Smoked Szechuan Pepper Tri-Tip
Difficulty: Medium
Prep time: ½ Hour
Cooking time: 1 - 1 ½ Hours
Serves 4
There’s few things I can think of in the culinary world more beautiful to me than a hot, well seasoned, slow roasted, beef roast. It’s a really nostalgic sight to behold, and memories of rib roasts, summer wind, and family arguments at holidays and barbecues still warm my heart today. That being said, for all the wonderful parts of a roast, there’s a lot to be said about its few, annoying, downsides.
Besides the price of most cuts (like the prime rib) keeping the dish from being a regular menu item, the most glaring problem to me is I feel like beef roasts are just way too one dimensional, flavor-wise. Traditional herbs are great but basically just add savory, which the roast is in no lack of, and black pepper adds sharpness but I feel like it doesn’t stand by itself.
Enter the Szechuan peppercorn. This is a fragrant Chinese spice known for its unique property of numbing the mouth when eaten, a sensation known as Mala. The numbing sensation of the peppercorns when cut with sharp Western black pepper makes for a complex and complete flavor profile, and with hints of smoke and Aleppo pepper, this dish needs no horseradish or A1 to complete it. We’ll be using a tri-tip since it normally sells for cheaper, but its flatter profile and smaller size will help it smoke much better and give us more surface area to spice with.
And credit to my older brother, Bryan, for coming up with the original idea.
Food Dictionary:
Szechuan peppercorns: A special form of peppercorn, much like black pepper, which can be found in Chinese markets. It’s very fragrant, a bit spicy, and adds a unique Mala sensation to the food it seasons.
Mala: The term for a numbing spice. It sounds a bit scary or strange at first, but its surprisingly addictive and not painful or unpleasant at all, I promise
Aleppo pepper: A hot pepper, originally from Syria. Has a very unique flavor, a bit fruity, and somewhat spicy. Goes really, really well with smoke. There isn’t any great substitutes for this, but standard chili flakes work fairly well and add a good spice
The Recipe:
Ingredients:
Trip-tip
A 4 Lb trimmed whole tri-tip (4.5-5 lbs untrimmed)
2 ½ Tbsp black peppercorns
2 ½ Tbsp Szechuan peppercorns
2 Tbsp ground Aleppo pepper
1 Tbsp smoked paprika
Kosher salt as needed
Szechuan Sauce
Soy sauce
Garlic
Ginger
Hoisin sauce
Cornstarch
Chopped scallions
Honey
(Optional) White pepper
The Process:
Tri-Tip:
If not done already, trim your tri-tip thoroughly, leaving a thin layer of fat on the top of the tri-tip and carving away any large hunks of fat. Score lightly with a sharp knife across the surface on all sides in a grid. Salt generously and let sit for about half an hour at room temperature before cooking.
Using a blender bottle, mortar and pestle, or even a ziplock bag and a hammer, break down and grind your peppercorns to a coarse consistency, just until all the kernels are broken. Using a mesh strainer, tap the finer powder out and set aside. Reserve about 1 tbsp of the remaining kernels and also set aside.
Rub down the roast with the large broken kernels, being sure to really get it embedded into the meat. Dust with your Aleppo pepper and smoked paprika.
Prepare your smoking setup however you can. Ideal temperature to be smoking is, for me, about 375-400.
On a gas grill, I remove the grates and set a dry pan of soaked wood chips onto the grease guards and put my roast on the upper rack above it since I’ve got one on my grill. I then put another empty pan loosely over the wood chip (as a makeshift heat deflector) and start up the gas burners. Then, just use it like a smoky oven
On a charcoal grill, preheat some coals, preferably natural lump charcoal, and get it to a heat where the coals begin to turn white. Add some soaked wood chips or wooden pieces and lay on a heat deflector, and smoke the tri tip above it.
On a smoker, use as instructed. I’ve never owned one so I can’t help you here much.
In an oven, preheat as normal to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). You can introduce smoke with liquid smoke, or burn some wood chips and seal the tri tip in a pan with them, but there’s not too many good substitutes for an outdoor smoking setup
At about 13 minutes/lb, or 1 hour for our meat, smoke the tri tip, turning and flipping every 15 minutes to get even cooking. Make sure it isn’t burning and adjust heat deflectors as necessary, and add more time as needed in 5 minute increments until reaching about 120 degrees F internal (50 degrees C) for a medium rare, as the internal temp will rise about 10 degrees F as it rests.
Rest your tri-tip for about 15 minutes and prepare your sauce. When serving, slice against the grain and serve dusted ground peppercorn overtop along with your Szechuan sauce. Goes well with alfalfa microgreens, chives, and/or some sweet pickled red cabbage.
Szechuan Sauce:
In a small saucepan or saute pan, preheat a pan to medium heat with a few drops of oil and saute about 3 cloves of garlic and a small knob of minced ginger
In the traditional Chinese spirit, I am not measuring these quantities. Feel with your soul. Call into the void. Consult your ancestors. All these are valid measuring tools but I promise if I try to quantify this it will go badly for everyone.
Deglaze with a few glugs of soy-sauce and in a separate bowl, mix a small spoon of cornstarch with enough water to dissolve into a very thin paste and add to the saucepan to a dark, slightly thickened consistency.
You might not need all the cornstarch water
Add a dab of hoisin sauce, pour in a drizzle of honey and whisk in your reserved crushed peppercorns, white pepper, and minced scallions.
Simmer until thickened to be able to just coat the back of a spoon, diluting as necessary.
Taste for seasoning, add additional ingredients as necessary, and alongside the sliced roast.
