Well, it’s about time I heard the word “garlic.”
Not balsamic-specific, but one warning: if you don’t like the taste of purple cabbage, don’t marinate chopped onions in viniagrette dressing – it’ll taste exactly like purple cabbage!
I buy the grocery store one for the marinades, and to add to sauces, but for the bread & olive oil, you absolutely HAVE to go to the Cookbook Company or Mercato here in Calgary and pick up something a little more high end as a treat.
I’ve made Coolio’s Fork Steak (.pdf file), which uses balsamic. It’s good. And his cooking videos on mydamnchannel.com are hilarious.
If you can get good tomatoes where you are, caprese salad is great, also, but it’s better to use a higher quality balsamic on that if you can.
Yup, absolutely, which is why I used a balsamic (along with, IIRC, S&P and garlic) marinade when I was given a couple of bear steaks. I haven’t tried it but I bet the same technique would be good for those tougher cuts of beef, wouldn’t it?
Sorry to come so late to the thread, but one of my favorite marinades for chicken is:
1 part balsamic vinegar
1 part olive oil
1 part honey
about 1 tsp dried rosemary per cup of marinade – or more to taste.
I’ve frozen chicken breasts in this mixture and thawed them (still in the mixture) overnight before grilling with great success.