Friday, November 12, 2010

Tri Tips with Red Wine Reduction and Garlic Fries

Steak and potatoes. Yum. Tri tips are a versatile cut of beef that are affordable and can be prepared in many different ways.  It's often used in chile con carne but is equally tasty grilled, baked, however you like. Served with fries, well, it's just a good ole classic but kicked up with a 'gourmet' olive oil and you've got something special. 
Olive oil infused with garlic and rosemary does wonderful aroma things in the kitchen...add it to a julienned baking potato and you are in some kind of foodie heaven.  It's such an easy trick but a powerful one, you'll want to start infusing everything into oil.  Start with a few tablespoons of olive oil into a sauce pan over low heat, crush a few cloves of garlic and throw them in.  I added some rough chopped rosemary sprigs because I wanted to carry that flavor through the meal.  Let it hang out for a bit on the stove and your nose will tell you when it's ready to be used.  You don't want hi heat for this one because the garlic will burn easily.  Just keep it low and let it do it's thing for a few minutes.
From there I took one baking potato (I was cooking for 2) and sliced into shoestring sized french fries.  Start by cutting it in half lengthwise and then cut each half into strips (a little smaller than a 1/4 inch thick), usually you can get about 8 strips per half.  Stack the strips together an slice them lengthwise into even smaller strips and you have shoestring fries.  Once you've removed the oil from the stove and discarded the garlic cloves, drizzle the oil over the fries to coat.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake at 425° for about 10-15 minutes or until crisp. Once baked, remove from the baking sheet and transfer to paper towel to help remove some excess oil.  Be sure to add more salt while they are still hot.
While those are baking away, use a cast iron skillet over medium high heat with a drizzle of olive oil to sear the seasoned tri tips on each side (just salt and pepper liberally).  Once the tri tips have seared, they'll go onto a baking sheet to finish cooking in the oven for about 5 more minutes or longer if you like them closer to medium or well done.

Using the same cast iron skillet, add about 3 turns of a dry red wine to deglaze the pan and get the bits of flavor up from the bottom.  Heat should be low to medium and it should reduce for about 2 minutes.  Next add 2 tbsp of butter, 1 tbsp water, chopped mushrooms and thin sliced shallots.  Reduce for another 3 minutes and finish with chopped rosemary and salt and pepper.

Use the remaining infused olive oil to sauté broccolini and you've got a steakhouse meal in under 20 minutes.

Shopping List:

Tri tips
1 baking potato
broccolini
cremini mushrooms
1 shallot
olive oil
rosemary
garlic cloves

That's it!

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