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).
It turns out Greenpoint is becoming a bit of a mecca for craft beer. Whilst the likes of Brouwerij Lane, Tørst and Dirck the Norseman have really put us on the map as a beer destination, less well-known is the fact that Nassau Avenue’s Keg & Lantern have their very own self-described ‘nano-brewery’ and that today marks their one-year anniversary of in-house brewing.
Last year owner Keiran Breen realized that the large basement below the bar was crying out to be put to use, so he placed an ad on Craigslist for an in-house brewer to come on board. He struck gold when he found Patrick Allen, an enthusiastic home-brewer who was ready to take his weekend hobby to the next level. Patrick promptly quit his job as manager of a fine art photographic printing studio, and set about upsizing his home-brewing knowledge to a far more commercial scale. Continue reading →
