perfecting the tri tip

I used the following formula to produce a good tri-tip roast last night.

Make ahead one batch of kickass garlic-parsley oil. Coat the tri tip with 1/2 of the mixture, liberally salt and pepper the meat, and then grill.

the grill:

550 degrees. 3 minutes per side sear. (6 minutes)
350-400 degrees. 20 minutes. direct heat.

The result: tasty, and everything from Medium at the small end to rare at the big end.

Problems:

First, my grill had too many small charcoal bits in it, and as such the fire did not burn evenly. I have to remember not to fill up the firepit. There's no other way around this--a small number of coals provides good heat. Too many produces compact charcoal that suffocates the fire. The end result is a grill that takes forever to heat up and does not burn evenly.

What this meant was that the sear was not even. Parts were nicely seared, but others were only moderately browned. The fire must be evenly distributed so that the browning is even. The texture of the meat should be there, consistently, or else there will be problems.

Second, this recipe requires a squeeze of lemon at the end, AND I ALWAYS FORGET THIS. The steak gets enormous flavor from the garlic-parsley oil, but it needs a little acid to offset the fat and provide contrast.

Third, the timing could be altered a little. I have avoided using the platesetter because the fire dies down enough so as to turn this into an oven. Moreover, it is quite easy to get the temperature down to 350 degrees. It could stand a few more minutes. Not too many more, however. 25 at most.