Hearty beef & Guinness stew with carrots and mushrooms, over mashed potatoes
My mother is born-and-raised solid country stock from County Westmeath, Ireland. She remembers St. Patrick’s Day celebrations as chiefly religious, with the country going to mass with freshly-picked clovers pinned to buttonholes to honor their patron saint. Then there would be a shared family meal with special-occasion ingredients like beef or lamb, usually presented in roasts or stews.
Regardless of how you choose to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day (or whether you want to avoid all related shenanigans entirely), this traditional Irish dish is straight-forward, nourishing, rich, and perfect for spooning out among any group of friends and family (though with all due respect to my grandmother and her preferred method of just dumping everything in a big pot and leaving it, I’ve added and tweaked some steps to improve texture and flavor).
(sponsored)Brooklyn Meat Club is a neighborhood butcher shop, without the shop. Targeting home chefs, the newest addition to the Brooklyn business scene provides restaurant quality meat at below market prices.
“We work directly with suppliers, plus we cut out almost all of the overhead, so our products are priced to let our customers cook incredible meals 7 days a week,” founder Jorge Viscarra Jr., was quoted as saying. Viscarra has been in the meat supply business for over 15 years, working alongside his father, Jorge Viscarra Sr., the founder of GV Food Service, a thriving family business that has been serving New York for over 25 years.
Brooklyn Meat Club’s website, www.brooklynmeatclub.com, lets customers choose not just the meat they would like, but also how thick they would like their pork and beef cut. The orders are then hand trimmed to insure tenderness. In addition, they carry organic poultry and seasonings, as well as lamb and game. Customers that place their orders by Wednesdays at 4pm can pick them up that Saturday between 12 and 6 at Brooklyn Safehouse (120 Franklin St) in Greenpoint. Fresh, organic Thanksgiving turkeys are available for pick up both Saturday the 22nd and Tuesday the 25th of November.
“We want to provide not just a great product, but also a great experience for our patrons,” said co-founder Shannon Clare. “Everything will be nicely cut, wrapped and boxed for you when you get to the Safehouse. If you want to grab a beer or two, we’ll keep it cool for you until you are ready to head out.”
Clare also developed the line of seasonings, made with organic herbs, for Brooklyn Meat Club. Iníon’s Seasons has 4 different rubs that were made specifically to bring out the flavor of the meats the pair sell. Iníon is Gaelic for daughter, and Izzy’s Herb Rub, one of the spices in the line, is named for Clare’s 1 year old.
The logo for both Iníon’s Seasons and Brooklyn Meat Club, as well as all of the art on the site, were created by Brooklyn artist Nathan Chase. Chase, Viscarra, and Clare are all friends and residents of Greenpoint, making Brooklyn Meat Club a true neighborhood endeavor.
As if you needed any more indication that hip hop is in a bad place right now, the Drake Chris Brown saga solidifies this fact. The music that once brought us such great rivalries as Nas VS Jay Z, Mc Shan VS KRS One, NWA Vs Ice Cube, Eazy E Vs Dr Dre, now gives us Drake and chris Brown? How sad. First of all, the Lil Kim Nikki Minaj beef was more interesting and relevant since it involved the typical bullshit that rappers beef about like stealing one’s style, trying to stay relevant, or trying to hold on to their “throne”. Plus I think Lil Kim would smack the shit out of Chris Brown and Drake at the same time in a streetfight. Continue reading →
