The Best Tri Tip You've Ever Had

I have a link for you today. No pictures, unfortunately, because when I was throwing this together for a weekend dinner party I was hurrying a little too much to photograph the process. And really, this recipe is so simple the pictures would have been a little boring. . . "Here's how you chop a shallot" kind of thing. And you readers are smart enough to figure out how to chop shallots. ;)

I've been served tri tip at least two or three times this summer, and it seemed to be a good option for a barbeque... fairly inexpensive, but almost as nice as a steak. I had never actually made it myself prior to this weekend, however. We were having company for dinner on Saturday night--a couple we had only just met--and I thought tri tip would be a good bet. (We had one in the freezer that I'd been saving and I didn't have time to go grocery shopping.)

Not having any idea how a tri tip should be prepped, I did a google search and came up with this:

Marinated Tri Tip Roast

The resulting tri tip was the best I've ever tasted, and I'm not trying to knock all my friends' tri tip recipes. It was just yummy. The secret was in the reduction I made out of the leftover marinade.

I didn't follow this recipe quite exactly. I threw the marinade together on Friday night and the roast only sat in the frig for 24 hours before we grilled it (rather than the 3 days recommended). I thought this was plenty of time, though the meat probably would have tasted even better if it had marinated longer.

Other changes are as follows:

- I didn't have any onions, so I used two medium sized shallots instead. I love shallots, and they are especially appropriate when properly paired with red meat and red wine. This was a fortuitous substitution--80% of the reduction's deliciousness was attributable to the shallots, I think.

- I did take the time to make my own clarified butter. I was worried that if I didn't, the roast would become a flaming ball of spontaneous combustion as soon as it hit the grill. It was surprisingly easy and quick to do this.

- I didn't have enough steak sauce and I wasn't about to make a special trip to buy more. I used the scant 3 T. I managed to pound out of the bottle I had of organic steak sauce from Trader Joe's.

- I used 1 c. "soyaki" sauce from Trader Joe's instead of traditional teriyaki sauce. Hey, that's what I had on hand.

- I used way too much garlic. Forgive me, I am no good at estimating how many cloves will equal three tablespoons minced, apparently. I probably had more like five tablespoons.

- Finally, we had not a drop of Chianti in the house, so I used this 2007 "Alouette" Cab Franc from Three Fox Vineyards. This winery is literally just a jaunt up the hill from my family's home in Delaplane, Virginia. I picked up this bottle on my last trip and I have to say, it tastes just as delightful here in California as it did there in the tasting room. In fact, we had pretty well drunk the whole bottle a few days earlier, so I only had about 3/4 of a cup left... but I threw it in and it worked beautifully.

The reduction really was the clincher to the whole deal--do NOT, for any reason, decide to skip that part. I set the marinade to simmer as soon as the tri tip went on the grill and it was thick and syrupy just as the tri tip came off. It also filled our house with an amazing aroma, so that when our guests came inside after observing the grilling process in the backyard, their mouths immediately began to water. ;)

Thanks, Wasabi Bratwurst, for the great recipe! Your website is way cool, and I'm adding you to my link list. :)

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I've been reminded, I've been meaning to put in a plug here for Virginia wine. According to Wine Spectator, Virginia is the fastest growing wine production region in the country, and its wines are doing very well in competition these days. I visited four wineries while I was last there and I was pretty impressed. The cab franc mentioned above was probably the best one I bought, but I also had some lovely wines at Naked Mountain Winery and Vintage Ridge Vineyards. Vintage Ridge is an especially fun stop. The tasting fees are a little steeper than elsewhere ($8.00) but they serve generous pours alongside lovely plates of petite appetizers and desserts, all of which bring out different flavors in the wine. In addition, their tasting room is sunny and comfortable; a very pleasant place to sit and relax for 45 minutes or so. I came home with a bottle of their aptly-named 2006 Summer Night, which went perfectly with a warm evening in August and a dinner of spicy pad thai. For those of you lucky, lucky people who live in the Northern Virginia area and happen to like wine, I highly recommend an afternoon field trip out to Rectorstown for a visit. :)