NYE 2017 Weck Sliders

weck slider
For real, I hit it out of the park on New Year’s Eve 2016 – check out these Beef on Weck Sliders. Beef on weck is a huge Buffalo Tradition. Normally it’s just roast beef, dipped in Au Jus, and served on a kaiser roll that has been dusted with a blend of pretzel salt and caraway seeds, with a side of horse radish..  These however, were a labor of love. The payoff was insane though – everyone was in love with these little sandwiches. I started with a smoked (4 hours cherry/apple) bottom round roast that I finished off sous-vide for over 48 hours. The day before the beef was going to be done, I put together a horseradish mayonnaise. I started by taking an entire jar of horseradish, and emptying it into 3 layers of paper towels. I bundled the horse radish in the paper towels and squeezed out all of the juice, until I wasn’t getting juice anymore. This is how you get a nice, spreadable horseradish sauce, rather than a sloppy mess. The next day, when the meat was done I pulled it out of the waterbath and let it cool down. While it was cooling, I took mini kaiser rolls and brushed butter on the tops. I then sprinkled the buttered tops with a mix of kosher salt and caraway seeds, and warmed the buns under a low broiler. While they were going, I sautéed a gourmet blend of mushrooms and shallots until the shallots were getting crispy and seasoned with pepper and garlic salt. I kept an eye on my rolls, and let them go until it looked like the butter had dried up, and the tops were starting to get browner than they already were. I pulled the rolls out, and slid my pan of shallot shrooms off the heat. I investigated my beef- It was ultra tender, and I cut it into 1/4″ slices while it was warm, and placed the pieces on a baking sheet in small piles that were about the diameter of my rolls. Using these huge tweezers I got for Christmas, I began portioning out the shallot shrooms in equal, well dispersed amounts on top of the beef. I covered the shallot shroom covered beef piles with some Muenster cheese, and placed it in the oven.

weck sliders

While in the oven, I damn near burned my hands off cutting open the rolls, and covering the bottom buns with the horseradish mayo. I realized I had about a cup and a half of beef juice from the sous vide bag – why let it go to waste? I strained it into the pan that the shallot shrooms were cooked in, and cranked the heat. The cheese was starting to melt on the beef, I had to move quick if these sandwiches were going to be perfectly warm at serving time. The pan bubbled, as I poured about a half of a pint of my home brewed Blackberry Porter in with the juices. I salted and peppered and tasted – delicious – now I just needed to thicken it. I got out a rubber coated whisky (because I never use metal in non-stick, no matter how good of a quality non-stick it is) and whisked like crazy as I sprinkled flour into the area I was whisking (to try an avoid lumps – which I did). The cheese was just about to start bubbling on the beef, so I pulled them out and set them next to the rolls to cool off just a little before I assembled. I came back to the sauce and it was thickened perfectly! like thick gravy – and super tasty. I used a spatula to transfer all of the beef piles to the horseradish mayo rolls, and then pulled the pan with the gravy over and put a spoonful onto the inside of the roll tops. I then flipped the roll tops onto the cheese beefy shalloty shroomy piles, and stuck two toothpicks in the east and west hemispheres, and cut them down the middle. I left the toothpicks in, and transferred each piece to my serving platter –

weck sliders
If you’ve never had Beef on Weck, you’re missing out. BUT MY Beef on Weck? Ohhhhh boy. They were magical.

 

 

 

 

 

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