The following menu has been used several times in California for Gourmet for the Masses. The core of this meal is a Santa Maria style Barbecue. You can expand the meal in the appetizer direction almost any way you want to go, based on availability of money, creativity, and product.
There is substantial lore associated with the Santa Maria Barbecue, and those interested are referred to the back of the Susie-Q Seasoning Mix package, or the Pinquinto bean package for more detail. Or you can look at: Santa Maria’s Home Page.
Menu notes: This menu requires a few items that will not be available off the shelf around the country—but it isn’t that hard, and actually makes a good teaching point about regional variation in supplies and sources.
- Those of you on the wrong (aka east) coast or stuck in the middle someplace will likely find Tri-tip steaks impossible to find from your butcher. This is not because they don’t exist, but because your butchers are a bunch of weenies who either don’t know what Tri-tip is and won’t admit it, or won’t cut it because nobody back there seems to know what to do with it. Never fear. If you can persuade a wholesale butcher to cut you an adequate quantity of "bottom sirloin" you’re in business. If not, you can use any good roast, but the flavor doesn’t quite come out the same. Jon found he could bribe the butchers at Costco in Pentagon City to sell him a bag of 6 of the things (just not individual roasts for some reason).
- You can use a mix of garlic salt, pepper and regular salt to season the Tri-tip, or for the authentic flavor, take a look at http://www.susieqbrand.com/ where you will be able to buy the seasoning (the big bottle should get you through 100 servings easily), as well as the Pinquito beans (available no place else we’ve ever seen). Be sure to allow time for soaking the beans—they’re real tough and chewy if you don’t (yes, we learned the hard way . . .).
- Follow directions on the Santa Maria Web page for barbecuing the Tri-tip to avoid something tough, particularly if you’re fond of the "nude" tri-tip Parky likes to use in the class. The nude version doesn’t have the "fat back" side, so it doesn’t flare as much on the grill and doesn’t leave as much waste when you slice and serve. The down-side is, it can get tough if you’re not careful.
- Barbecue shouldn’t be too hot—this is a major faux pas. You should also allow adequate time for barbecuing. Jon has done one of the oven-roast versions of this, and then thrown it on the barbecue for show and smell. This is cheating of course, but if you’re serving a larger army, and you have a institutional kitchen with oven, it is probably safer since you don’t run the risk of burning the meat.
- Be sure to let the meat stand for a little before you slice it. You need to let the juices settle and the flavors "marry".
- Beware of squirt-fights in the kitchen. Don’t say we didn’t warn you. (Yes, we learned the hard way. . .)
| Product | Source | Product # | Purchase Quantity per 100 guests | Portion Control |
| Tri-tip steak | Butcher | 25 pounds | 4 oz as served;5 oz as purchased
(Assume 80% of diners) |
|
| Marinated, fully cooked chicken, herb-roasted | Wholesale grocer | Pierce Foods PRQ60 | 1 case (11.25#) (24 pieces) | One piece (leg or breast)(assume 20% of diners) |
| Sausage, pre-cooked | Wholesale Grocer | 6.25 pounds + | 1 oz as served (appetizer style) | |
| Pinquito Beans | Righetti | XBC-028 | 4 kits | 1.1 oz as purchased |
| Green Salad Mix | Produce | 6 Pounds | 1 oz as purchased | |
| Wet Salad Mix (your potato, mac, 3-bean, etc.) | Produce | 12 Pounds | 2 oz as purchased | |
| French Bread | Baker or Wholesale grocer | 12 Loaves | 1/9 loaf | |
| Cheesecake | Wholesale grocer | 7 Cakes (or 2 case@4/case) | 1 slice (1/16 cake) | |
| Rich's Topping (a.k.a. "squirt") | Wholesale grocer | 1 case | A major squirt on side of or top of slice | |
| Mint leaves | Produce | 1 bunch | 1 leaf/slice of cake | |
| Iced Tea Concentrate | Wholesale grocer | Thirstea | 1 case | ea bottle makes 3 gal (1 cambro) tea |
Additional things you’ll need:
- Tri-tip seasoning. You can buy "SusieQ" brand directly from the manufacturer in Sunny Santa Maria (See http://www.susieqbrand.com/) or you can fake it pretty successfully with equal parts Lawry’s seasoned salt, coarse ground pepper, Accent (i.e. MSG), and garlic powder. Recognizing some people don’t do well with MSG, you may elect to leave it out. Sadly, MSG is included in the original recipe, so if you leave it out, it isn’t really Santa Maria Tri-tip anymore.
- Garlic bread spread for the french bread.
- The usual knife-fork-spoon-napkin, paper plates for both dinner and dessert, and etcetera.
Instructors May wish to download a MS-Word File containing instructor resource information.