Some Game Day Tri-Tip

It's Super Bowl Sunday. I only state that because most of you will know what day it is, not because it has any bearing on anything. We didn't host a bowl game, we didn't go to a bowl game - heck - we didn't even watch the game!

But we did have two tri-tips in the refrigerator, and this was the day to cook them up.
Early in the day I skinned about 6 cloves of garlic, and cut them into somewhat uniform sizes. I then cut slits into the tri-tips and pushed a piece of garlic into each cut. Haven't done this since college.

I then liberally covered each piece with Santa Maria Style seasoning from Susie Q's. This is the brand we learned about in San Luis Obispo during college - where we also learned about the Tri-tip. Back in those days not many folks outside of the Central Coast knew about Tri-tip. After covering them I put each into a plastic ziplock bag and back into the refrigerator.

Hours later just as the sun was setting I pulled them out to toss on the grill. Opened up a bag - oh ya, that smelled good!

I'm not sure how the timing was during the game, but mine was cutting it close... Ran out of gas just as the larger cut was done. Perfect!

We had it with a nice side salad with fig & walnut dressing. Tasty.

We did decide that next time we put garlic in we are going to use roasted garlic. The raw garlic doesn't get cooked enough and is too strong. Nice flavor, but could use a little calming.

If you haven't tried it before, do get the Santa Maria Style seasoning. And do let it sit on the meat for 6+ hours - it gives it a great flavor!

Bacon Jam Burgers

So you know we made up this recipe from the show FoodCrafters on the Cooking Channel.

• Just over 1 pound Bacon (cut up – about finger width)
• 1 Large Onion (sent through food processor – about 3/8’s pound)
• 1 T Brown Sugar (Packed)
• 1/2 Cup Balsamic Vinegar
• 1 T Jen’s Secret Sauce (sorry, can’t tell you what this is… – but it adds sweetness)

Cook bacon in large cast iron pan over medium- to high-heat. Cook till bacon starts to leak bacon juices.

While that is happening, cut up onion in food processor. Cut that puppy up good.

Add to pan with bacon. Cook for approx 2 minutes (until onion is translucent).

Add Brown Sugar, cook about 2 minutes.

Add Balsamic, cook till done. Done being when the grease has separated from the bacon. Cook till you feel it is done for your taste.

Pour off majority of the fat.

Add it all to the food processor and grind it up – not too fine, you want it to have some small chunks in it.

         

Spread on burger and enjoy!

The first time we made this we took a few bites, then went back and doubled the serving of the bacon jam – so be liberal with it. We also used Havarti cheese instead of Cheddar. Good stuff!

We also felt like we need to add more bacon. So next time we are going to up the amount of bacon and onions and see how that changes things. Will report back here on how that goes.

Tri-Tip on the Grill with Favorite Marinade from Our College Days

We happened upon some trimmed Tri-Tip at the local store, and Jen has been craving it since we had a tritip sandwich at the local Major Market (they do some food vending at the lunch hours in the parking lot). Package was about 4.3 pounds, two pieces, highly trimmed.

Back in the old college days at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (around 1989-1995) we learned about Tri-Tip and Santa Maria BBQ and all the fun foods of the CA Central Coast. There a Tri-Tip is a big ole hunk of beef, about 10 pounds or so – with a big fat cap on on side. None of this trimmed up city stuff. =)

Our favorite way to prep the meat back in the day was to skin about 5 whole garlic gloves, cut small slices into the meat, and stuff them down in there. Then we would take a dry mix of Italian salad dressing mix, make it up without the water & about double the liquids (no fancy measuring cups needed). Then add a generous helping of soy sauce. Put this all in a tupperware container, and let sit in the refrigerator till the party/weekend/dinner. We also liked to poke the meat multiple times with a fork to create little passageways for the marinade to work in. Be sure to turn it each day as it won’t be fully covered in the marinade.

Back in the Cal Poly days we always cooked on a grill with charcoal – hopefully on a Weber kettle, but not always. Don’t put it directly over the coals. Most of the time cooking these big boys is with the fat down – which works well to protect the meet from the heat and help keep the meat moist.

Fast forward to 2010, the gas grill on the porch and the highly trimmed Tri-Tips. Same marinade, minus the garlic cloves. I know, what was I thinking…?? I also did not puncture the meat with a fork. We were going to cook this on Friday night, but ended up staying in San Diego for dinner and some family time. Oh darn, that meant the meat would just have to marinade another day. =)

We are about to move, so spent a hot day Saturday cleaning out the garage, dropping E-Waste at a local collection event (Thanks! didn’t know how I was going to get rid of that old washing machine!). Finally got rid of two old Macintosh computers from our college days – after I pulled the hard drives out.

So we were pretty burnt out by the end of the day. I picked up some loaf bread on my way home from the e-waste event for the planned Tri-Tip sandwiches for dinner.

Cooked them close to the flame, but not directly over it. Well, maybe a little over it to sear a bit and get some color, but mostly no. Flipped about 6 times, cooked for about 40 minutes. Jen decided it smelled too good and that she just wanted a hunk of beef – so sandwiches Sunday!

Oh ya, it was good (sorry, no pictures – out of practice). Tender, tasty. Would have been even better with the meat punctured – the outside is the best.

Jen requested that next time I cut the pieces up a bit so that there is more “outside” to hold the marinade and all its tasty goodness. For her I will try it, may not be as tender though…

All in all a very successful Tri-Tip cook. Good memories from college (that’s where Jen and I met). Leftovers for the week. Plans for doing it again soon (house warming party perhaps??).

Jen’s Sandwich

Tim’s Sandwich

Happy grilling!

Hard to go wrong with a Ribeye on the grill

We usually get the nice, big, think ribeyes at Costco - and have always really enjoyed them. But, we weren't going to Costco and we wanted beef, and these ribeye's at the grocery looked pretty good. So...

Some kosher salt, a little pepper...

Put some oak chips on the grill and...

Time for dinner!

As you would expect from ribeye's - nice and juicy and flavorful!

This is our favorite cut of meat to grill. But I have to say, we did a porterhouse recently (really recently - just the day before these!) that was fantastic!

It has been a good week, with a lot of beef on the grill. Need to get the smoker fired up though!

Porterhouse over Flame

Well, the smoker has been way too underused. Heck, I haven't even used the new (used) one I got. Once we are back from vacation that has to change.

But until then we are making good use of the gas grill. That lamb was different and very good. Also been doing a lot of burgers for lunch mostly. Mixing in some pork. Salt and pepper for the wife - I've been mixing in some D-Dog's in a few of mine. Twice we even mixed in some other goodies for gourmet burgers. Oh ya - and some ribeye's too.

But today was the day for the porterhouse! We splurged on a really nice cut from a local store called Major Market. It's a little higher end on the grocery store scale, and they have a nice meat counter.

Salted. A little pepper.

On the grill. A few oak chips as well.

Just pulled from the grill.

Juicy. Tasty. Very nice...

This is worth a little extra cost. OK, so not for every weekend. But definitely something to remember for those nice events or a special weekend.

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Can a Hamburger be Gourmet?

Why not? You see enough of them in restaurants for $10 or more!

My wife read an article in a food magazine that had a fancy recipe for hamburger patties - we took parts of that and modified a little.

 

We minced sweet onions, mushrooms and yes, even carrot.

The original recipe calls for roasted garlic too - that sounds fantastic, but we didn't get that far. Although, the first time we made these I did add crushed garlic, and that was a nice touch.

 

Tossed these on the hot grill and cooked through to just passed FDA recommended internal temperature of 160 degrees.

 

Toasted up wheat buns on the grill.

Add some fresh cut cheddar to melt, add your favorite toppings...YUM

 

This is the way to have a burger. Just a little extra work, but worth it.

Grillin' Some Lamb

We got a lamb shoulder chop (0.6 lbs) to bring out to my dad's for Father's Day to grill up - give him something special while the rest of us ate burgers and hotdog's. Well, it was a good plan, but we left the darn thing in the fridge at home!

So I finally got around to it tonight. Wasn't sure what to do, so I popped onto the BBQ Brethren site and did a search on "lamb" - found a lead on the second post I checked. Olive Oil, Garlic, Salt, Pepper and Rosemary - I can do that...well, almost. I didn't have fresh rosemary and didn't want to dig out the spices box - so grabbed some spices we got recently from Penzeys Spices. I decided on the Turkish Oregano in place of the rosemary.

Rubbed it up and popped it back in the fridge for a bit. Fired up the grill to pre-heat. Got it up to 300 degrees (F) and dropped some dry oak chips on the grill above the two outside burners.

Dropped the lamb on while all three burners were at full to sear it up. 30 seconds, turn 90 degrees, 30 seconds, flip, 30 seconds turn again, 30 more seconds and turned the middle burner (where the meat is) off to cook the rest of the way by indirect heat.

 

On a side note - we are going on an Alaska cruise in a few weeks, so we splurged a bit more than normal and got me a new digital camera. This was my first time grilling/BBQing with the new camera, so I took a few shots. Tons of features and settings to figure out!

 

Also had some help from Baron Herzog (2004 Central Coast Cabernet Sauvignon). Not bad. First time trying this vineyard. I drank a lot of it, so it must be OK!

Gave Jen a small bite. She proclaimed that we would be getting some lamb on the cruise ship - so I'd say it was a success.  =)

Man, was this meat tender! This was my first time cooking lamb by any method. It was better after a little more salt at the table - but other than that - I would certainly grill lamb again.