Santa Maria Tri-Tip

It's been five years since we first visited the Santa Ynez Valley during that first, fateful trip to southern California. Now the SYV is our second home, our SoCal getaway just as New Yorkers escape to Long Island, the Hudson Valley, the Jersey Shore. The trip itself is soothing. After battling through Hollywood traffic to the 101 freeway, the further north we go, both the traffic and the tension ease.

The drive follows the historic El Camino Real through cinematic vistas that remind us why California has always been a promised land. To the right, green hills roll towards towering mountain ranges crowned with snow and mist, while on the left, the crashing surf of the Pacific Ocean extends to the gray film of the horizon. Beaches fan off of the PCH in the seaside county of Ventura. Hippie vans and dune buggies shudder down winding roads to the sand. Surfers crest Pacific waves during daylight; cluster around bonfires at night. The peaks of mission bell towers, bone white in sun glare against the chili red clay of rooftops, punctuate the route through Santa Barbara. The traffic on the highway thins, and before we know it, we're just about the only vehicle there. And that is how we know that we're well on our way to the SYV. 

The Santa Ynez Valley is an area of Santa Barbara county where sea breeze and soft green hills cushion the small towns of Lompoc, Buellton, Solvang, Los Olivos, Los Alamos and Santa Ynez. The placement of its valleys, canyons and flatlands has made the SYV transitional both geographically and culturally, from the Chumash who are the area's native citizens to the mission settlers and visitors along El Camino Real. The larger Santa Maria Valley enrobes the SYV and its AVAs. Like Santa Ynez, Santa Maria was named for the next mission post along the central trail. It is also the namesake, and the locus, of a true California original: Santa Maria barbecue.

Santa Maria barbecue is the hallmark of the Santa Maria Valley just as surely as Pinot Noir is the hallmark of the SYV. Santa Maria barbecue is a legacy from those mission days, when ranches hosted communal feeds for celebration days from community holidays to family milestones. It is a quintessentially Western dish that appears everywhere from fine dining rooms in Napa and Sonoma to backyards in San Bernardino, but its home is Santa Maria.

Santa Maria barbecue refers to both the preparation method and the cooking method of a tri-tip roast that are specific to the Valley. The tri-tip is the pointy bottom end of the sirloin. To prepare the tri-tip, the cut of beef is rubbed with a dry marinade that, like most regional specialties, has as many definitive versions as there are kitchens professional and home in which it is prepared. The dry rub always contains salt, black pepper, garlic, onion and hot pepper. Some of the rub is set aside for a second bath, after the meat has cured, in California olive oil. The roast is then grilled over red oak chips from that local species, most authentically aboard an iron grate that is raised and lowered over the flames. This process is known as barbucating, which locals believe relates to the term barbeque, though whether in parallel or direct lineage no can prove but everyone is ready to discuss. Roadside signs and menus for Santa Maria tri-tip often refer to the dish as barbucated, but that term and barbecue are used interchangeably.

 

As witness to its rich flavor and intoxicating aroma, the true power of Santa Maria barbecue resides in the gathering of neighbors and travelers while the meal is barbucating. That is one of the great truths of wine country culture. For all that we associate it, rightfully, with marquee restaurants and above-ninety wines, wine country culture is in service to appreciation and to gathering. It is cowboy country after all; the first California winemakers were mavericks. The essence of wine country is shared conversation over a plate of good food and a glass or three of great wine. Maintaining local ways is an expression of civil pride and cultural heritage. It is also a way that members of the community take care of each other.

 

True to the spirit of California cuisine, Santa Maria barbecue showcases California’s profound agricultural contribution by utilizing local bounty. Santa Maria Tri-Tip is served with salsa made from smoked local chiles and alongside tiny pink local pinquinto beans stewed in a spicy tomato sauce. Santa Maria barbecue highlights California produce from garlic to olives to ranch beef to wine grapes, in a meal that is equal parts cowboy cooking and wine country chic. Most of all, it is one hundred percent California cooking, as emblematic of the Golden State as Cioppino, Sourdough, fish tacos, Cobb salad, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon. Here is my preparation for a true California classic: Santa Maria Tri-Tip, including the recipe for the smoked salsa that accompanies the dish. Serve your Santa Maria Tri-Tip in true wine country style by pairing it with a Central Coast Pinot Noir, such as Hartley-Ostini Hitching Post Highliner 2012, Loring Wine Company Gary's Vineyard any year, or Brewer-Clifton St. Rita Hills 2012.

 

Santa Maria Tri-Tip

Ask your butcher for a meaty tri-tip or triangle beef roast with some fat on one side. Outdoor grilling is the preferred method for preparing Santa Maria Tri-Tip, but I have included an oven version. Click here to order Central Coast red oak chips.
 

For the roast

1 2-1/2 - 3 lb. tri-tip beef roast

Extra-virgin olive oil

 

For the rub

2 tablespoons garlic powder

1/2 tablespoon onion powder
1/2 tablespoon nigella (black onion) seeds

1/2 tablespoon dried parsley

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon celery salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon hot paprika

1/4 teaspoon granulated sugar

 

Make the rub

1. Thorough mix all of the dry rub ingredients together in a small bowl. 

Prepare the roast

1. Rinse the roast under cool water. Dry the roast with paper towels.
2. Inspect the roast. Safely use a butcher's knife to carve away tough silvered areas if any.
3. Safely use the knife to score the fat layer into a diamond pattern. Be careful not to cut all the way through the fat to the meat.
4. Unroll a clean piece of waxed paper large enough to accommodate the roast along the countertop.
5. Pour half of the dry rub down the center of the wax paper. Use your fingers to spread the dry rub across the surface of the paper.
6. Gently place the roast on the dry rub, fat side up. Gently roll the roast back and forth on the waxed paper to coat the roast with all of the dry rub.
7. Cover the roast with a clean kitchen towel. Set the roast aside to rest for 20 minutes.
8. Mix the remainder of the spice rub with enough extra virgin olive oil to form a thick but spreadable paste. 

Soak the wood chips

1. Measure 2 cups of wood chips into a bowl if using an outdoor grill; 1 cup if using the oven. Cover the wood chips with clean water and weight the chips with a ceramic plate. Soak the chips 20 - 30 minutes. 

For the outdoor grill

1. Safely prepare a charcoal or gas grill for medium-high heat.
2. While the grill is heating, drain the wood chips.
3. When the grill thermometer reaches 400 degrees, safely add the soaked, drained wood chips to the grill.
4. Brush the grate or a grilling pan with extra virgin olive oil.
5. Carefully place the dry-rubbed roast onto the grilling surface, fat side up.
6. Dome the grill and grill the roast for 10 minutes.
7. After 10 minutes, carefully open/remove the dome and check the roast. The grill-side of the roast should be nicely charred. Carefully turn the roast over so that the fat side is on the grate. Generously brush the roast with the dry rub-olive oil mixture.
8. Grill the roast for 10 minutes, watching for flare-ups.
9. Continue flipping, brushing and grilling the roast at 10 minute intervals, doming the grill as able to safely capture the red oak smoke, until the internal temperature of the thickest end of the roast reaches a minimum of 140 degrees, approximately 35 minutes.
10. Once the roast is cooked through, transfer the roast to a cutting board. Tent the roast with foil and allow the roast to rest 15 minutes. 

For the oven

1. Position an oven rack in the bottom third of the oven and heat the oven to 450 degrees.
2. While the grill is heating, drain the wood chips of all but 1/2 cup water.
3. Pour the wood chips into a large roasting pan and arrange them in a single layer. Carefully add the 1/2 cup soaking water to the pan.
4. Position a meat rack over the chips. Brush the meat rack with extra virgin olive oil.
5. Place a sauté pan large enough to hold the roast on the stovetop. Drizzle the pan with a four count of extra virgin olive oil. Turn the burner to medium-high.
6. Once the oil is shimmering, carefully place the roast fat side up into the pan. Sear the roast on the non-fatty side until nicely charred and very fragrant, approximately 4 minutes.
7. Turn off the burner and safely remove the pan from the fire.
8. Carefully transfer the seared roast to the meat rack, fat side up.
9. Carefully use a silicon spatula to drizzle the roast with the searing oil from the sauté pan.
10. Cover the roasting pan and place in oven.
11. Roast for 15 minutes.
12. After 15 minutes, carefully remove the cover from the roasting pan and check the roast. The seared side of the roast should be nicely charred. Carefully turn the roast over so that the fat side is on the meat rack. Generously brush the roast with some of the dry rub-olive oil mixture.
13. Cover the pan and continue roasting for 15 minutes.
14. Continue flipping, brushing and roasting the roast at 15 minute intervals, until the internal temperature of the thickest end of the roast reaches a minimum of 140 degrees, approximately 45 minutes.
15. Once the roast is cooked through, transfer the roast to a cutting board. Tent the roast with foil and allow the roast to rest 15 minutes.

Carve the roast

1. Once the roast has settled for a minimum of 15 minutes, use a meat fork and butcher's knife to carve the roast across the grain into thick slices. Serve the roast with Smoked Salsa, Tabasco Sauce and Worcestershire Sauce for the table. 

Smoked Salsa

If you don't have gas burners, char the peppers with a kitchen torch or over the fire of an outdoor grill.

 

3 ripe tomatoes

1 bunch Texas onions or scallions

2 ribs celery

1 bunch cilantro

2 medium poblano chiles

4 teaspoons red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon dried oregano

Salt

Black pepper

Cayenne pepper  

1. Rinse the cilantro under cool water and set aside on paper towels to dry.
2. Place a drop of food safe vegetable cleaner in your hands. Gently wash the tomatoes and peppers with vegetable cleaner and set aside on paper towels to dry.
3. Mince the onions and celery to equal 1/2 cup of each. Transfer the onions and celery into a large mixing bowl.
4. Sprinkle the onions and celery with the dried oregano and one pinch each salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper.
5. Safely use a sharp knife to remove the stem from each tomato. Roughly chop the tomatoes into chunks.
6. Transfer the tomatoes to the bowl of a blender or mini kitchen prep.
7. Chop off just the leafy ends of the cilantro about halfway down from top of the bunch. Transfer the cilantro eaves to the bowl of the the blender / mini kitchen prep.
8. Measure the red wine vinegar into the bowl of the blender / mini kitchen prep.
9. Pulse the tomato-cilantro mixture just until the tomatoes are broken down and no large fragments of tomato skin remain.
10. Transfer the tomato-cilantro mixture to the onion-celery mixture. Sprinkle the tomatoes with one pinch each salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper.
11. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
12. Put on a pair of food safe rubber or latex gloves. Safely use a paring knife to remove the cap end of each poblano chile.
13. Working one at a time, spear each chile with a metal skewer or fork. Turn a burner to medium high and hold the chile over the flame. Turn the pepper frequently until the outside skin of the chile chars and the flesh of the chile softens. Repeat with the remaining pepper.
14. Place the charred chiles into a bowl. Use a fork or potato masher to mash the chiles into a pulp.
15. Transfer the pulped chiles and their juices to the salsa mixture. Sprinkle the chiles with a pince of salt. Recover the bowl with the plastic wrap and allow to sit until time to serve.
16. Stir the salsa together just before serving. The salsa should be slightly soupy and very fragrant.