Brazilian Picanha

Picanha is the classic Brazilian steak/roast that is served by churrascarias (brazilian steakhouses) everywhere. It also happens to be very easy to make at home and incredibly tasty. If you can not find tri-tip, you can use a sirloin roast instead, though it is not quite as tasty. Most groceries will cut you a tri-tip roast to the approximate size you want if you ask.

Ingredients

1 Tri-tip roast 2-3 lbs
6 cloves garlic or 4-5 tablespoons of prepared crushed garlic
1/2 cup - 3/4 cup coarse sea salt
1/4 cup oilve oil

Instructions
Trim excess fat from the meat: Once isde of your roast happens to be a large slab of fat; trim this down to 1/4" approx. Cut meat into roughly 3" thick chunks so that one side has the slab of fat and the other side is lean red meat.

Mix salt and garlic together to make a paste, rub over each piece of meat - fully coating. You can add a dash of olive oil if the paste doesn't want to stick. Marinate the meat for a minimum of 3-4 hours, turning it over once an hour or so. Liquid should come out of the meat. Remove most of the marinade mixture from the meat. Then rub the meat with a little olive oil, and more garlic (to taste).

You can also skip the garlic and just use sea salt - which I have been informed is more "true" to the style, no marinating required - just rub sea salt onto the meat every time you rotate it. (Last time I went to the Gaucho down here, there was garlic...)

Cooking Option 1 - On the Grill
Grill over very high heat - in this case, the slices are usually grilled with the thick layer of fat on the side or on top until most of it melts away and the remaining fat becomes crispy. Each of the other sides is then grilled for about 20 seconds.

If cooking directly on grill - only turn ONCE - and that's when the side that's near the fire looks like it's almost burnt.

Cooking Option 2 - Above the Grill
If you want to do the grilling churrascaria style, skewer each piece of roast so that it forms a "C" shape on the skewer - the fat should be facing the outside and the red meat on the inside of the "C". Take 4 bricks, place 2 on each side of the grill and put hardwood charcoal in the middle. place the skewers (espetu) across like a bridge and rotate them every 2-3 minutes.

For Both:
Cook until rare using a meat thermometer - or your standard guess work. Take off heat and let sit for 5 minutes before carving. Carve perpendicular to the grain in 1/4" slices. Remove the fat trim before eating. Then grilled the now newly exposed meat for a short time and then repeat the process.

Note: Do not cook this steak more than rare for the initial cooking. The outside slices will be medium-well to medium. If you want your personal slices a little more done, slice and then toss slices back on the grill. Since you're constantly moving the meat back to the grill it will cook to more than rare (if you want it to) as it moves back and forth.

This is great for outdoor BBQ'ing with friends since you can carve meat from the Picanha as needed.

Serve with hot crusty bread and any side dishes you prefer. I don't recommend a sauce for the meat, it doesn't need it - however if you must, a horseradish cream goes very well. It also goes very well on Picanha sammiches tne next day...