My brother has a girlfriend that is a vegetarian and we have had some great vegetarian meals at our Sunday gatherings this summer. A couple of weeks ago he came over by himself for the first time in months because he was making the girlfriend a birthday cake. I decided to take the opportunity to cook up a huge slab of meat since a huge slab of meat seems offensive to me when cooking with a vegetarian around. She wouldn’t complain, but it doesn’t seem right.
We cooked up our tri-tip roast and our favorite garlic butter along side. This garlic butter is the perfect accompaniment. I know you are thinking, “steak and butter?” That doesn’t seem so wholesome. It’s true that we are all about cooking wholesome foods for our families, but we also love great food. It’s OK with me to eat a bit of red meat and feast as long as I keep serving sizes under control and make sure to eat a couple of vegetarian meals during the week. As far as the garlic butter, I just think that since my arteries are clogging anyway with the steak, what’s a bit of butter going to add? Plus red meat has iron and iron helps me to be a better distance runner. As a worthwhile aside, when I was running cross country for BYU years ago, we actually held Red Meat Night once a month, a program designed to up our iron counts and, in the process, got many boys to swoon at the thought.
This garlic butter is what you need to cook when you are making your favorite cut of red meat. It melts in your mouth, it makes you feel like you are at a fancy steak house.
When we were living in northern California we learned how to cook two things very well: tri-tip and fajitas. They were the dishes of the neighborhood. We like our tri-tip best with a dry rub even though there are lots of people who like to marinade. The dry rub is simpler and seems to flavor the meat better. Olive oil, salt and pepper work great too. It used to be harder to find this cut of meat that originated in Oakland and was perfected in Santa Maria, California, but I see it all the time at my local grocer and Costco sells a great tri-tip too. The tri-tip roast cuts are usually 3-5 pounds and you can count on about 1/2 pound of meat per adult as far as servings go.
For the garlic butter:
1 large head of garlic
1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Remove all the loose paper skin from the head of garlic. Cut off about 1/2 inch off of the head to expose all the cloves.
Drizzle the olive oil onto the center of about an 8 inch piece of heavy-duty tin foil and put the garlic, open side down, into the olive oil. Now wrap the tinfoil up around the garlic head covering it completely. Grill over medium heat until the cloves are soft, about 30-35 minutes. Remove the head from the grill and let it cool.
When the garlic has cooled enough to handle, squeeze the individual cloves of garlic into a small bowl — they should pop right out. Mash the roasted garlic with the remaining ingredients. (From Weber’s Big Book of Grilling)
To make the tri-tip:
2 tablespoons of your favorite dry-rub (We used our neighbor’s secret blend of seasonings this week. Check out Camille’s rub. When we were in California Cory swore by Pappy’s.)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tri-tip roast, 3-4 pounds
Rub the tri-tip with your dry rub. Let it sit in the refrigerator for a few hours in a Zip-lock bag. Bring the meat out about 30 minutes before you want to grill it so it can come up to room temperature. Drizzle the olive oil over the meat and massage to make sure the meat is evenly covered.
Heat your grill to medium. Place the tri-tip roast on the grill on a 45 degree angle to create grill marks. Grill for 35-45 minutes depending on your desired bloodiness. Ten minutes into grilling, turn the meat a quarter turn. Ten minutes later, flip the roast and cook the other side. Ten minutes after that, turn the meat another quarter turn. It is imperative that you use a meat thermometer when you are cooking this cut of meat. You don’t want to have to cut into the meat and lose all the delicious juices to the fire of the grill. I like mine at 135-140 degrees and I like my meat bloody. Take the roast off of the grill and wrap it in foil. Let the meat rest in the foil for five to ten minutes.
Tell everyone to get their potatoes and vegetables ready — Cory requires that our plates be fully prepped before cutting into the meat. Then cut the meat against the grain in thin, about 1/8 inch, slices. Dip each bite into the garlic butter or drizzle a little over the top of your thinly sliced cuts.
- For the garlic butter:
- 1 large head of garlic
- 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- For Roast:
- 2 tablespoons of your favorite dry-rub (We used our neighbor's secret blend of seasonings this week. Check out Camille's rub. When we were in California Cory swore by Pappy's.)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tri-tip roast, 3-4 pounds
- For Garlic Butter:
- Remove all the loose paper skin from the head of garlic. Cut off about ½ inch off of the head to expose all the cloves.
- Drizzle the olive oil onto the center of about an 8 inch piece of heavy-duty tin foil and put the garlic, open side down, into the olive oil. Now wrap the tinfoil up around the garlic head covering it completely. Grill over medium heat until the cloves are soft, about 30-35 minutes. Remove the head from the grill and let it cool.
- When the garlic has cooled enough to handle, squeeze the individual cloves of garlic into a small bowl -- they should pop right out. Mash the roasted garlic with the remaining ingredients. (From Weber's Big Book of Grilling)
- For Roast:
- Rub the tri-tip with your dry rub. Let it sit in the refrigerator for a few hours in a Zip-lock bag. Bring the meat out about 30 minutes before you want to grill it so it can come up to room temperature. Drizzle the olive oil over the meat and massage to make sure the meat is evenly covered.
- Heat your grill to medium. Place the tri-tip roast on the grill on a 45 degree angle to create grill marks. Grill for 35-45 minutes depending on your desired bloodiness. Ten minutes into grilling, turn the meat a quarter turn. Ten minutes later, flip the roast and cook the other side. Ten minutes after that, turn the meat another quarter turn. It is imperative that you use a meat thermometer when you are cooking this cut of meat. You don't want to have to cut into the meat and lose all the delicious juices to the fire of the grill. I like mine at 135-140 degrees and I like my meat bloody. Take the roast off of the grill and wrap it in foil. Let the meat rest in the foil for five to ten minutes.
