Category: Recipes

Triple-cooked Tri-tip

I know what you’re thinking; tri-tip is a tender cut, and this is going to overcook it.  But no, this will produce some a nicely tender steak and on most flavorful you’re ever going to taste.

Plus, while this requires a pellet-grill or similar smoker, it’s dead easy; it takes a lot of time sitting on its own, but very little time to cook.

Steps:

  1. Get a a whole tri-tip (usually about 1.25-1.5 lbs); I get them pre-trimmed from Costco, but if they are not pre-trimmed remove any big pieces of hard fat and any silverskin.
  2. Pat dry and coat with a liberal layer of garlic and pepper.
    Do not salt at this stage.
  3. Vacuum-seal it.  You can season these and freeze them; it isn’t great for the texture, but it won’t ruin it.
  4. [First cook]
    When ready, sous vide the heck out of it to tenderize – I do 12 hours if fresh, 12-14 if frozen.  It’s hard to overdo this.  I usually start it before the kids go to bed the night before.

    1. Use a temperature a step lower than the eventual done-ness you want.  I go for an eventual 140f medium (my taste, not necessarily yours) and I use a sous vide at the rare-to-medium-rare borderline of 127-130f.
  5. When done sous viding, cool it in the sous vide bag in an ice bath for a couple of hours.  The cooler you get this without re-freezing it, the longer it will get to pick up smoke flavor during the smoke stage.
  6. After it’s chilled, and about ~4 hours before you want to eat it (lunchtime the day it’s going to be dinner is perfect), remove it from the ice bath, open the sous vide bag, pat dry and salt to taste.
    1. I don’t tend to be as liberal with salt as with the pepper and garlic, but it’s by eyeball
  7. [Second cook]
    Smoke at low/smokeboost or 200-225f to an internal temperature a little lower than you’re aiming for.  I’ll set the alarm for 135f, but usually pull it a little earlier.  How long this takes will depend on a lot of stuff, but figure 90 minutes minimum to maybe 3 hours maximum.
  8. Wrap in foil.  It’s OK if this sits a while.  If you have a cambro or wamer, you can probably use it.  Where I’ve misjudged time, you can also do another sous-vide pass or the warm setting in your toaster oven to bring it back up slowly before searing.
  9. [Third cook]
    When ready to eat, use a direct high heat cook to sear and bring it up to eating temperature; I use my pellet grill for it (which is an uncommon one with a direct high heat setting) but it should be fine on any of charcoal/gas grill or in the broiler.  You just want as much heat as fast as you can to get a good crust without cooking into it farther.
  10. Serve immediately.

Chili, a questionable success

This blog is pretty much dead, but I use it as a notepad mostly for recipes these days. If you like any of these, feel free to reuse them, and consider sending me a shout out on my bsky @nkedel.com

This came out really thick, and perhaps a bit too salty – unsure what to do to fix the salty, but the thick is an easy fix. Otherwise, it was really good.

Finely chop 1 large onion (maybe 1 1/2 if upping the amount of beef)

Peel a couple of chunks of garlic

One 2oz package Pasilla-Ancho dried chiles, with stems and seeds removed
– toast, then break up into moderate sized pieces
– put in food processor

mix 1tsp baking soda and 1 (or 2) pounds of ground beef thoroughly, set aside approx 15 minutes

Add spices:
– 1/2 tsp each spicy ones: chipotle powder, ancho powder, smoked paprika, cayenne [came out spicy, don’t double]
– 1/2 tsp functional ones: MSG, sodium citrate [don’t double]
– 1 tsp: celery seeds [or powder], dried oregano [new this time, was a win]
– 2 tsp black pepper [don’t double]
– 1/2 tbsp each: garlic powder, onion powder, cumin [double w/ 2lbs meat]
– 1 tbsp: chile california powder, sweet paprika, coriander [probably leave the same]
– 1 tbsp: cornmeal

Run all of the above in food processor until a uniform fine powder.

drain and puree 1 jar of roasted red peppers, set aside

Use an oven safe kettle or dutch oven

Preheat oven to 375f

2tbsp olive oil in pan (3tbsp if 1 1/2 onions)

Dump in onions

Cook onions until glassy

Add garlic via press

Add ground beef, brown

When browned, add spice mix, stir in

Immediately add pureed red pepper and mix

add 1 can tomato paste, and mix

add 1 can fire-roasted diced tomatoes, and mix

[if doing 2lbs beef, next time add a 2nd can crushed tomatoes or pureed diced ]

add one can of black beans, including liquids [don’t double – look for low sodium next time if you can find it]

add 1tbsp molasses, 1tbsp soy sauce, 1tsp worchestershire, 1tbsp beef base [low sodium if possible]

add low-sodium beef broth around 16oz [or maybe 12oz dark beer + 4oz of broth?]

Stir until uniform, then cover and put in oven

Bake for ~90-120 minutes, removing to check for separation and stirring every 30 min or so. Add liquid if it starts having an overly thick texture, should be stew like not casserole.

A breadmaking success

200ml room-temperature water
200g bread flour (gold medal; am out of King Arthur)
1/4 tsp breadmaker yeast
Run on dough cycle without pre-warm
(next time try sourdough starter cycle)

~3 hours ferment including the rise part of the dough cycle

120ml tap-cold water (try warm next time)
200g bread flour
100g white whole wheat flour
25g gluten (original recipe called for rye flour)
1 1/2tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar (try slightly more next time)
1/2tsp yeast
Run on basic white cycle, without pre-warm
(next time, use pre-warm)

Macaroni and Cheese proportions

I’ve been making Macaroni and Cheese to roughly the same recipe of my mom’s since high school, and the result have been inconsistent. I tried making a creamier and less caserole-y version for Nadia compared to my usual-of-late proportions, and I thought I’d record it here.

I realized I had recorded one set of proportions here in the past and it looks like the proportions are almost exactly doubled:

  • 3 1/2 cups shredded cheese, plus extra for crust for baked portion (mixing some in and then crust) – inexact as was using the ends of multiple pregrated sharp cheddar; about a cup was jack
  • 2 1/2 cups milk, preheat to hot in the microwave
  • Roux: 4 tbsp each butter and flour; mix together over low heat until a paste forms
  • Add black pepper (one turn of pepper grinder) and MSG (1/2 tsp) to taste
  • Add milk slowly, no faster than will mix in thoroughly with a flat-bottom whisk; this seems to be the main trick, as adding too much milk at once will lead to the roux clumping together
  • When all of the milk is added, add 1tsp sodium citrate (optional, but makes for a smoother texture) and stir in evenly
  • Add cheese slowly stirring, until thoroughly melted
  • Cook pasta. This was 3 heaping cups of cellentani (ridged, corkscrew macaroni which ends up a bit less dense), a bit more than 3/4 of a box. I think for shells or smaller elbows 3 cups might be a bit much
  • Drain pasta, put in a 8×8 or 9×9 glass baking tray
  • mix in some extra cheese, cover top loosely with extra cheese
  • Bake at 375f (coincidental; we’d had a take-and-bake bread in while the pasta was cooking), checking after 20 minutes, until cheese on top just starts to brown.