In Episode 064 we are making a Red Wine Braised Tri Tip. This is an excellent dinner recipe that takes a little more time, so it is great for a Saturday night entertaining dinner, Sunday Family dinner, a Holiday dinner or a special occasion.
A tri tip is a cut of beef that is quite literally in the shape of a triangle, hence the tri (3) tips. It is commonly grilled or smoked, but also does really well when braised low and slow in the oven. We find it to be similar to pot roast.
Transcript
Click for the full transcript.
Intro: Welcome everybody to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can always get on the table. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich.
Hi everyone. Thank you so much for joining me today. So I am sharing a fancier recipe today. We are going to make a braised tri-tip. This is kind of like a roast, so you might think of it like a pot roast, a chuck roast, roast beef. It’s a recipe that’s going to take a little bit more time. So this maybe isn’t something for a Wednesday night, but it’s great for a Saturday night entertaining dinner, maybe a holiday dinner or a Sunday family dinner, a special occasion. It is delicious. So you’re going to roast the whole entire tri-tip, and actually you’re not roasting it, you’re braising it. Those are two different things. So you’re going to braise the whole tri-tip in a red wine sauce and then it slices into these beautiful tender slices. Then you’re going to reduce down that braising liquid and make the most delicious red wine glaze that gets served over top.
So you can see it’s a little bit fancier than we normally do here, but definitely simple and definitely delicious.
Tips and Tricks: You may be asking yourself, what in the world is a tri-tip? It is a cut of beef that is very specifically in the shape of a triangle, which is how we get the tri-tip. It has three tips that make it in the shape of a triangle. `It is cut from the bottom sirloin, so it’s a leaner cut of beef. But it has a wonderful beef flavor. So think of it like a chuck roast, or maybe even like a brisket, but it’s going to be cheaper than a brisket. So this is also maybe a little bit of a more economical cut. When you’re looking for a tri-tip in the grocery store, you make sure that number one, it has a decent fat cap on one side. What that is, a fat cap is just basically a layer of white fat.
Then when you’re looking at the actual meat side, you want to see that it’s pretty well marbled. Because it is a leaner cut, to have a little bit more marbling of fat throughout the tri-tip is going to be a little bit tastier.
Another little fun thing I talk about with this recipe is we are actually braising, and you may think, okay, braising versus roasting. What’s the difference there? So with this recipe, we’re actually braising the meat. We’re going to brown it at a really high temperature, and then we’re going to cook it in the oven, low and slow with some form of liquid. So with this recipe, we’re using red wine. If you’re roasting, that usually means that you’re just using hot air like in an oven to cook a piece of meat with very little or no liquid. So with this recipe, we’re going to braise it low and slow with that red wine, and it’s going to be super delicious.
As always, when you’re cooking with red wine, I like to use something that I’m also going to drink. This recipe calls for one cup of red wine, so you’re going to have about three quarters of the bottle left that you can drink. So of course I recommend choosing a red wine that I also will drink for dinner. You’re going to use a Malbec, a Cabernet, Shiraz, Zinfandel, Merlot. Something that is pretty hearty, that has a lot of flavor that’s going to stand up to the beef. In my experience, you can get like an eight to $12 bottle and have it just be absolutely fantastic and you’ll enjoy drinking it. It will taste great with your beef. Recently, I think it was Cook’s Country or America’s Test Kitchen. They did a test actually with a cheaper red wine. Then a more expensive red wine and the taste testers couldn’t tell the difference. So you can absolutely use a cheaper wine.
All right. I don’t know that I have a lot of other tips. I think the only other tip that I’m going to talk about and I’ll talk about at the end is how you cut a tri-tip. Because of where it’s cut from, it actually has two different grains. If you’re familiar with cutting beef, you always want to cut against the grain. So when you’re cutting the tri-tip, you actually have to cut in two different directions. So we’ll talk about that at the end.
Braised Tri-Tip Recipe: But for now, let’s get on to actually making the full braised tri-tip recipe. This is going to serve about five people, and you’re going to use a three pound fresh tri-tip that has good marbling and a full fat cap. Some other equipment that you’re definitely going to need is either a roasting pan or a six quart dutch oven, and then some parchment paper.
You’ll start by preheating your oven to 325 degrees. Now, like we talked about before, you’ll look at that fat cap and make sure that there’s no silver skin and that you have a half an inch or a quarter inch of fat cap. If you are finding that your fat cap is larger than that, you may trim off some of that so your dish doesn’t get too greasy.
Then you’re going to take a fork and prick the fat cap down to the meat. Or you can use a sausage pricker if you have that. This will just help the fat render down a little bit more and get a nice crust. Then you generously salt and pepper the tri-tip on both sides. With the salt, I always recommend using a kosher salt, not iodized table salt. You’ll lightly rub that into the meat. Then you’re going to place your dutch oven or roasting pan over medium high heat on the stove and add two tablespoons of oil. So you can use canola oil or you can use olive oil here. Let that oil get nice and hot. Then you’ll place the tri-tip in the pot fat side up in that hot oil and brown the first side. You’re going to want to be patient with this. It’s going to take at least five minutes to brown that first side. Then you’re going to flip it over and brown the other side, which is that fat cap. You want that fat to get nice and rendered down and get a nice little crisp crust on it. So again, five minutes.
You’ll remove that tri-tip now to a separate plate, and we’re going to take that empty pan and we’re going to add a base layer of flavor and braising liquid. So you’ll need one yellow onion that is sliced. Two carrots that are just rough cut into like one inch pieces. Two celery stocks that are also just rough cut into one inch pieces. Three garlic cloves that are either chopped or you can just crush them with the blunt side of a knife, half a teaspoon of kosher salt and a quarter teaspoon of black pepper. None of this needs to be beautiful because you’re not actually serving any of that. This is just to flavor that braising liquid and to flavor the roast while it cooks.
So you’re going to soften that and lightly brown it for about 10 minutes. Now you can add in one tablespoon of tomato paste and just stir that around the pan. Then finally, you’re going to stir in one cup of beef broth and one cup of that red wine that we talked about. This is going to further deglaze the pan, so make sure you take a wooden spoon or a spatula or something and start scraping up any brown bits that are on the bottom of the pan.
Then you’re going to lay in two bay leaves and two to three sprigs each of thyme and rosemary. Now you have your braising liquid all delicious and ready for the tri-tip. So you’re going to take that tri-tip and you’re going to nestle it in fat side up into that braising liquid.
Now what you do, I said that you’re going to need parchment paper. You’re going to take a piece of that parchment paper and just put it directly over the roast. What that’s going to do is help the braising liquid work its magic on the tri-tip. So as that liquid starts to steam up, that parchment paper is going to make that braising liquid come back into the pot and into that tri-tip and just flavor it so beautifully.
So then you’ll cover the pot with your lid. If you’re using a roasting pan and you don’t have a lid, you’ll just cover it tightly with foil. You’ll place it in the oven to braise for two and a half hours. That’s what I talked about at the beginning. This is not like a quick Wednesday dinner. This is a long, low, and slow cook.
So then at the end of that two and a half hours, you’re going to remove the tri-tip from the pot to a separate plate or a wooden cutting board or something. Cover it with foil and just let it rest for about 15 minutes. While that’s resting, you’re going to make that red wine glaze that we talked about at the beginning.
So after you remove that tri-tip from the pot, what you’ll have left is a lot of liquid, the onions, the herbs, all of that. What you’re going to do is place a fine mesh strainer over just a bowl or a large liquid measuring cup, something that will catch the liquid. You’re going to strain those solids from the braising liquid. Keep the braising liquid, and discard the solids. Now you’ll take that sauce pan and put it back over just medium high heat on the stove top. Pour that liquid back and then you’re going to add just a touch, one teaspoon of apple cider vinegar. So that braising liquid has all of the savory and salty and warm flavors. It’s so beautiful and delicious, but usually when you have something that is that deep and savory, you need a high note, and that’s where this apple cider vinegar comes in. So don’t skip that step. Put one teaspoon of apple cider vinegar in there and then let it simmer for about five minutes. When you are simmering it, if any brownish, tannish bubbles, it’s also called scum, which is a terrible word, but if it rises to the top, you can skim that off and discard it.
Okay, so after it simmers for about five minutes, you’re going to make something called a beurre manié. What that means, it basically means needed butter in French, and it’s a liquid thickener. So you’re going to take two tablespoons of softened butter and two tablespoons of all-purpose flour, put them in a little bowl and take a fork and just mash them together until they completely come together. That’s called a beurre manié. What you’re going to do is put that into the braising liquid and whisk it in so that it is completely dissolved into the sauce, and then it thickens. You’re going to absolutely love it. This is a great way to thicken any sauce without using cornstarch and after the sauce is already put together. So once it’s nice and thick, you’ll pull it from the heat. Taste it for seasoning, always. So if you need a little more salt, if you want a little more vinegar, if you want some more herbs, go ahead and add that. At this point, your tri-tip should be nice and cooled and all of the juices have redistributed and it’s perfect and ready to cut.
Like we said before, you have two different directions that your tri-tip fibers are running, so you always cut against the grain. So start at the really skinny tip of the tri-tip, and you’ll just cut perpendicular with that tip. Then as it starts to widen, you’re going to be about three quarters of the way up. You’re going to turn your knife about 45 degrees and then cut across from there. So if this sounds super confusing to you, there is a link to a video of somebody cutting a tri-tip that shows it perfectly. If I can, I will actually link that right in the show notes for you. If not, you can click through to the entire post and you’ll find that link in the post for the recipe.
So once you have it all cut into nice half inch thick to one inch thick slices, then you can pour some of that red wine glaze over top. Then when you serve it at the table, put a little bit extra red wine glaze on the table just like you would a gravy, and people can add a little bit more to their plates.
As far as serving side dishes go with this, I absolutely recommend just classic mash potatoes, they would be perfect. The recipe that I have on my site for Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes or Yukon gold Mashed Potatoes would be wonderful with this. Then you can add a roasted veggie. So roasted asparagus or roasted carrots would be great.
As always, I will link all of these recipes and hopefully that video for you to check out right in the show notes and you can save it, pin it, have it whenever you’re ready to make this for dinner.
I would love to have you all subscribe and follow this show in your preferred podcast player. It’ll just make it easier for you to find all of our future episodes and future delicious recipes right in your podcast feed.
Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier. See ya.
Tips Shared
Choose a tri tip that has nice marbling, since it is a lean cut the marbeling with create more flavor.
Keep the fat cap that is on one side of the tri tip, but remove any silver skin.
Use a wine you will also like to drink because you only use about 1 cup in the recipe and can drink the rest with dinner.
Be patient when you are browning the tri tip, a nice brown crust is just pure flavor development.
Whatever you do make sure you cut the Tri Tip against the grain. A tri tip has two directions of grain. Watch this video to correctly cut the tri tip.
Recipes Mentioned
- Red Wine Braised Tri Tip
- Life Changing Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes
- Amazing Yukon Gold Mashed Potatoes
- Roasted Asparagus
- Roasted Carrots
Equipment Mentioned
Follow Along
Subscribe To Stay Connected!
Sign up for the Mom’s Dinner Newsletter, delivered every Sunday morning, straight to your email inbox. It includes all the new recipes, videos, dinner ideas for the week and fun kitchen tips and tricks.
Comments
No Comments