did. I threw on a couple chunks of oak onto the coals to give it a little bit more oomph of smoke. During the indirect cook I applied the glaze every 5mins as instructed by APL.
Honey Garlic Glaze
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 cup apple juice
1/2 cup honey
1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
5 garlic cloves (microplane grated)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
I pulled them when the IT reached 135 degrees and let them rest for 20mins. Here is a crappy shot of one. You can see the juices that came out while resting. I definitely used that Au Jus when plating. :loco:
I sliced against the grain at a 45 degree angle and here is another crappy shot of the medium rare tri tip slices, plated with the sauteed onions and grilled zuchinni and squash.
Finishing dressing that goes on the cutting board
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon finely chopped lemon zest
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup chopped chives
sprinkle of Salt (recommend fleur de sel, I used sea salt)
After slicing sprinkle a little bit more finishing salt
The Tri Tip turned out good, but I am on the fence if it was great or not (so probably not great). The sweetness from the glaze just didn't seem right to be on this application of beef. I probably should of throw it directly over the coals at the very end to cook off some of the sweetness. Overall though it was a good dinner, but I probably won't be using that recipe again because I am not a big fan of beef being sweet.
***Editted to include recipes from APL***