Oven Roasted Tri-tip Roast

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Tri-tip roasts are very popular in California, most especially in the Central Coast area, where the town of Santa Maria is famous for its barbequed version. I've heard the same cut is known as Newport steak in New York City. Your butcher might know it as the bottom sirloin primal cut. Our roast was between 2-1/2 and 3 lbs, and took 45 minutes.

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Ingredients

  • SANTA MARIA RUB:
  • 1 beef tri-tip roast, 2-1/2 pounds
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons garlic salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon celery salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon paprika
  • 1/4 teaspoon dried dill
  • 1/4 teaspoon dried sage
  • 1/4 teaspoon crushed dried rosemary
  • PAN SAUCE:
  • 1/2 cup beef or chicken stock
  • 1/4 cup red wine
  • 1 teaspoon minced garlic
  • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
  • optional: 1 teaspoon of any fresh herbs you may like, such as rosemary, thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried.
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preparation

Step 1

Prepare the Santa Maria Rub and pat it into the meat on both sides, and let it it stand at room temperature for 2 hours if you are cooking it right away. If not, you may leave it in the fridge covered overnight. Just bring it to room temperature before cooking.

Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees. Place tri-tip in a roasting pan with a rack and place in hot oven, and roast to your preference. Check internal temperature after 20 minutes. It should be blood rare. That is too rare for us, so I roasted it for 30 minutes (140 degrees).

Tent the meat loosely while you make the pan sauce.

Place the pan you roasted the meat in over the burner, add the garlic, stir for 1 minute, add stock, wine, and any herbs. Bring to a boil, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Reduce the sauce slightly, then whisk in the mustard and taste it for salt and pepper. Pour the sauce over the sliced meat and serve immediately.

NOTE:
This is a lean cut of meat which means that sometimes there are no pan drippings, so put a pat of butter in the pan, add the wine and the rest of the ingredients. It will still pick up the flavor.

Allow the meat to stand for 15 minutes before carving. Carve by slicing the meat into thin slices across the grain. After roasting 30 minutes, mine was medium rare in the center when I carved it. Perfect when the pan sauce was poured over it. Serve immediately. Makes great sandwiches the next day.

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