The new dishes and the unique pairing of 'El Corral de la Morería' (Madrid)

Zapateado is the rhythm that the flamenco artist makes with his feet, a percussion comparable to the drums, that instrument that David García, one of the most intimate and at the same time explosive chefs, has more connections than those that are perceived with the naked eye in this emblem of Madrid. Here he is in her sauce, with the admiration and mutual trust of Blanca del Rey and her sons Armando and Juan Manuel, owners of 'Corral de la Morería' (2 Repsol Guide Suns).

Between all they manage that every time you go, you leave with the willies. Each experience is non-transferable, but we are going to whet your appetite with the gastronomic menu and the generous wines that accompany it and that you can only taste in its secluded dining room, before or after falling asleep with a show attended by the greats of flamenco who they raffle in half the world.

“The menu is raised from the roots, from the personal side of my Biscayan territory, from the memory, respect and emotion of being able to recreate it in my own way. I don't do fusions or use techniques that I don't understand as traditional, which doesn't mean that I don't do new things to have fun and pass it on to the client. I prefer to make 20 dishes that mark me forever but that have a reason. The diner's experience is not only that the dishes are delicious, but that they make sense”, explains David García with that relaxing tranquility that characterizes him.

A first pass you've never tried

The first pass is Urchins with seaweed. It has that effect of thinking you've never tasted anything so special, something that doesn't happen often. It is a fermented seaweed soup with turnips and pickled sea fennel, with sea urchins and an air that evokes sea foam with the water inside the sea urchins.

“I try it many times to see how it fits on the menu, just like the other dishes. Your food is accompanied by some very specific wines and, in addition, we only serve dinner. I do not work fats or carbohydrates, I take care that it can be enjoyed until dessert”, says David, meticulous so that everything flows naturally without the hours of work being perceived.

First of all, Juanma del Rey doesn't choose just anything. La Bota 90 of last manzanilla bottled by Equipo Navazos. "It is a wine that comes from a very special cellar located on Calle de la Misericordia, in La Guita, and that Equipo Navazos wanted to bottle starting at La Bota 10. In this case, the foreman of La Guita makes Some 30 years ago, he selected some of the best casks to make a manzanilla past that was never marketed, with which he acquired an important degree of aging and the first time it was bottled it was done by Equipo Navazos”. Juanma thinks that it goes very well with the sea urchin because it has those saline and complex, balanced and fresh notes. Within the intensity, it has a lot of balance.

Pairing with jewels that did not make it to the market

The almond-shaped grilled veal gizzard, with concentrated red onion juice, comes next. It is a dish full of different textures. The silky gizzard, which is first blanched, then submerged for three hours in cold water, cooked at a low temperature, seared in the pan, glazed with meat juices, smoked in the kamado, then coated in toasted almonds and It is accompanied by a red onion juice that has been simmering for twelve hours and has a tremendous aroma. The result is ten. "It's risky because you like it or you don't," says David, as if the second option were feasible.

La Cigarrera last manzanilla is a luxury. “One of the wonderful things about the Jerez area is that, as they are wineries that have had their ups and downs over time, you find jewels that have not hit the market. Consumer tastes were for younger wines. Those who had so much breeding had little outlet and this took a marvelous evolution in the boot. It fits perfectly with the gizzard because it is less saline, more oxidative, with subtle notes of hazelnuts and dried fruits that link with the almond almonds of the gizzard”, explains del Rey.

David García grew up six minutes from the sea, which is why as soon as he escapes to Bilbao “if I'm not catching squid, they're crabs or urchins. I am feral, I like to go fishing and in the mountains, I am from a very rural environment, from a culture of being in contact with nature, with native breeds. I'm going to catch a lot of chipi with the boat at night. Hence the squid noodles, with a Bilbao-style refried sauce and squid sauce. What I do is interpret those things that I have assimilated”.

The fine La Ina de Domeq, with 45 years in the bottle, is the harmony of this dish. “The grape comes from the Macharnudo Alto estate, the Romanee Conti de Jerez, a powerful and sharp Grand Cru like a Riesling. Saline, with hints of limestone earth, oil, lemony herbs, ginger, chamomile and citrus. Domecq carried out long aging and long static phases. They carried out viticulture with lower yields than those practiced today”, details del Rey.

Classics that are updated every day

Getting the most juice out of turbot, with its honeyed juice and lemon jam. For that, instead of making a fumet, which tends to dissipate the flavor, the chef prefers to make the spines under vacuum, because they are the ones with the collagen, and then hit them with a wand. Now it is time for a wine with 60 years in the bottle, the Fino Carta Blanca amontillado, by Agustín Blázquez. “It is bright gold in color, on the nose it is young -pastries, white chocolate, vanilla, lots of citrus- and on the palate it excites -herbs and citrus-, it is between salting and the bakery, which links very well with the turbot and juice of their thorns."

Zurrukutuna or garlic soup with cod, which is a hit in traditional Basque cuisine, becomes a very fine and wobbly curd with an extraordinary concentration of flavor and a creamy texture more typical of a dessert than a main course. “It is a humble dish, which you eat when you get together with the gang and which, although it may not seem like it, is updated every day. With your restlessness and your story in mind, another way of doing it arises. It is very important to feel satisfied with what you do and convey the truth to the client”, explains David.

It is a complex dish that has two textures. This very clean curd is made from conger eel broth, onion, tomato, bread, a little cream and egg. "The secret is the temperature of the curdling, at 78 degrees you have to take it out." The layer that covers it, which looks like a caramel, is made by individually working red onion, pepper and cod skins, and then combining the three juices.

The 51-1st amontillado by Domecq (50 years in the bottle) is going to be a movie. It came from a solera founded by Pedro Domecq, Juan Haurie's grandson, in 1830. “The solera began as a manzanilla and over time became an amontillado. Fairly reddish and bright amber color. Aromas of good intensity and great elegance, fine and noble woods, very present nuts, especially hazelnuts, cocoa, quite sharp and saline touches, a true jewel on the nose. On the palate it is fine, tasty, powerful, persistent, velvety. Aftertaste of nuts, quality wood and very slight salt, as well as hints of caramel and something bitter at the end, which further elevate the zurrukutuna”, describes Juan Manuel.

Devotion to wine archeology

The 'Corral' winery is excessive, as confirmed by Juanma himself. His is passionate. He looks for almost disappeared bottles that are no longer produced and buys a lot from individuals, who have inherited from his family or who want to sell. Nowhere else is there such a complete experience of enjoying bottles that no longer exist, from cellars that no longer exist. “We have tasted hundreds of wines from defunct wineries, 40, 60, 80 and 100 years old. They are white wines that have a wonderful evolution in the bottle. Gastronomically they are incredible, they have elegance, roundness, unique nuances. The recently bottled ones have strength, energy, they are sharp, but the same wine with 30 years is elegant and complex”.

Cock's comb, pig's tail, beef tendon and lamb's leg with a powerful smoked eel consommé, which wraps those parts until recently despised of farm animals in a stew as famous as the marmitako, based on a deep broth smoked eel and pickles. A surprising and well-founded interpretation, like everything that comes out of the kitchen of David García, a chef who shies away from ostentatious products because he prefers to polish modest options and turn them into top.

El Palo Cortado Dos Cortados, by Williams&Humbert (almost 40 years in the bottle), is an oloroso that has truly transformed into a palo cortado. The grapes come from Viña Dos Mercedes, in Pago de Carrascal, the most inland and warmest in Jerez, and hence its great power. “Made for eternity. It has lactic tones and on the nose a party of sweet spices, a smoky point that evokes the malt whiskeys of the Scottish Highlands, many dried fruits (nougat, hazelnuts, walnuts), dates, a background like black tea that wonderfully accompany the complexity and smoothness of the Marmitako de Colágenos” points out del Rey.

The challenge of producing the best pigeon

It seems raw, but it is not. After its rosy color and its naked presentation, this squab reveals the mastery of a chef who is in a plethoric moment. “For us it is a challenge to make the best pigeon, we have to be strict with the cooking technique and achieve an interesting sauce with only the legs” says David. Outstanding point, very tender breast and a sauce that enhances the product without overshadowing it. Each bite is a display of the field in which they are raised.

It is paired with Oloroso Rio Viejo Domecq (55 years in the bottle). Domecq kept his olorosos for several years with biological aging with a flower veil. That's why they have such a slim profile. “A spiritual wine that levitates on the palate. Unbeatable to accompany a pigeon that brings and demands elegance, and that this oloroso raises to the altars with such finesse. Aromas of tobacco and salty nuts with a background of cocoa powder. In the mouth it brings us minerality of limestone and truffles with a texture of wood and rock”.

You arrive at desserts without heaviness, with the desire to try them. If this menu has something, it is that it is light, with zero greasy sensation, which leaves a wonderful memory because it is digested very well. The homage to the famous Soleá del Mantón created by Blanca del Rey, bailaora, choreographer and soul of 'Corral', inspires Goxua's version, a classic from the Basque cookbook with diplomatic cream whipped with cream and vanilla, caramelized brioche bread and smoked sheep milk ice cream.

Domecq's oloroso Lebrero (bottled 1970) is fantastic for this first sweet bite. “If we add the years in the bottle to the age of aging in the cask, it will give us that we taste a wine at around eighty years of age. Nice bright amber color. On the nose, I remember white spices, sweets, tobacco, delicate raisins, slightly sweet dried fruits. On the palate it has a very balanced mid palate (magnificent dry/sweet balance), velvety, subtle”.

Taste the life of a foreman in one sip

“One of the virtues of these wines is that a small sip already gives you pleasure. The prices of Jerez wines are unreal. For quality and breeding. Behind it is the entire professional life of a foreman taking care of that wine”, recalls the expert.

The last dessert is based on the intxaursalsa, a recipe for celebration and to take advantage of the nuts that abound in the Basque Country. “Applying a technique, it becomes sugarcane to finish off a dinner. What we do is that the latter is enjoyed as much as the former, which is why it is more ethereal and fragile”, explains the chef. Beside him an old Muscat Pico Plata from Florido brothers (70 years in the bottle).

“For approximately a week, the grapes were left in the sun before being pressed to age on the solera. Sweet, but with an acidity that refreshes it and makes it delicate and subtle. Elegant. Not cloying and very clean. The best muscatel from Marco de Jerez from the 50s”, details Juanma.

As a final point, the Bota 0 amontillado from Bodegas La Inglesa. Amontillado from static aging with more than 150 years, from musts of Pedro Ximénez and other pre-phylloxera varieties (montepila, albillo...) from Altos de Moriles and the Sierra de Montilla. “A racial, Homeric, very powerful wine, but at the same time with extraordinary elegance and finesse. Bright amber color with mahogany touches. Impetuous, forceful nose, which opens the way to endless notes of noble woods, nuts, white spices, minerals. On the palate it maintains corpulence and roundness, as well as an unexpected finesse and fluidity in an amontillado with 150 years of static. The oldest wine from the Sacristy of the family. A boot that has never been stuffed and that for 150 years has only been enjoyed by the family that owns it. And now…us”.