Tri-tip is a great piece of meat to smoke and slow cook or grill. A lot of people are not familiar with the type of meat or how to go about cooking it. Tri-tip is a newer cut of meat that is being used in homes and restaurants across the United States.

The tri-tip is a cut of beef from the bottom sirloin, it is a small triangular muscle that is usually 1.5 to 2.5 lbs per roast.

Tri-tip was originally used for hamburger or for stews or soup because butchers considered it to be a waste to display because there is only one cut per side of beef. Now, because carving is done by packers, it is more available in meat sections. In 1950, it became popular in Central California as the “Santa Maria Steak”. It is found in the New York area as a New Port Steak, throughout Europe, Mexico and South America. This often overlooked piece of meat is not only relatively inexpensive, but also very flavorful and has become a favorite amongst those in the know.

With the tri-tip being a lean piece of meat, you must be careful not to overcook it. There are several ways to prepare tri-tip one way being “The Santa Maria style”. This style of cooking tri-tip is to rub with salt, pepper, garlic and other seasonings, put over red wood and smoked then baked in an oven and finished on a grill, then sliced thinly across the grain for serving with BBQ sauce. There are many tips and ideas on how to cook tri-tip to perfection. Always bring your steaks to room temperature before you cook it, this helps keep the steaks cook evenly. Tri-tip is great with a meat tenderizer and dry rub seasoning applied before cooking. If you have a way to smoke the meat before you grill it, that really enhances the flavor. Put the roast on the grill and be patient, try not to stab, poke or flip the meat too often, as the juices will escape letting out flavor and drying out the meat. After you have cooked the meat (we recommend medium rare to medium), let the roast rest for 5 to 10 minutes before slicing. You can slice the steak thinly or cut into 1/2 inch steaks. We love to serve tri-tip with a great BBQ on the side. Happy Cooking!

Have you fallen in love with these fabulous meatballs during Salem’s best happy hour in town? Here is your chance to make them at home!

Real Meatballs

• ½ pound of lean ground beef
• ½ pound of lean ground pork
• 1 cup of bread crumbs
• 1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp. sea salt
• 2 tsp. black pepper
• 2 tbsp. of fresh flat leaf parsley chopped
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• ½ tsp. dried oregano
• 1 large egg beaten
• ½ cup fresh grated parmesan cheese

Heat oven to 400 degrees

Mix the ground beef and pork with the bread crumbs, and all seasonings until evenly blended. Add
Parmesan cheese and egg and mix until blended.

Form meat mixture into 1 ½ inch meatballs. If mixture is not wet enough add up to ¾ cup of warm water.
Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes until there is no pink.

Blueberry BBQ Sauce

• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• ¼ cup chopped onion
• 1 garlic clove minced
• ½ cup blueberry preserves
• ½ cup fresh blueberries
• 1-2 jalapenos seeded and finely chopped
• ¼ cup ketchup
• ½ cup light beer
• 1 tbsp. steak sauce
• 1 tsp. chili powder

Heat oil in a medium sauce pan. Add onion and garlic, sauté until tender. Add blueberry preserves, blueberries, jalapeno, ketchup, beer, steak sauce, and chili powder. Bring to a gentle boil, reduce heat to simmer for 10 minutes.

• (4) 8 ounce salmon fillets
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh minced garlic
• salt and pepper

1. Wash your salmon and pat dry with paper towels.
2. In a small bowl whisk together olive oil, lemon zest and garlic.
3. Coat the salmon with the olive oil mixture and let marinate for 15 minutes.
4. Heat grill to a medium heat.
5. Oil your grill with vegetable oil. This can be accomplished by gently (do not use a lot of oil) brushing grates with oil.
6. Gently place your fillets on the grill and add salt and pepper.
7. Let the salmon cook for four to five minutes per side.

To flip your salmon, use a fish spatula or a regular spatula. Gently slide the spatula underneath the fish, making sure the entire fish is on the spatula before gently flipping the fish over. Touching or pressing on the fish during the cooking process will make the fish fall apart or cook unevenly, so it is best to leave the fish untouched as much as possible during the cooking process.

To liven up your salmon, you can always try marinating it overnight in an Asian dressing with a touch of brown sugar and whiskey, then grill it.

If you’re in the mood for a night out, come try one of our dinner menu specialties, Whiskey River Salmon.

If you are a grill master or a grill dud, here are a few hints to making a great steak.

The first thing we recommend is buying a quality steak when possible. Another thing to try is to marinate the steak first in Italian dressing or something similar for at least 30 minutes before grilling. Next, we recommend when grilling at home is to bring your steak to room temperature before cooking, if your steak is refrigerated, you should bring it out 15 to 20 minutes before grilling.

While your meat is warming up, warm up your grill. We recommend a hot grill at least 400 degrees. Once your grill is hot, make sure you season the grill with a piece of fat or vegetable oil. This will help your steak from sticking to the grill or picking up left over flavor from the last time you used it. Place your meat on the grill, and lightly butter the meat and season it. Don’t be dainty with your seasoning, make it stick. We like a combination of salt, pepper, garlic and hickory or mesquite seasoning to add a little smokey flavor to your meat. You should season your meat even if you marinated it. Try to pick seasoning that accentuates your marinade.

Once the meat is grilling don’t mess with it, you should only turn your meat once. If you like grill marks on your meat, half way through cooking per side rotate your meat one quarter turn. If you touch your meat, press it or turn it repeatedly, it will not cook evenly and you will lose the flavorful juice in it.

The toughest part is trying to figure out when your steak is done. We do our steaks by touch, we gently press the meat with tongs or a spatula, we do not recommend a fork because you will pierce the meat. The firmer the meat feels, the more done it is. We recommend for a normal thickness on a steak (1-2 inches) to grill on each side for at least 3 minutes. A thicker steak will take longer, if you are cooking a baseball cut of meat (3 or more inches) your steak will take at least 15 to 20 minutes to cook.

Once your steak is done, take it off the grill. Do not use the grill to keep your meat warm; your steak will continue to cook and dry out, even at a low temperature. The best thing to do is to pull it off the grill, let it rest for a minute or two(not to long, a cold steak is not good) and eat. If you do have to hold the meat, we recommend gently wrapping it in aluminum foil and keep it away from any heat source. Good luck, we hope these tips helped. Happy grilling!

If you drink, don’t drive. Don’t even putt.
-Dean Martin

Best Little Roadhouse is known for Martini Thursday. We might not follow the rules on how to make a martini, but we believe we make a mean martini. Here are some hints, history and traditions on how to make a great martini.

Martinis first became popular during Prohibition. Alcohol demand went up during this time and scotch took to long to age and gin could be made quickly and inexpensively. Martinis are traditionally made with gin and French vermouth or dry vermouth. A perfect martini traditionally is a gin martini mixed with equal amounts of sweet (Italian) vermouth and dry vermouth. It is then stirred, never shaken.

Our first hint is to use a really cold martini glass. We keep ours in a glass chiller. The cold glass keeps the flavors fresh. We shake our martinis; yes we know that it makes a cloudy martini, but who can resist the sound of liquor hitting cold ice? If you don’t have a cold glass, fill the glass with cold water and add a few ice cubes while you are assembling your supplies.

For supplies, you will need the alcohol, ice, fruit/juices, garnishes and your martini shaker. Pour a very generous amount of ice in the shaker before you add any alcohol. You can put your fruit in first if you wish to muddle it. Mix all of your ingredients together in the shaker and then shake it baby!

The usually mix is 2 ounces of liquor (with your vodka/gin or main liquor) being 1 3/4 ounces and your secondary being 1/4 ounce to 1/2 ounces. The fruit juice or fruit should be around 1/2 ounce to 1 ounce.

One of our most popular martinis is the Flirtini. This recipe was brought to us by one of our former employees, Lindsey. The recipe is 1 ounce of vodka, ½ ounce peach schnapps, 1/2 ounce of raspberry vodka and 1 ounce of pineapple juice.

Best Little Roadhouse believes that martinis should be simple, easy to make and delicious to drink!

The trick to the perfect Martini lies in the vermouth. More specifically, it’s the LACK of vermouth. Here’s the skinny:

Hardware

• Shaker (preferably metal, although plastic will work too)
• Large Martini Glass
• Refrigerator (seems obvious, I know, but it’s important)
• Olive Spear

Software

• 6 oz Gin or Vodka
• A splash of Dry Vermouth
• Olives (1 to 3 is traditional) or Lemon Peel
• Ice (cubes will work, crushed is better)

Ahead of Time

Start by refrigerating your vermouth for the amount of time it takes for the bottle to get cold (at least an hour). I’ll explain why in a bit. Chill a Martini glass in the refrigerator or the freezer for about 10 minutes. You can go for less time, but I like my Martinis at the lowest possible temperature.

The Martini Mixing

Take the glass out of the fridge/freezer and pour a small amount of Vermouth into it. Here’s the important bit: swirl the vermouth in the glass so that the sides of the glass are coated. DISCARD THE REMAINING VERMOUTH. Spear an olive or two, and put it in the glass. Pour your gin or vodka (gin is better) into a shaker over copious amounts of ice. Shake the living crap out of it. Seriously, shake it like a revival preacher shaking the devil out of a sinner. Strain into the glass, and you’re good to go.

Technically you’re supposed to eat the olives first, but I won’t tell if you don’t.

Some Explanation

The reason for refrigerating your vermouth is so that you don’t warm your glass when you swirl with it. I know it seems like a waste of good alcohol to toss the vermouth remaining in the glass, but trust me, it makes the end result so much better, that it’s well worth it. I suppose you could save it, since it’s barely even touched the glass, but that just sounds strange to me.

Also, the reason crushed ice is better than cubes is that the surface are of the crushed ice is significantly greater than that of the cubes (like a heatsink in reverse). Greater surface area equals greater cooling power.

Variation

Now, having said all that, my person favorite variation is to replace the olives with a lemon twist. Take a small twist of lemon rind, rub it around the edge of the glass, throw it in, and pour the gin over that.

Brands

Not to start a flame war, but here are my favorite brands of spirits for use in martinis. I prefer Beefeater gin to all others. As for vodka, Skyy is my personal favorite, as I find Absolut has too much bite for my taste. Haven’t gotten around to buying/trying Grey Goose (although I hear it’s excellent). I use Martini & Rossi Dry Vermouth.