Dinner 12: Santa Maria Tri-tip Meal Plan
This meal features a deliciously flavored steak recipe that is a little smoky and a little spicy and 100% delicious. It also features an easy appetizer and drinks that come together in five minutes. While the steak is grilling, cook the polenta and toss your salad! It’s that easy
Santa Maria tri-tip is a recipe that I hadn’t fixed in a while, so it was a delicious change from our standard steak. Surprisingly, all of our teenagers were home for a Saturday night dinner, so I switched the Sunday night steak to Saturday, to make the evening a bit more special. Along with the tri-tip, we had Cheesy Polenta and (eek!) a bag Ranch Salad mix.
All of this came together in under 45 minutes plus time to let the rub soak in.
Let’s get started. The first step in tonight’s dinner begins with preparing the Santa Maria Rub. This is super quick and easy. Once you make the Rub, the recipe calls for letting it soak in for 1-4 hours. I however, didn’t have that kind of time, so I let it sit on the counter for 45 minutes. Mix up the rub and massage it into all sides of the tri-tip. Let it sit covered for an hour.
Pro tips: Apparently, when you let a rub or marinade sit on a piece of meat it sinks in faster when the meat is warmer. Also, I don’t totally understand why, but many steak recipes ask you to bring the steak to room temperature before grilling. (Something I will have to investigate….)
Santa Maria Tri-Tip
Ingredients
- 2 Teaspoon salt
- 2 Teaspoon black pepper
- 2 Teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 Teaspoon paprika
- 1 Teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 Teaspoon cayenne pepper
Instructions
- Mix the ingredients together. Massage into all sides of a 2 1/2 pound Tri-Tip Steak and allow to rest at room temperature for one hour. Grill at 350 degrees until desire doneness. a 1 1/2 – 2" steak will take about 45 minutes to grill to medium-rare.
Cocktail Hour
Now is the time to sit and enjoy a cocktail/mocktail with a nice piece of triple cream brie, crackers and fabulous Dalmatia Sour Cherry Spread. You can find it in many local grocery stores in the gourmet cheese section.
Need a quick delicious cocktail? Mix Trader Joe’s Lemon Elderflower Soda with 2 ounces of Gin. Delicious. Prefer a non-alcoholic beverage? Serve the same soda in a fancy glass with a lemon wedge.
Preheat your grill and place the tri-tip on the grill. The directions on the Traeger website said to cook the tri-tip for 90 minutes! However, ours was a much thinner tri-tip, (a triangular piece of meat that was about 18″ long by about 1 1/2″ thick) so it only took 45 minutes at 350 degrees. Use the handy guide below to help you with your steak timing.
Cheesy Polenta
Time to make the Cheesy Polenta. Bring your water and cream/milk, salt and Cayenne pepper to a boil. The next step is extremely IMPORTANT! SLOWLY stir in your cornmeal and be whisking vigorously the entire time. If you don’t, you will end up with clumps. When that has thickened, add your shredded sharp and Parmesan cheeses. Stirring until completely mixed through and melted. Time to taste and add more salt, pepper or cayenne.
If you are interested in learning about the difference between Polenta and Grits, Fanny Slater, over at Foodal.com wrote a great article called, Grits vs. Polenta: What’s the difference?
Cheesy Polenta
Ingredients
- 3 cups water
- 1 cup milk or heavy cream for richness
- 2 tsp Kosher Salt
- 1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper
- 1 cup yellow corn meal
- 1 1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar
- 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese shredded
Instructions
- Bring your water, milk/cream, salt and cayenne pepper to a boil in a medium saucepan. Important: Slowly add the cornmeal whisking vigorously to avoid clumps. Once the cornmeal has thickened, about 5 minutes. Stir in cheeses until incorporated and melted. Adjust seasonings to your taste.
Salad
This is where I sometimes cheat to save time. I use shhhhh….. don’t tell anyone ……… A BAG SALAD! We had a bag salad on hand that I pulled out because I had some olive oil on hand, that frankly, I ended up tossing because it was so bad. It had already ruined two recipes and I wasn’t about to try on a third recipe. However, any salad that is slightly more tart or sweet would be a delicious counter to the heavier steak and cheesy polenta.
Try this one, it’s called Southern Salad. It is one of my favorites and is a recipe from the The Junior League of Boca Raton’s cookbook, Savor the Moment: Entertaining without Reservations. I highly recommend purchasing this cookbook for your cookbook library. Every Recipe is fantastic and supports a great organization!
Southern Salad
Ingredients
Raspberry Dijon Vinaigrette
- 2 tbsp raspberry vinegar
- 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- freshly ground pepper to taste
- 6 tbsp olive oil
Salad
- 6 cups mixed baby greens
- 1/2 dried cranberries more, if desired
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 1/2 cup red onion thinly sliced
- crumbled feta to taste
Instructions
- For the vinaigrette: combine the raspberry vinegar, Dijon mustard, sugar, salt and pepper in a bowl and mix until the sugar and salt dissolve. Whisk in the olive oil.For the salad: Combine the greens, cranberries, pecans, onion and cheese in a asalad bowl. Add the vinaigrette and toss gently to coat well.