Sliced Tri-Tip with Mash and a Well of Gravy
current situation: leftovers
I called this leftovers. It is a better plate than most restaurants will put in front of you, and that is the whole point of cooking a tri-tip in the first place — it is as good cold on Tuesday as it was hot on Sunday.
Tri-tip has to be cut right or it is a waste of money. The grain changes direction halfway along the roast, which almost nobody is told. Cut the whole thing in half where the grain turns, then slice each half across its own grain. Do it in one straight line from end to end and half your slices are chewy.
The mash is pushed into a ring with a hollow in the middle so the gravy has somewhere to sit. It looks deliberate because it is — gravy that runs across a plate ends up under the beef making it soggy.
- Feeds
- 4
- Hands-on
- 40 minutes
- Roast
- 45 minutes
- Best
- The next day
What you need
The tri-tip
- 1 tri-tip roast, 2 1/2–3 lb, fat cap left on
- 1 tbsp coarse kosher salt
- 1 tbsp coarse cracked black pepper
- 2 tsp granulated garlic
- 1 tbsp beef tallow
The mash
- 2 1/2 lb Yukon Gold potatoes
- 1 stick butter, cold, cut up
- 2/3 cup whole milk, warmed
- Salt and black pepper
The gravy
- 3 tbsp butter or beef fat
- 3 tbsp flour
- 2 1/2 cups beef stock
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- Black pepper
How it goes
1 — Salt the roast the night before
Salt, pepper and garlic all over, uncovered on a rack in the fridge. The surface dries and that is what gives you the dark edge on every slice.
2 — Sear it first, then roast it low
Tallow in a smoking cast-iron pan, fat cap down, four minutes, then every other face for two. Into a 275°F oven until it reads 128°F in the thickest part — about thirty-five minutes for a three-pounder.
3 — Rest twenty minutes, minimum
Tri-tip is lean and it will run everywhere if you cut it early. Twenty minutes under loose foil. Longer is fine; this is a cut that eats well at room temperature.
4 — Find where the grain turns
Look at the top of the roast and you will see the lines change direction near the middle. Cut it in two at that point. Now each piece has one grain running one way.
5 — Slice each half across its own grain, thick
Half-inch slices, cut at an angle. Thick, not thin — this is not a sandwich, and a thick slice of rare tri-tip is tender while a thin one dries out on the plate.
6 — Mash it rough, with cold butter first
Potatoes started in cold salted water, boiled, drained, dried in the hot pan. Cold butter mashed in, warm milk after. Stop while it still has texture.
7 — Gravy in the roasting pan
Butter and flour cooked together two minutes in the pan the beef seared in, stock whisked in a splash at a time, soy and Worcestershire, simmered to a coat. Everything stuck to that pan is the flavour.
pro tip — Two full minutes on the roux. Flour that has not cooked tastes like paste and no amount of stock hides it.
8 — Build the well
Mash into a mound and pressed out into a ring with the back of a spoon, gravy poured into the hollow, beef fanned alongside with the dark edges facing up.
Leftovers. Should have made two. LFG.