Barbecued Tri-Tip Roast, Marinaded of Course

My older sister turned me onto the tri-tip roast.  I visited her in Modesto a number of years ago.  We did the weekly Costco run and she picked up this glorious cut of meat.  When she returned home, she sprinkled on a little Montreal Steak Seasoning, fired up the grill and in less than 30 minutes, we had a slab of wonderful beefy goodness.

We'll cook a few roasts up for a large family get-together.  You can fit 3 large roasts on a grill at a time, so we'll flip them on a regular schedule and feed a mob of twenty in a hurry.

The tri-tip comes from the same area of the cow that the sirloin steaks do.  Which means that the meat is rather tender and there's not much of the evil chewy connective tissue.  This combo makes it perfect for grilling.

The great part of this cut is that if you use the meat thermometer as mentioned below, you'll naturally get a little bit of all the doneness levels.  All the center pieces will be a great medium rare, while the outside tip pieces are a little closer to medium well.  That way, if you have a group who like varied degrees of doneness, you'll have a little bit of each for everyone.

This marinade is best if you let the meat soak overnight.  You want to give it as much time as possible to soak in any extra flavor.  If you want to sprinkle on a little Montreal seasoning just before you slap it on the grill, it'll add even more.  But this is a completely optional step.

Barbecued and Marinaded Tri-Tip Roast

One 2-4 pound tri-tip roast

1/4 cup lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
3 cloves garlic, smashed
2 tablespoons dried onions
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon black pepper
1/2 tablespoon thyme

Combine all of the marinade ingredients into a large ziploc bag.  Seal and either shake or squish to combine.  Gently add the roast to the marinade to avoid any accidental marinade splash-back.  Close the bag and shake or squish again to ensure the roast is covered.  Crack open the seal and press any excess air out of the bag.  Then reseal the bag, place the bag inside another bag or plastic container to prevent unintended leaks and let it chill in the fridge for at least 3 hours, 6-8 hours or even overnight is better.

When ready to grill, clean the grill and lubricate the grates with non-stick spray.  Crank your grill up to high and let it heat up with the lid closed for 10 minutes.  Reduce the heat to medium and place the roast (with a digital thermometer probe in it) on the grill.  Close the lid and allow to cook for 6 minutes.  Flip the meat and cook for another 6 minutes.  Continue to flip it every 3 minutes thereafter until the internal temp reaches 140 degrees.  Remove from the heat and cover with tin foil for 10 minutes.  The carryover heat will take it to 145 degrees and the rest will give the juices time to soak back into the meat.  Slice it to whatever size you wish to serve.

So grill up a tri-tip tonight and feed the whole family fast.  By the way, the leftovers make steak sandwiches.

Chicken Fried Steak and Eating at Hole-in-the-walls

You can find some of the best food in the world in the most out of the way places.  Sure, you can fall back on chain food when you're on the road.  I'm guilty of doing it when I used to travel for the old credit union software company.  It's 10:00 at night, you're tired and you don't feel adventurous.  But almost every time I've tried the favorite local fare in a little-hole-in-the-wall restaurant, I've been rewarded.

I tried a little Mexican restaurant in Odessa, TX and found my favorite appetizer of all time, a shrimp stuffed with fresh jalepeno strips and queso blanco, then wrapped in bacon and deep fried...  it's a heart attack waiting to happen but absolutely delicious.  Then there was one of the best burgers and fries I've ever had at the Woodinville Cafe in Woodinville, Washington.  It's just a hole-in-the-wall in a strip mall, extremely easy to drive by, but the fried were cooked to perfection and lightly salted, the burger was seared on the outside and perfectly pink in the interior. 

And then there's Mom's Diner in Salina, Utah.  Located at the southeast corner of the small town major crossroad, it's exactly what you'd except to see when think small-town diner. Nothing frilly or pretentious, all the locals eating a socializing, a pie counter with fresh wares made that morning, etc.  And the portions are large and very delicious.  Last time we were traveling south to meet the family in Koosharem (another story for another time), Liz and I stopped in for a bite.  I had the burger, which was awesome.  But Liz ordered the Chicken Fried Steak.  And it was the perfect piece of Americana.  A round steak pounded flat, breaded and fried in a skillet and doused in a white gravy made from the a bit of the oil from frying the same steak.  The customary mound of mashed potatoes were drenched in the same gravy, rounding out an extremely delicious meal that would sit comfortably in her gut for the remainder of the long car ride.

So I've been trying to replicate that recipe for a while.  The key to a good Chicken Fried Steak is just the right amount and combination of spice.  Too little and your gravy will turn into library paste (which I did on my first attempt).  Too much and it becomes overpowering.  The actual frying of the steak is identical to what we did for our Stuffed Chicken Parmesan.  It's a simple pan fry that lasts long enough to set the coating and cook the steak to a medium state. 

Chicken Fried Steak

Serves 4

4 round or cube steaks
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 1/2 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoons fresh ground pepper
1 teaspoons sage
1/2 teaspoon cayenne powder
1/2 teaspoon paprika
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup oil

Gravy
1 cup milk
1 cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon flour or cornstarch
1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon salt


Place the steaks between two pieces of plastic wrap.  Using a meat tenderizer or any other large blunt instrument, vent the frustrations of the day upon the steaks until they are about 3/8 to 1/2 inches thick.  Pour the flour and all the spices onto a plate and mix.  Mix the eggs and cup of milk in a bowl.  Dredge each steak through the flour mixture and shake off the excess.  Then completely dip in the egg wash.  Dredge it through the flour mixture again and then let rest on a cooling rack for five minutes.

In a large skillet, heat the oil up to around 330 degrees and cook the steaks for 3-4 minutes on each side or until it's golden brown.  Remove to the cooling rack when you're done.  When the frying is done, pour out all but about 2-3 tablespoons of oil out of the pan.  Return the pan the heat and add the milk to de-glaze all of the little bits off the bottom of the pan.  Add the flour or cornstarch and whisk thoroughly to prevent lumps. Add the spices and cook for 5-10 until it thickens.  Pour liberally over the steak and some mashed potatoes as a side.

So make these steaks for dinner and let it settle in your gut in a very satisfying way for a long night's sleep.

Great Seared Ribeye, New York or Filet Mignon Steaks in the Dead of Winter

This time of year, the opportunities to grill out in the backyard are few and far-between.  But you can still crave a great steak.  One where the exterior is seared just right so that small amount of crust is formed.  Yet the interior is still perfectly medium rare.  Something like the ones you would pay at least $30 for in a high-level steakhouse.  The problem is that right after Christmas, very few of us have the available funds for an expensive meal.  So how can we get the same great steak at home for a quarter of the price?

Well, you can shop some of the ads for a great deal on steaks.  You can find New York or ribeye cuts for around $5.99 a pound at all sorts of places.  And if you don't mind doing a little cutting, you can get three or four pounds worth of tenderloin, which is where you get filet mignon, for $6.00 a pound at WinCo.  All of these cuts are nice and tender, as they come from along the back of the cow, the most tender area.  Do not gnaw on the back of a live cow to test this, the consequences are dire, trust me.

The rule of tenderness is that the meat is softer the further away you get from the ground.  The more the muscle has to work, the stronger it is and the tougher it gets.  That's why the flank and strip steaks, taken from the belly of the cow, is extremely tough and usually needs to be cooked long and slow,  possibly even marinated for a period of time.

And since these prime steaks are on the opposite side of the cow, it would make sense that we'd need to cook them completely differently.  You want to apply high heat for a short period of time.  In the steak houses, they do a really quick sear over extremely high heat to create that exterior crust.  And during the summer, you could possibly create that level of hellfire over your barbecue grill.  Problem is that when there's a few feet of snow outside and it's below 20 degrees outside, it's a little difficult to do.

So to create that crust, we're going to do a couple of things.  First, we're going to salt and pepper the meat and let it sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes.  The salt on the surface of the meat will pull a little bit of the moisture to the surface of the meat, which will in turn bring some of the animal proteins as well, and that it what will crust over when we cook it hot and fast.  I'd recommend not spicing it more than just the salt and pepper.  Reason being is that most other spices will burn to embers under the extreme temperature we're going to use.  You don't have to worry about salt and pepper because pepper is extremely hardy and salt, well, is a rock and rocks don't burn.

Second, we're going to drop them in a hot pan over high heat with a little bit of oil in it.  The direct contact to the pan and hot oil will heat the surface of the meat quickly and get that delicious crusty feel.  Now this will cook the outside, but it leaves the interior almost uncooked.

To complete the cooking process, we're going to toss them a low heat oven.  This will help maintain the heat on the outside, but the radiant heat from the oven will push just enough heat from the searing into the meat slowly, finishing it off to a perfect medium rare.

And the best part is that while you're waiting for them to finish, you have a little extra time to prep your sides, set the table, light the candles, etc.

Seared New York, Ribeye, or Filet Mignon Steaks

As many steaks as you have guests
Salt (freshly ground sea salt is best, but any will do)
Freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons of canola oil

Thirty minutes before cooking the steaks, remove them from the fridge.  Sprinkle the salt and pepper over the steaks and allow them to rest on the counter so they come up to room temperature

Place a large skillet over high heat.  Preheat your oven to 275 degrees.  Once the pan is heated, add the oil to the pan and whirl it around.  Within 10-30 seconds, the oil will be fully heated (if you start seeing smoke, immediately move onto the next step). Lay the steaks in the pan, watching out for bubbling oil.  Allow them to sear for about 3-4 minutes.  Flip them once and sear for another 3-4 minutes.

Once the sear is over, transfer the steaks to an oven safe pan and place them into the oven for 8-10 minutes.        Then remove from the oven and allow them to rest for 5 minutes before serving.

So try making one of these steaks instead of spending $100 at a steakhouse. It'll be just a good, and you'll have enough money leftover to eat for the rest of the week.

Beef and Vegetable Soup

During the wintertime, my mom would make this beef vegetable soup in the crock pot.  It's the perfect simple dinner for a weekend.  She'd prep the entire soup before we'd start cleaning on Saturday mornings or before going to church on Sunday.  By the time we got home, the smell would permeate the house.  And after cooking for hours, the beef would be tender and the potatoes and carrots would almost fall apart.

It's a tomato and beef broth base with just a few spices and stocked with different vegetables.  And the best part is how easy it is.  After cutting up the veggies, you dump all the ingredients into a crock pot and let it do the work for you.

What you put in this is completely up to you.  The recipe below is what I used for the picture above, but you can add any type of vegetable you'd like.  I've added 1 cup of fresh mushrooms, or 1 cup of zucchini medallions, or even 1 cup of cauliflour broken into small pieces.  All of them bring different flavors and I've yet to find a combination I don't like.

I'd recommend that you cook a batch of rolls just before you're ready to serve.  Not only will it go well with the soup, but you can use it to sop up any excess liquid when you're done.

Beef Vegetable Soup

Serves 6-8

2 pounds pounds stew meat
3 cups diced potatoes
2 cups of carrots, cut into mini-bite size pieces
3 stalks of celery, sliced into small half-moons
1 small onion, sliced into half-moons
48 oz stewed tomatoes
48 ounces low sodium beef broth (three cans)
2 teaspoons thyme
1/2 teaspoon sage
12 peppercorns
2 bay leaves

Add the meat and all of the vegetables into the crock pot.  You can brown the meat in a skillet over high heat if you want to get a crusty sear on the beef, but it's not mandatory. Next, add all of the vegetables. Pour the stewed tomatoes and beef broth over everything and stir.  Add the thyme, peppercorns and bay leaves and crank the crock pot up to low.  Cook for 6+ hours in the crock pot on high, so the smell resonates in the air.

Remove the bay leaves before eating and watch out for the peppercorns.  If you bite into them, they'll be really spicy.  Server hot and with some sort of bread or roll.

So make it easy on yourself and serve up a batch of this really great soup this weekend.