136/18 – Ooni Pro Roast Dinner:
I have had a Tri tip in the freezer for a while now and keep meaning to cook it. I bought it when I was testing Santa Maria style cooks in the WSM with logs – great fun! It was time to cook it and I started thinking about cooking it in the Ooni Pro, this then developed into Ooni Pro Roast Dinner!
The Meat:
400g of Tri Tip from Turner and George for £10.56. You don’t see Tri Tip too often these days but it’s getting more popular. It’s taken from the bottom of the sirloin so is great for cooking as a steak. The fat cap on top is quite thick but cooked right you can render it down and crisp it up which gives an awesome taste!
The Prep:
I filled the Ooni Pro charcoal tray with Oxford Charcoal Cherry Lumpwood. Usually I put smaller chunks in the Pro but this time I put some big old bits in there. 2 Flamers to light it then I left it alone to warm up.
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Turner and George sent me a pack of their Great Cow rub to try: Smoked sea salt, Muscovado sugar, black pepper, smoked paprika and mustard powder. Sounded ideal for this cook! £5.50 for a 150g packet.
Rub applied and rubbed into the meat. What a colour!
The Cook:
I didn’t want the oven too hot so planned to just cook on charcoal without adding wood chunks. I haven’t played with the vents on the Pro to alter the temperature yet but with just charcoal it sat at 300C so I decided to go with that. Meat in the Pro (left) and another tray with oil to warm before adding the par boiled potatoes. The Tri tip was placed fat side down so the heat of the pan rendered it down.
The potatoes came out looking awesome, nice and crispy. They were cooked in rapeseed oil and took about 30 minutes to cook with a flip after about 20 minutes.
The Tri tip took about 20 minutes to hit 55C internal temperature in the thickest part. The Thermapen was ideal for getting an accurate reading.
Some of the rub looked a bit charred which will be the sugar but experience suggested these would be some of the tastiest bits! Still a glorious colour with the smoked paprika adding a nice red shade.
The moment of truth as I sliced it – Nice and pink with plenty of juices flowing.
Whilst I was cooking my wife made some fancy peas:
Nathan wanted some peas to go with the tri-tip so I thought I’d try and make something a little bit more interesting than boiled frozen peas…they always look so sad and pathetic next to the delicious meat!
So, for your fancier version of frozen peas, boil the kettle and make up some ham stock from 2/3 of a cube and about 300ml of water (ok, I’m a big fat cheat, if you have fresh you are a much better human than me and your peas will thank you for it).I added 1tbsp of rapeseed oil and 1tbsp of butter to a separate pan to heat through then in went 1.5tbsp of plain flour to make a roux, mix to combine and keep stirring. Slowly, little by little, add the stock and keep mixing till you have a delicious sauce. Chuck in a few handfuls of frozen peas, half a finely sliced Romaine lettuce (about 1/4 Iceberg or 1 Little Gem would also work), a couple of sliced spring onions and leave to reduce down for around 5 minutes. Add a small handful of finely chopped mint just before the end, season to taste with salt and pepper and you’re done.
Time to Eat:
Roast beef, roast potatoes and fancy peas.
SUMMARY:
I really enjoyed this dish, such an easy cook on the Ooni Pro as I just lobbed everything in and pretty much left it alone! The tri tip was so tasty and very juicy. The fat cap had rendered right down and was slightly cripsy but so tasty. Adding the Great Cow rub to the steak was a great move as it really boosted the flavour of the meat, very enjoyable and something I will use on steak more often!
The roast potatoes were really good, nice and crispy but soft and fluffy inside. The Cherry lumpwood added a nice hint of smoke to the potatoes. Again, so easy to cook on the Pro as I just left them alone except for flipping them over once. The pea dish my wife made was really tasty, peas are usually just a side dish to add something extra to bulk the meal out but this was fantastic and equally as good as the meat and potatoes. Definitely recommend making them.
Amazed how much room there is inside the Pro, it was very easy to fit two roasting trays in without any issue. I will get my thinking hat on to see what can get cooked in there next. With the weather cooling down a bit it’s going to be nice to have more roast dinners on a Sunday and this will be a good way to cook them!
I will play with the vents on the Pro a bit next time to see how they control the temperature and what’s required to drop down to 250C from 300C. The Ooni gloves might be a bit thin for holding hot roasting trays for long as my hands were getting pretty hot so I switched to my welders gloves which were better.
| Cook Difficulty: | 2/5 |
| Cook Duration: | Quick: 2/5 |
| Cook Equipment: | Ooni Pro |
| Cook Method: | Roasting Tray |
| Charcoal: | Oxford Charcoal Cherry |
| Smoking Wood: | N/A |
| Cook temperature: | 300C |
| Cook time: | Meat 20 minutes / Spuds 30 minutes |
| Internal temperature: | 55C Thermapen |
| Notes: | No major changes. |
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Dang that looks smashing. Would love to try the peas!!
Thanks Scott, was such a lovely lunch! The peas were great, too often peas are just an extra course but these matched the other dishes. Awesome!