Butcher

St. Patrick’s Day Eats

March 12, 2020 Beer, Butcher, Cheese

From its beginnings as a quietly observed religious dinner to the international phenomenon it is today, St. Patrick’s Day is one of our favorite excuses to celebrate with food and drink. Corned beef and cabbage, Irish cheeses, and just about anything made from potatoes seems to pair perfectly with whiskey and beer. This year, we’re adding to the lineup with our own tasty twist on traditional Irish flavors.

Our butchers have whipped up a batch of Irish-inspired sausage just begging to be the star of your St. Patrick’s Day feast. Made with house made corned beef and extra-stout Guinness, the beef’s savory richness makes a perfect combination with the deep, bittersweet flavors of Ireland’s favorite beer. Try plating these up with mashed potatoes and charred cabbage for an easy Irish celebration. Grab them in-store before they’re gone!

If you’re looking for something with more direct ties to the motherland, look no further than our cheese counter! Neal’s Dairy Yard specializes in English and Irish cheeses, and we carry some of their Irish cheeses. Coolea is a semi-firm, Gouda-like cheese with lots of sweet notes like honey and caramel, making it rich enough to savor but light enough for seconds and thirds. By contrast, Durrus is a soft washed rind cheese, with a buttery paste and vegetal rind. Together, these pasteurized cow’s milk cheeses from County Cork can round out any cheese board.

Game Day Grub: Don’t Fumble That Feast!

January 30, 2020 Butcher, Cheese, Food, Grocery, Local, Plant Based

From the most faithful sports fiend to the folks throwing together snacks with friends, it’s hard not to get swept up in the fanfare of the biggest game day in American sports. There’s something electric in the air, and there’s something on the table, too! You’ll want an epic spread to match an epic game, and our Game Day collection will make sure no one goes hungry.

Every party needs chips and dip; be the MVP when you bring Xochitl Tortilla Chips and our neighborhood-famous guacamole. Of course, this feast won’t be complete without sandwiches, and our signature sandwiches will feed both the most ravenous meat-lover and the strictest vegan. Load up on sides like pulled chicken or farro salad, too, to keep from making mid-game snack runs.

If you’re looking to bring a centerpiece to the party, swing by our cheese counter, where our expert cheesemongers will help you perfect your snacking strategy. Put together a winning cheese and charcuterie platter with their help (and don’t forget any of the accompaniments!), or order ahead and let us take care of the details.

For those doing most of their hosting from the kitchen, our whole animal butcher counter’s housemade sausages and short rib burgers will make cooking for the whole team a snap. (Don’t worry, we didn’t leave out plant-based partiers.)

We’re placing our bets, though, that party prepping might be overwhelming some folks. Local delivery is always an easy option! But our head chef, Andrew Werblin, has put together a game day catering menu guaranteed to kick things up a notch. Classics like loaded potato skins are real crowd-pleasers, and so is our elevated take on seven layer dip. Our catering team delivers beyond our local zone, so you’ll never have to worry about being too far from the end zone.

Dry Rub Lemon Herb Chicken

March 13, 2019 Butcher, Recipes

Our Head Chef knows a thing or two about preparing a great rotisserie chicken! A crispy, juicy oven roasted chicken prepared with Herbs de Provence, lemon peel, fennel and a little brown sugar. We recommend trying this recipe with one of our free range Goffle Road Chickens. Both are available in our shop either cooked in the rotisserie, or uncooked from our butcher counter!

This recipe will give you a super crispy skin and a deep aromatic flavor that pairs perfectly with roasted potatoes and braised greens. Feel free to double or triple the rub recipe and save in an airtight container to keep on hand for future use. We recommend using a meat thermometer while cooking the bird as it’s an invaluable tool and an asset in the kitchen. If you don’t have one on hand you can pick one up along with the rest of the ingredients online or at Greene Grape Provisions! (If spices are out of stock or not available online, please don’t hesitate to call and ask for them to be added to your online order.)

Lemon & Herb Dry Rub

1 whole chicken (approx. 4-4.5 lbs.)
1 tbs Herbs de Provence
1 tsp dried lemon peel
1 tsp marjoram
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp fennel seed (ground)
2 tbs kosher salt
1 ½ tbs dark brown sugar*

*You can omit the sugar if you prefer, but keeping it in the rub yields a darker, more crispy skin.

Directions:

Combine all rub ingredients, making sure to break up any clumps
Pat your chicken dry inside and out
Truss the chicken. Here’s a quick tutorial if you need one
Season inside of bird with rub, and sprinkle rub generously on outside, starting with the sides and bottom and finishing with the top (breast side)
For best flavor, let your chicken sit for 3-6 hours, or just go straight to cooking
Preheat your oven to 400ºF, or 375ºF if you have a convection feature
Place chicken on your roasting rack or cookie tray
Put in oven, and roast for ½ hour. Turn oven down to 350ºF and continue to roast
After 1 hour, poke the thermometer into the deepest part of the thigh where it meets the leg to test doneness, without touching the bone. Once it hits 165ºF, the chicken is ready, If you prefer a more well-done bird, aim for 175-180°F
Once chicken is cooked, let it rest for 10-15 minutes before carving. This allows the protein to relax and the juices to flow evenly throughout the meat
Carve by removing the wings first then the leg and thigh, followed by removing the breast by running your knife right along the breast plate the length of the breast

Not Your Average Grocer

April 19, 2018 Butcher, Farmtotable, Fort Greene, Grocery, Local, Vegetables

If there’s one thing we know around here, it’s that at Provisions, we’re not your average grocer. People come from all over the city to find that one amazing, rare item we happen to carry, just as much as we have a crowd of regulars who pick up everything they need from us. It’s not just our unique collection of products, though, or even our crew of diverse personalities. It’s in the way we source those products, and it’s in the way those products are made. From your basic milk and eggs to the specialty foods you never thought you’d find in Fort Greene, we strive to find and carry items that are local, sustainable, and ethically made, all held to a high standard of quality.

Many if not most grocery stores source exclusively from corporate distributor middlemen, and they in turn source from industrial farms and factories where there’s little to no transparency. It makes for a hard disconnect on where food comes from, especially when food is mistreated and wasted in the name of perfectly identical, shelf-ready products. The people who make these foods are likely to be vastly underpaid and overworked. Both people and animals suffer under these systems that are not sustainable, and yet as an individual it can seem daunting to get around it. That’s where we come in.

At Provisions, we are constantly looking for more ways to do our part toward a better, more viable food system where people and the food that nourishes them can thrive. Our milk and eggs come from farms where animals are treated like part of the family, with expansive pastures to roam, diverse grazing, and even biweekly pedicures for the cows. We source produce from small operations from as nearby as Gotham Greens in Gowanus, and our butcher counter lets no scrap go to waste when they make animal fat soaps and candles. When it comes to stocking our shelves, we work directly with small producers who hold the same values of sustainability and transparency in their ingredients and production.

Look for Not Your Average Grocer signs around the store, and find out more about what sets us apart!

Just our duck! Lucky Duck Ramen

April 5, 2018 Butcher, Farmtotable, Fort Greene, Recipes

Ramen is a staple in Japan, so ubiquitous that its origins are shrouded in mystery and so culturally important it has its own museum. With the weather still see-sawing from cold to warm and back again, we could all use a hot, brothy bowl of noodles dressed to our liking. While there are as many regional varieties as there are people in Japan, we think your new favorite variety might be our duck ramen!

Pick up a ramen kit, available for delivery here,
and follow along with Chef Kenny’s recipe:

Greene Grape Duck Ramen

Ingredients:
1 qt House Made Duck Tonkatsu Broth
1 leg House Made duck confit
2 packages Sun Ramen noodles
2 eggs
½ cup carrot grated

Garnishes:
1 pc scallion, thinly sliced
1 pack Blue Moon Acres Asian microgreens
1 pinch red pepper flakes
1 pinch sesame seeds

Bring two quarts of water to boil. Carefully drop eggs into water for eight minutes (seven if you like a runny yolk), then remove eggs carefully, placing under cold running water to cool. Reserve the boil water to cook noodles.
Cook ramen noodles for two to two and a half minutes, strain and set aside.
In a separate pot, heat your duck broth. Put duck confit into the warm broth for two minutes, remove and pick meat off the bone.
Divide the noodles, duck confit, & carrot between two serving bowls.
Peel the eggs carefully and slice in half.
Pour your hot broth over the noodles and duck. Finish with the egg, microgreens, scallion. Sprinkle pepper flakes and sesame seeds to taste.

Up your game with Lena’s Barbacoa Beef recipe!

January 23, 2018 Butcher, Local, Recipes

As you probably know by now, we’re pretty proud of our Whole Animal Butcher counter. We source high quality, grass fed, pasture raised steer from the nearby Slope Farms. And while we try not to let a single scrap go to waste, this is a real challenge in the summer months. Many of our customers are looking for steaks that are easy to throw on the grill, but not necessarily braising cuts from other parts of the steer. Winter is a perfect time to break out that Instapot and make Lena’s Barbacoa recipe.

[ Order the ingredients here! ]

Barbacoa Beef
Makes enough meat to stuff 32- 40 tacos. Total time: 90 minutes·

2 cans of chipotle in adobo sauce
1 bunch of fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped (include stems)
1 bunch of fresh oregano, coarsely chopped
1 large yellow onion, peeled and cut into small chunks
8 garlic cloves, peeled and cloves smashed
1 teaspoon ground cloves
2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
Juice of 3 limes
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
4 pounds beef brisket
2 cups stock or water
1 tablespoon high temp oil
3 bay leaves

Place the chipotle peppers and their sauce, cilantro, oregano, onion, garlic, clove, cumin, 1 1/2 tablespoons salt, lime juice, and cider vinegar in a blender and put aside. Use the remainder of the salt to season the meat. If necessary, cut the meat into a few pieces to better fit into the pot.

Heat the pressure cooker on the sauté setting. When it’s hot, add the oil and brown the meat. Do not overcrowd the pot. “You want a dark brown sear and you want to avoid steaming the meat ” -says Lena. Add the sauce from the blender and bay leaves, cover and cook on high pressure until the meat is tender and easily shreds—about 1 hour. In the same pot, using 2 forks, pull the meat apart. Do not discard the cooking liquid or the fat; you will need liquid to keep the barbacoa warm and moist (though not swimming in it), the fat is useful for frying up crispy barbacoa in a pan.

A Gift That Meats Expectations!

November 28, 2017 Butcher, Farmtotable

The New Whole Animal Card From Our Butchers!

Give the omnivore in your life a crash course on whole animal butchery! Our new Whole Animal Card invites you to delve through each layer of a steer or pig, selecting one cut from each section of the animal. This gift card is the perfect stocking stuffer for the meat lovers in your life. Help them branch out from their usual chops and maybe learn a thing of two from our Whole Animal Butcher in the process!

What is Whole Animal Butchery?

From nose to toes, our butchers break down whole animals, doing their best to eliminate waste along the way. This approach offers many benefits, the most important of which is sustainability. Farmers don’t just raise pork chops and brisket, they raise whole pigs and steers. Using the entire animal creates less food waste and helps us build a more sustainable food system overall. Additionally, ordering a whole entire animal directly from a farm provides a more transparent supply chain: we know exactly where the meat is coming from. We choose the farms we work with based on quality, humane handling practices, and commitment to sustainable land use. We can guarantee that each animal we break down lives up to these standards. Not least of all, whole animal butchery offers a great deal of variety! Our Whole Animal Card is a passport to exploring each subprimal layer of a steer or pig. For pork, you can try one cut each of the shoulder, loin, belly, and ham. Our steer card includes one cut of chuck, brisket & shank, plate, rib, short loin, sirloin, and round.

Delicious from top to bottom, these steers and pigs are pasture-raised and ready to show you the range and importance of local, grass-fed whole animal butcher. At $100 – $150 per card, this gift is a great value that won’t steer you wrong! These are available for purchase in-store, and you can buy them online!

Beef Up Your Bacon

June 30, 2017 Butcher, Local

If you’ve been searching for a pork-free solution to the breakfast meat dilemma, we’ve got excellent news in the form of beef bacon! House-made by our butchers, our cured beef bacon is made from pasture raised cows. These cows, raised by Slope Farms are grass-fed on pastures in upstate New York—less than 200 miles from our store!

Beef is a great bacon alternative because unlike turkey bacon, it maintains a great juicy-to-crispy ratio. Leaner and higher in protein than a slice of pork bacon, it can serve as a meatier headliner with eggs and toast or really power up a BLT. For a really paleo barbecue, use it to top off one of our burgers. Moo-ve on over to our butcher counter to grab the bacon blasts while they last!

Greatest Of All Time

March 9, 2017 Butcher, Recipes, Uncategorized

In celebration of our month-long goat special at the Butcher’s counter, we’ve put together a seasonally inspired recipe comprised of ingredients that can all be found in our shop!

Braised Goat with Sunchoke Mashed Potatoes
This recipe serves up to 4 people

Braised Goat Ingredients:
2 lbs. of goat for braising (speak to your butcher for recommendations), allow to come to room temperature
Mire poix (2 large carrots, 1 large onion, 1 celery stalk)
1 bay leaf
5 large garlic cloves – smashed
1 sprig of rosemary
1 qt of GG housemade chicken stock
Salt & pepper – enough to liberally season the full cut of meat (5-10 minutes before cookin
Fresh parsley – optional for garnish

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 325°F.
Heat a cast iron skillet, roasting pan or dutch oven until it is smoking hot on the stove top.
Add 3 tablespoons of high heat oil of your choice (e.g. grapeseed oil or coconut oil).
Brown the meat (already seasoned with salt and pepper). Once you have a rich dark brown crust, remove and place to the side.
Add the mire poix and rosemary, allow to sweat (approximately 8-10 minutes), stirring occasionally.
Pour in chicken stock, allowing it to deglaze and reduce by one third.
Nestle the meat into the braising liquid and cover (if you’re using a roasting pan or skillet, seal tightly with aluminum foil)
Transfer into the oven.
After 2 hours check for tenderness– should be fork tender. If not return to the oven and check periodically.
Once tender, remove the meat and shred using two forks to pull apart the meat.
Puree the braising liquid and veggies, using an immersion blender, or transferring to a food processor.
Mix together the braised meat and pureed vegetables and place in a serving dish of your choice.

Sunchoke Mashed Potatoes Ingredients:

Salt, as needed
1 1/4 lbs sunchokes
1/2 lb Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into 2-inch chunks
1 Tbsp butter
Pepper, as needed

Instructions:

Fill a large saucepan with salted water.
Peel the sunchokes, then cut them into 1-in pieces. As you work, place the peeled sunchokes into the water to prevent browning.
Add the potatoes to the saucepan and bring the mixture to a rolling boil.
Reduce the heat to medium, and allow the sunchokes and potatoes to cook together until fork-tender, about 12 minutes.
Remove the mixture from the heat and drain thoroughly. Transfer the vegetables to a food processor. Add the butter, then puree the mixture until smooth and free of lumps. (This can also be done by hand with a potato masher).
Taste and season with salt and pepper, as desired. Hold warm or gently reheat before serving.

This dish pairs well with a sauteed green such as fresh spigarello and NY Shuk Harissa with preserved lemon!

How To Roast a Boston Butt

January 13, 2017 Butcher, Recipes

We checked in with our Head Butcher, Lena Diaz to see how she would go about roasting one of her favorite cuts – the Pork Butt a.k.a. Boston Butt. Her biggest tip is to allow the meat to roast slowly. With a recipe this simple, you don’t have to make a day of it, but you will enjoy the aromas from the morning until the time you finally get to dig in at night!

Ingredients:
One 8-10lb pork butt
Handful of toasted coriander seeds
Handful of toasted fennel seeds
4 cloves fresh garlic, pressed in a morter & pestle, or chopped finely
Ground Cinnamon
Garlic
Salt a generous amount, this is a large cut of meat after all!

Alternately- If you’d rather get more creative you can also just clean out your spice rack. Make sure to toast any whole spices to make the most out of their aromatic qualities and of course use plenty of salt to rub!

Directions:
The Night Before
1. Season your Roast
Rub the pork butt liberally with the toasted seeds, garlic, and salt. Add a dash of cinnamon all over the butt. Place the cut in a casserole dish and leave overnight.

Roasting Day
2. Remove roast from refrigerator and let it rest until it reaches room temp.
3. Preheat your oven to 250 degrees, about 15 minutes.
4. When both the oven and the roast are ready, place the casserole dish in the oven, uncovered.
5. Roast for approximately 8 hours, checking for tenderness periodically.
6. When the roast is fork tender you may remove it from the oven.
7. (Optional) If the roast needs a little extra color on the exterior, you can raise the oven temp to 450 degrees and let it roast for up to an additional 15 minutes.

Let it stand for a few minutes and then enjoy alongside roast vegetables and a glass of wine!

*Photo by Alberto Vargas

Lemon & Herb Dry Rub

The New Whole Animal Card From Our Butchers!

What is Whole Animal Butchery?

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