The Holidays have always been one of my favorite times of the year. For me, the attractions are the traditions and gathering with family and friends around food. However, as our family has grown, my ability to manage gatherings in our small home has become more challenging and I’ve begun to understand why some find this time of year stressful. So when one brother suggested he would host dinner at their house and another brother suggested that we make sliders for Christmas dinner, I was thrilled. We would each provide a different style of slider.
Dinner would be nontraditional, so I decided to bring a nontraditional beef slider. I didn’t want to make tiny hamburgers, even though this would have been a safe bet for the kids. I chose to use shredded beef—balsamic beef. I don’t recall how I first came across the idea for balsamic beef a few years ago (perhaps Sunset magazine?), but I’ve made it several times since. Not as sliders, but as the main dish, accompanied by vegetables and mashed potatoes or something similar.
I never liked roast growing up. It was always dry and only the outer edges were flavorful. Balsamic beef is neither dry, nor flavorless. My kids can’t get enough balsamic vinegar and they have enjoyed balsamic beef when I’ve made it. This tangy sweet beef slider would be right up their alley.
Coincidentally, a few days before Christmas, I made my first visit to the Ladder Building to check out Ladder Coffee for an assignment with Edible Inland Northwest. It was my first time in and they were pretty busy, so I made a few photos but decided to return at another time and took my green tea latte to go. The matcha was great and the atmosphere was among my favorites of the coffee shops in Spokane.
On my way out the door, I glanced into the business across the hall, Glorious Artisan Bakery. Several employees were actively preparing dough for the oven. I still needed slider-sized buns for the balsamic beef, so I stopped in.
I’d come at the right time. Leo Walters, owner and bread maker extraordinaire, greeted me as I walked in the door. I explained my Christmas plans and he began to fill in the layers for my beef sliders. Their rosemary garlic rolls would provide the perfect buns for my sliders.
They had a wall with dozens of balsamic vinegars and flavored olive oils. Small cups were available to mix and taste to find exactly what I needed. To top it all off, he had an herbed olive oil cheese spread that would be a perfect condiment for the sliders.
Leo and his employees were incredibly helpful and accommodating while I was there. I left with four dozen rolls, a bottle of traditional balsamic vinegar, and a jar of cheese spread with Leo’s herbs and olive oil personally added.
In short, my version of balsamic beef included a 3.5-pound beef roast, about one third cup of balsamic vinegar, a tablespoon of soy sauce, a tablespoon of agave nectar, a half teaspoon of red pepper flakes, a tablespoon of minced garlic, enough vegetable stock to just cover the beef in the slow cooker, about a half teaspoon of cracked black pepper, and a sprig of rosemary. The beef remained in the slow cooker for about 8 hours. I shredded the beef using tongs about 7 hours in. For the sliders, we sliced the rosemary garlic roles and added a little of the herbed cheese spread.
The sliders were a hit and I found a great place to pick up fresh baked bread in Spokane!
Scott Rollins | Photography | 