Here is my Tri-tip recipe, AKA “Poison Juice”

Tri-tip is a cut from the sirloin on a tasty tasty moo-cow, just above the flank and in front of the round. When trimmed off, it has a triangular shape which is almost certainly the reason for the name. I’ve heard other names for it including “California steak”, probably because of it’s popularization in southern California in the 50’s and 60’s. Generally, the cut is 2-5lbs.

 

My Tri-tip tale begins over 30 years ago in the aforementioned southern California, San Diego specifically. I had a couple of drinking and surfing friends – and we were dirt poor. I mean poor as in I was stretching out food so I wouldn’t run out at the end of the month, or dropping out of college for a semester so I could work extra to save up some money. It was rare we could afford ‘good’ steak, but for some reason, probably being back near the ass and not well known even in So Cal, Tri-tip was relatively cheap. One of my surfing buddies introduced us to it; it was one of our favorite things after a morning session: nap in the late morning in the hammock after going out, start drinking in the early afternoon then throw a big old Tri-tip on the grill. It was a simple preparation – we’d put it in a zip-top bag, added some store bought Eye-Talian dressing and threw it in the fridge. Several times, we’d take our ‘marinading’ Tri-tip bag in a cheap-ass styrofoam cooler with some beer and walk down to Blacks Beach on a Friday night – it was inaccessible by car, so we would park up on the hill at UCSD and walk a closed path/dirt road down to the beach on a Friday or Saturday night, have an evening session, grill up our meat, sleep on the beach and wake up with the dawn for that beautiful glassy water you only get early in the morning before the wind kicks up. I have fond memories associated with Tri-tip.

As those times past and everyone moved on, I didn’t buy much Tri-tip; it was harder to find in the various places I moved to, there was no surfing, and I just let slide. I eventually moved back further west (not California, thank God), and rekindled my love of Tri-tip. I built on the base I remembered and ‘fancied’ it up a bit and ‘perfected’ the recipe, at least to the degree I can perfect something with my limited skills.

Oh, how did the moniker “Poison Juice” come about? That’s much more recent; for my *cough* 50th *cough* birthday, we met the guy who introduced me to Tri-tip along with his wife and a couple of other friends in San Diego for a weekend at the beach and to wander from brew pub to brew pub. One evening, I had the cooking honors and did my ‘perfected’ recipe. Now generally I just use the marinade as a drizzle over meat at serving time. My friend exclaimed “What that hell with that Poison Juice?!? Are you trying to kill us all?” I told his Alton Brown-ass to pipe down, sit down, and eat his fucking dinner. Sadly my plans were all for naught and everyone lived. Foiled again.

This is that ‘final’ recipe. A note on my definition of recipe – generally I don’t measure, things can be added or subtracted to your taste. Recipes are more guidelines to me!

Start chopping some vegetables. I’ll usually include several chilies, whatever looks good. In this instantiation, I used a medium Hatch, a Fresno, and weird little purple Chinese chili from the garden (jalapeno goes very well here). Add a generous portion garlic and some fresh ginger. The Hatch and Fresno are coarsely chopped, the small purple chili, garlic and ginger are very finely chopped. Coarse slice one whole onion. Cilantro is stemmed but not chopped. Obviously this is one place you can deviate by adding, deleting, or changing quantities. Depending, I’ll sometimes add fresh fruit here. My favorite is pomegranate, but I’ve used strawberries and blackberries in the past. None of them looked good or were reasonably priced at the store, so I stuck with the basics.

This Tri-tip was a big one and was a bargain at $4.99/lbs. The local supermarket has sales like this on Tri-tip once or twice a year; invariably they seem to be large cuts with lots fat – I like fat. On my meat.

The ingredient (left) and all chopped up (right)

Next is to prepare the marinade. The base is balsamic vinegar and olive oil. I’ll also usually add some Worcestershire sauce and/or a dash of Vietnamese fish sauce or pickle juice. If I’m feeling sweet and have some good honey, I’ll add a dash of that. As luck would have it, I happened to have a jar of excellent Minnesota honey obtained at some sort of harvest so, for this round of poison juice, the honey went in. So I’ll add the balsamic (maybe 1/2 cup? as I said, I don’t measure…), add the honey and Worcestershire/fish sauce/pickle juice (if using) and whisk to combine, basically until the honey dissolves, and add a generous portion of salt to taste. Now, while whisking continuously, drizzle in the olive oil until the sauce thickens a bit. Taste, adjust seasoning – salt, more balsamic, honey, etc – until you’re happy with the result. Add the finely chopped garlic, chili, and ginger and whisk it all up to combine.

Now put the Tri-tip in a shallow pan add all the plants, and pour the sauce over everything. Rub it all into your meat to make everything is coated. Cover with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for anywhere from 1-8 hours.

Marinade mixed on the right; meat and veggies coated and ready for to soak.

 

When you’re ready,  preheat the grill, all burners going and get setup. Scrap the foliage off before inserting meat.

Put an initial sear on the Tri-tip. I start with the side with less fat down and build up a crust. How long depends on your grill – but I let it get pretty crusty. With one side done, I put it back in the marinade and re-coat the meat, then return to the grill with the fat side down and repeat – keep an eye out here – depending on how much fat your steak has, you might get some flare ups. When you have the fat side well seared, repeat the re-coat and turn off the burners on one side of the grill to set up for indirect heat. Return Tri-tip to the unlit side of the grill, making sure the fat side is up – it will baste the rest of the meat as it renders. At least that’s my theory. Depending on the size and thickness cook under indirect heat for something like 20-30 minutes. When the ‘texture’ seems about right I’ll go to an instant read – aim for about 110 at the very center. You will not cook Tri-tip evenly (unless you sous vide maybe) because the tip will get well done and the central thick part will be pretty raw in the middle if you have a real big one like this. The good thing is, for a big one, we aren’t eating the whole thing, so the more rare parts are ideal for leftovers. You can go to a higher temp if your not saving some or you prefer – spit – medium beef.

Searing side 1 – basting between sears – searing side 2

When you’re happy with your internal temp, remove and baste one more time and wrap for a rest. When the rest is over open carefully and add the juice that has accumulated from the rest back into the sauce. Here’s where the poison juice moniker comes in; I normally don’t reheat the juice, especially if I’m trying to kill my friends. I have started to re-heat – not because of any poison properties, but because I prefer the juice to be slightly warm- it tends to cool off in the dish before serving.

It’s resting – the sauce has been heated, no more poison – a couple of slices.

Slice it up – Best to cut against the grain, but that can be tough with Tri-tip since the muscle fibers tend to run in multiple directions. Put the slices on plate, spoon some veggies and sauce over, garnish with some fresh sliced green onions (and a sprinkle of pomegranate seeds if you’re using them). Serve with a beer or a cocktail of your choice.

Ready for service

Whatever you don’t finish, you put in the fridge and reheat later or use as a base for stir-fry or soup, or whatever.