Forget wine – Chef Dan Keane proves beer has just as much to give to Spanish fare
Chef Dan Keane proves beer has just as much to give to Spanish fare
- Stack A Restaurant
- Custom House Quay, IFSC, Dublin, D01 Y6P5
- Tel: (01) 568 5989
- www.urbanbrewing.ie, www.estrellagaliciabeer.co.uk
Hidden behind The Irish Emigration Museum, and a stone's throw away from the impressive Custom House building, sits another gem in Custom House Quay’s architectural crown.
Stack A Restaurant at Urban Brewing is located in an underground vault of the 200-year-old CHQ building. When you enter, you’re sent down, down, down, to a fine-dining restaurant surrounded by centenary brick, stone walls, and brewery equipment.
It made for a suitable setting for Spanish beer brand Estrella Galicia’s only Irish event as part of its Gastronomy Month, which aims to showcase the best of Spanish fare – and of course, beer.
Like many of us, I was familiar with the concept of wine and food pairings, but beer is not something I would have thought to serve up as part of a culinary experience. Enter, Chef Dan Keane, drafted in to change my mind.
First on the menu is a traditional cod croquette, made with bacalhau (a dried, salted cod), bathed in a béchamel sauce and served with chorizo jam and a mayonnaise made with fat from said chorizo. It's served alongside Estrella Galicia’s gluten free beer (ABV 5.5%), with Keane noting the high carbonation of this particular beer should go well with the high-fat content of the dish. This proves to be my favourite plate of the night, with my enthusiasm for the chorizo jam resulting in chef Dan Keane paying a personal visit to my table later in the night to provide a jar of it to take home.
Next up is Keane’s take on a ‘hotdog.’ This is where things start to get interesting. To make the sausage, the Leixlip chef has mixed black pudding in with Cumberland sausage and served it with a delicious red pepper ketchup and caramelised onion mustard. Onion petals, sides burned to perfection, a crisp slab of brioche and some mustard seeds complete the dish. This is definitely the fanciest hot dog I’ve ever had.
For the main, we're served an 18-day dry aged Irish striploin steak served with mushroom tuille (like ketchup), onion petals and béarnaise sauce. Surprisingly, my favourite part of this dish is the mushroom tuille — and I thought I didn’t like mushrooms. This is paired with Estrella Galicia 1906 Reserva Especial (ABV 6.5%), my favourite of the night. The beer is dark amber in colour, and made from malts and hops of the aromatic Perle Hallertau variety. It’s more intense than its predecessors tonight, with a toasted malt flavour and creamier head.
Finally, it's time for dessert. It’s a white hot chocolate mousse – yes you read that right, hot, served with a brandy and vanilla mascarpone, Amarena cherries and a chocolate brandy snap. Paired with Estrella Galicia’s 1906 Black Coupage (ABV 7.2%) it’s taken me a while, but I finally feel like I ‘get’ pairings. The black lager has strong notes of coffee and chocolate, with every sip adding to the dessert in front of me. With an ABV of 7.2%, it’s a heavy hitter, and I am glad it wasn’t the first serve of the night.
I left Urban Brewing on Thursday night with a newfound appreciation for beer’s role in high-level culinary delights. Unfortunately, tonight’s event was a one-off, but I'll definitely be returning to Stack A restaurant to taste some of Chef Dan Keane’s other creations.
- Estrella Galicia beers are stocked in Supervalu, Tesco and a number of independent off-licenses nationwide
