Sous Vide Tri-Tip

I haven’t yet conquered the perfect sous-vide egg. It remains elusive. Although, I will soon try David Chang’s slow cooked egg timing from the Momofuku cookbook. I will serve it with a plain fig, just to piss him off. I have, however, found my favorite thing to sous-vide: Tri-tip.

Tri-Tip roasts are a West Coast thing apparently. They’re a fairly tough cut of meat, but have a lot of flavor. That’s perfect for sous-vide cooking. They had them in Hawaii too where I setup my first crock pot sous vide. Now with the Nomiku in the house things are so much easier.

Sunday’s dinner included the tri-tip, with a most excellent mushroom demi-glace and re-fried four cheese mac & cheese. Fresh tomatoes and basil from the garden tossed with a little vinegar and olive oil rounded out the plate. An olive bread from the farmers market was also delicious.

Sous-Vide Tri-Tip

  • 1 tri-tip roast
  • 3 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
  • 1 Tablespoon Red Miso
  • 1 Tablespoon Honey
  • 1 teaspoon each: garlic powder, ginger powder, onion powder
  • 1 – 2 teaspoons of chili paste with fermented soy bean or other chili paste to taste

Mix all the marinade ingredients together. Rub all over the tri-tip. Put any excess into the vacuum bag you’ll be sealing the trip-tip in. Add in the tri-tip, vacuum seal and allow it to marinade in the refrigerator for an hour to overnight. If you don’t have time you can just go to the cooking stage.

When you’re ready to cook get your sous-vide going set at 130°F and put in the sealed bag. Cook for 4 hours. This will make the meat “prime rib” tender, but not mushy. If you like more chew, you could opt for 3 hours.

Heat up your grill or broiler. Take the meat out, adding any juices to any sauce you’ve got going. See below for approximately what I did for my mushroom demi-glace last Sunday.

Grill or broil the meat for just a couple of minutes per side. Let the meat rest for 5 minutes, then slice and serve.

Mushroom Demi-Glace

  • 2 shallots minced
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1/2 pound brown crimini mushrooms or other flavorful mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped (lemon thyme is lovely)
  • 1 1/2 cups red wine
  • 2 tablespoons Demi-Glace Gold (I keep this on hand. It lasts a long time)

Melt the butter over medium heat in a sauté pan. Add the shallots and sauté for a couple of minutes then add in the sliced mushrooms and thyme. Raise the heat and sauté until the mushrooms brown a bit. When the mushrooms are brown and have released most of their water mix the demi-glace gold into the wine and add it to the pan. Simmer until reduced to a thick sauce on the mushrooms at least a few minutes to burn off the alcohol in the wine. If it gets too thick, thin with a little water or more wine. Be sure to put in any juices  from the meat.

Refried Mac & Cheese

When you make your next mac & cheese make it in a loaf pan a day ahead. Put it in the fridge overnight and then pop it out of the loaf pan. While still cold, slice it into serving sized slices. You can do this ahead and pop it back into the fridge. At serving time, heat up the slices in a non-stick skillet or on a griddle over medium high heat. Let one side get crispy before turning it over.My favorite recipe for Mac & Cheese: Macaroni with Quattro Formaggi