A few weeks back I stumbled across a simple tweet Beer Pairing Dinner – East India Company and Beyond the Pale (June 17, 2014) and it immediately caught my attention. Without hesitation I bought two tickets. The idea of a beer pairing dinner along side Indian food seemed so unique to me that I had to see what it was all about; plus I felt like it was a great way to kick off my birthday week! Although who am I kidding, I’d say, “YES!” to any kind of food and drink event, no matter what day of the week or year.
And let me tell you, best birthday gift I could give to me!! I’m not even looking forward to my actual birthday anymore. Okay maybe I’m over exaggerating just a tad, but honestly I was literally in heaven! Three hours of eating: seven mouth watering dishes and five tasty beers, what more could a soon-to-be-birthday-girl ask for!!
Beer lovers Katy Watts and Sasha Dunfield of Ottawa Beer Events felt beer pairing dinners that consisted of Indian cuisine were a rarity and decided to bring together the East India Company and Beyond the Pale. For the past year Ottawa Beer Events has focused on promoting all beer related events within the city. This was the first time they decided to host their own event.
Nitin Mehra Chef/Sommelier of East India Company Pub & Eatery and all the 8 oz beer pairings from Beyond the Pale Brewery spoiled everyone. Here’s a little TASTE of Tuesday’s dinner:
Before dinner was served Beyond the Pale decided to surprised all of us with a tasting of their unreleased new natural vegan Mosaic hopped white session IPA, called #hashtagtrending; which was a great way to start the night.
Just shy of 6:30 pm dinner was finally being served. My friend Krista and I were starving at this point and getting really anxious for dinner, since the smells in the restaurant were amazing.
The first course consisted of two dishes paired with Party Animal, a Belgian Imperial India Pale Ale (9.0% ABV, 65 IBU).
The first dish was an aloo bhoonda slider (pictured above): fried potato mash, chickpea flour, black mustard seed and mint on a soft milk bun. Slider buns supplied by Bread By Us. With a side of achar (an Indian pickle) and lotus chips. There was also mango chutney on the table that was rightfully recommended to eat with the slider. I was tempted to ask for seconds.
The second dish was a taco: chilli panner (a type of cheese common in Indian cuisine), mint, lime, spicy avocado and arugula served on a whole wheat tandoori roti with roasted spicy cashews. Let’s be honest, you can never go wrong with tacos!
After the first course, Krista and I were speechless. We couldn’t believe how amazing those first two dishes were, that we didn’t think the rest would be able to compete. Thankfully the dinner kept on getting better.
The second course was a spiced beet salad with goat cheese, deep fried chickpeas and momma’s delicious home-made dressing. It was paired with Pink Fuzz, a Grapefruit Wheat (6.0% ABV, 20 IBU).
When I originally showed Krista the menu, she was really hesitant about this course because she isn’t a huge fan of beets, but lo and behold she ate the whole thing. The spices with the beets complimented each other so nicely that the taste was unbelievable! If I had to pick my favourite dish, this would be it!
The third course started off with an achari salmon (right): pickled salmon with tamarind chutney. After a couple of mouth watering bites I was starting to worry I wasn’t going to make it to dessert. So I only ate as much as I could. Meanwhile Krista was in food heaven and couldn’t stop. She’s been dreaming about this salmon ever since.
Here we were thinking the third course was done, but not quite. The next dish was a traditional chicken tikka: boneless dark meat marinated in yogurt, spiced with East India Company tandoori masala and baked in their traditional clay ovens. The side included cauliflower with a chickpea batter on a cauliflower puree.
Both dishes were paired with Rye Guy, a Rye India Pale Ale (6.7% ABV, 52 IBU). Rye Guy is one of the featured beers on East India Company’s menu and one of the reasons why Katy and Sasha wanted Beyond the Pale and East India Company to be a part of their beer pairing dinner. They loved how well Rye Guy paired with the food from East India Company that they were curious about the other beers that Beyond and the Pale had. And well, moral of the story is that amazing beers pair really well with amazing food.
Can you believe it, we’re still not at dessert yet, one more course to go. The fourth course (right) was seared lamb chops in coconut curry on top of palak (a thick curry sauce based on pureed spinach) and seasoned with an in-house Garam Masala dry rub. The chops were paired with Imperial Super Guy, an Imperial Rye India Pale Ale (9.1% ABV, 90 IBU).
Oh! I can’t forget the best part, no Indian dish is complete without Naan bread! Everyone’s favourite. We were all cheering when the servers brought out the Naan.
After making it through all those dishes, I was extremely happy that it was time for dessert, a chai brulée with coconut macaroon (below), paired with The Darkness (Sasha’s favourite beer), an Oatmeal Stout (5.6% ABV, 30 IBU). I’m not usually a big fan of dark beers, although The Darkness was pretty unreal, a perfect dessert beer. You could taste the coffee flavours in the beer perfectly that some people were even dipping their macaroons into the beer.
Krista and I were on cloud nine by the end of the night. Ottawa Beer Events hosted an absolutely amazing dinner, that was paired perfectly with the beers from Beyond the Pale. So word of advice, follow Ottawa Beer Events on Facebook and Twitter and they will for sure keep you posted on anything beer related within the city. Because with summer already here, we all know that hot summer days are even better with beer.
Cheers!
