well after years of grilling tri-tip and pan fried tri-tip we tried something new and involves the smoker (what a surprise)

We made an amazing smoked tri-tip and I think this is the way togo. Well the guest's seemed to be pretty happy too and we ended up making so much food, that I have a whole smoked tri-tip left to my self :)

Anyway the recipe:

• get yourself a good looking tri-tip with some nice marbling and about 1.5 - 2lbs trimmed, or 2.5 - 3 lbs untrimmed (and trim it a bit)
  
• make a dry rub out of salt and pepper and rub it onto the meat. You need roughly a cup of dry rub
• toss in a zip lock bag and leave it in the fridge for 5 - 6 hours
• remove it from the fridge when you are setting up the smoker, ca 45 minutes prior
• fire up the smoker with some hickory wood and let it settle at a temperature of 220-250 Fahrenheit
• toss in the meat, add the remote meat thermometer and enjoy a couple of hefeweizen (roughly 1 hour a pound, so about 90 minutes or 3 -5 hefeweizen)
• do NOT open the smoker and look all the time, that's what's the remote thermometer is for
  
• once the meat reaches 145 Fahrenheit, take it off the smoker and let it rest for 10 - 20 minutes so it's as juicy as possible
• slice it into thins slices, alone in the kitchen (everybody else is outside...) and serve to the hungry pack

the dip

since I like to keep things simple and quick I just made a spicy (for germans) yogurt based dip.

• 1 lbs of yoghurt, not the fat free kind!
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
  
• Salt, Pepper, Basil, Oregano to taste
  
• half a red onion, minced
  

mix everything together and let it rest in the fridge for an hour. It works really well with meat, since it enhances the taste of it, by adding a slight sour and fresh note.