124. At Home And Away.

Miserabile dictu, a food lover’s life under Tier 3 is a life of lost opportunity. Lost is my reservation for my pre-Christmas Purnell’s lunch which I’ve made one of my happiest personal Christmas traditions for several recent past years. But wait! Purnell’s cavalry is riding to the Christmas tradition rescue. Along with several other distinguished Birmingham restaurants, including the Michelin-starred Simpsons, Carter’s of Moseley and Opheem, as well as The Wilderness and Pulperia, Purnell’s has started a weekend Takeaway service for a four or three course lunch with, if required, a wine flight.

Naturally I placed an order for the first weekend’s delivery which was brought to my doorstep (for an extra delivery fee) by sommelier Adrian on the afternoon of 5 December, too late for me to summon up the energy to prepare for myself and then consume a four course meal washed down with four half-bottles of wine but laying out the prospect of a Sunday lunch made up of some of Purnell’s greatest hits prepared and eaten as the day passed by.

The contents of the goody box were initially a little mesmerising being rather numerous and I failed to recognise the fish especially as its packaging was unlabelled. But after girding up my loins it became apparent that the accompanying instructions made it clear that the preparation steps were simple and not demanding and so we were off with a “substantial meal” (starter of smoked haddock scotch egg defined by various government ministers [after some debate] as a “substantial meal” in itself, necessary to be consumed if one has the desire to consume alcohol in a still open Tier 2 hospitality venue). Of course only Glynn Purnell and his crew could have come up with the cheeky, hilarious, ironic (perhaps sarcastic) choice of scotch egg as the starter of their first ever Tier 3 Purnell’s @ Home meal. The scotch egg, more Purnell’s Bistro than Purnell’s, came with spinach (which I successfully wilted), curry oil and chives and I performed a very amateur plating up while not wrecking the enjoyability of the dish. To be fair, the scotch egg wasn’t the greatest Purnell’s dish - the flavour of smoked haddock was perfect, not too overwhelming, but a layer of potato is less pleasing than a layer of sausage meat which is used in the traditional scotch egg. Still, the irony was fabulous.

I should not forget to mention the sheer joy of having Purnell’s pain de campagne in the house accompanied by a little container of the excellent butter served at the restaurant though the butter was a little over salted.

Smoked haddock scotch egg with spinach and curry oil.

After I found the main component of the fish course - a lovely piece of cod covered in perfect spices - and managed to boil-in-the-bag the pickled carrots which therefore did not quite have the texture I’m sure Glynn Purnell would have hoped that I would achieve and then carried out the rest of the preparation without error including the shallow frying of the cod (2 minutes each side) I was able to plate up, perhaps with a little too much curry oil to achieve the height of elegance, and enjoy Purnell’s exquisite Fish du jour masala with Indian lentils, pickled carrots and coconut. This remains a fabulous dish even when I have been let loose on it. Such great pleasure.

Then the main course of Braised daube of beef, which was so beautifully tender that it fell apart merely as a result of placing it on the plate and its flavour was mesmerising coupled as it was by extraordinarily delicious glazed carrots and Savoy cabbage. My plating up reached levels of inelegance never before seen with a Purnell’s dish but who cares? - I loved it.

My plating up was equally inelegant when it came to the legendary Burnt English Egg Custard Surprise 10/10/10 which was the dish that first lured me to the establishment in Cornwall Street but life’s too short to worry about the look when the flavour is everything. It was served with a winter-worthy Paupers cake, whipped mascarpone and crystallised lemon zest. Looking at my picture, it could be breakfast.

At the end there were two little “gifts from the kitchen”, memorable little balls of white chocolate covered in hundreds and thousands. So I have had my traditional Purnell’s Christmas lunch after all and have been a Purnell’s chef for the day. As the year draws to the end, what could be more satisfying?

The wine flight was admirable and the little half bottle of the El Coto 2016 Rioja was wondrous.

With Birmingham due to continue in Tier 3 after 16 December I’m sure, a Birmingham publicity Advent calendar did its best to support our Michelin starred restaurants by naming them in its one of its little windows:-