For those unfamiliar with Glynn's beef dish, the only recommendation I can mete out is move to Birmingham just to be near it. It is, of course, not yet legal to marry a dish, but as soon as it is, this one can expect a seedy proposition from yours truly. I'd take an eternity wandering the NEC centre just so long as they fed me this each evening.
"I've got a bit of a problem with fillet of beef, never used it before I got this tail of fillet of beef off my butcher. Very few chefs use the tail whole, it goes into things like straganofs," says Purnell. Fillet of beef can be cooking by numbers sometimes, an easy option to look good, but Purnell's is something else. 'Beef with liquorice and malt vinegar, that'll never work,' you might say. Well, you're wrong, it works better than a German engine.
Purnell's cooking is choc-full of references to his upbringing on a Birmingham council estate. Malt vinegar is that smell of fish and chips or that bag of salt and vinegar Walkers.
Why ling for Outlaw? "When someone tells me I can't use a fish I'm more determined to use it. Ling is a great fish and I don't know why it's no so popular."
How does Purnell feel about beating the apparent favourite Sat Bains on the BBC's Great British Menu? "I was stunned, I've known Sat eight or nine years. He's a great cook and he cooks from the heart." He's also cooking for the gala dinner tonight, but strangely he's not in the room right now...
Based down in Cornwall, Outlaw is a big advocate of local sourcing. "All these artisan producers, you've got to use them or they'll whittle away. You've also got to trust them. My fish supplier tells me what I should be using, I don't tell him."
Purnell also sources as close to home as possible, but he is, of course, based bang in the middle of the city. "If in went foraging in Birmingham I'd find wrappers and dog turd."
Purnell's influences? Claude Bosi, he says, is one of the biggest. "He taught me to be bold and inventive with my flavours."
Outlaw's? "My dad is one. Gary Rhodes another, he taught me my work ethic."
The pair are cooking harmoniously and it's plating up time. Purnell cuts the beef from its bone and seared, the pea salad is down, as is the Jerusalem artichoke puree and the vinegar glaze, now the purple potatoes, the liquorice daubs and a gentle dusting of liquorice charcoal. There's a ripple of applause. It's taking every ounce of my being not to rush the stage and grab the plate and hole myself up in a toilet cubicle with it and a fork.
Outlaw is dressing the crab shell, the fish is on, the gutweed on top, the sea purslane dotted around and the sea campion on. Perfect.
Two young chefs on the way up. You'll be seeing a lot more from these guys in the years to come.
NATHAN OUTLAW
Ling and razor clams, bacon and shallots, sea campion, gut weed, purslane, rock samphire
INGREDIENTS
For pickled rock samphire:
100g rock samphire, picked
50ml white wine
50ml white wine vinegar
50ml water
50g sugar
Salt
For pickled veg:
50g carrot, finely sliced
50g celery, finely sliced
50g shallot, finely sliced
50g chicory, finely sliced
50ml white wine
50ml white wine vinegar
50ml water
50g sugar
Salt
For the shallot purée:
Oil for cooking
1k banana shallots, peeled and sliced finely
4 bay leaves
2 lemons, zest and juice
Water
Salt
For the bacon sauce:
Oil for cooking
4 rashers smoked bacon, sliced into 2cm strips
2 garlic cloves, halved and germ removed
50ml double cream
2 bay leaves
400ml semi-skimmed milk
Salt
Main ingredients:
Oil for cooking
6 large razor clams
2tbs carrot, cooked and diced
2tbs potato, cooked and diced
2tbs celery, cooked and diced
2tbs shallot purée (see recipe above)
2tbs bacon sauce (see recipe above)
Salt and pepper
4 x 200g ling fillet (trimmed and salted for 1 hour, washed off and dried)
Garnish:
Gut weed, deep fried gut weed
Sea purslane, picked
Sea campion shoots, picked
Lemon oil
METHOD
For pickled rock sampire: Place the samphire in to a container. Boil together the remaining ingredients and pour over the samphire. Cling film and leave for at least 24 hours. You can eat this hot or cold
For the pickled vegetables: Place the vegetables into a container. Boil together the remaining ingredients and pour over the vegetables. Cling film and leave for at least 24 hours. You can eat these hot or cold.
For the shallot purée: heat a heavy-bottomed pan. Add some oil and then the ingredients, except water. Cook for five minutes stirring all the time so the shallots don't catch. Add some water to just cover the shallots and cover with a lid. Cook until the shallots are soft and will purée. Remove the lid and cook down, reducing the cooking liquid to nothing. Season with salt and blitz in a blender. Place in a plastic bottle and keep warm, ready for plating.
For the bacon sauce: heat a pan and add oil and bacon. Colour the bacon, then add the garlic. Cook for two minutes, then add the cream and bay leaf. Bring to the boil and simmer for one minute. Add the milk and season. Heat to 80°C and froth up with a stick blender immediately before serving.
Razor clams: steam open the razor clams (should take approx one minute). Remove the clams and trim away unwanted part, but retain the shell. Slice the clam into 1cm pieces and add to a pan with the cooked and diced carrot, potato, celery, shallot purée and bacon sauce. Heat gently and season before plating.
Ling: Heat a non-stick pan and add the oil. When the oil is hot place the fish, presentation side down, in to the pan. Allow the fish to get slightly golden, then place into a hot oven for four minutes. Remove from the oven and flip the fish over. Continue to cook the fish for one minute. Plate with other ingredients and garnish and serve immediately.
GLYNN PURNELL
Tail of fillet of beef classically roasted with a salad of peas, malt vinegar and black pepper, liquorice charcoal, purple potatoes
INGREDIENTS
1 tail fillet on the bone
Ginger powder
Rock salt
For the glaze:
100g malt vinegar
100g sugar
20 black peppercorns
Freshly ground black pepper
For the pea salad:
150g of peas (frozen petits pois are best)
½ shallot, finely diced
1tbs majoram, chopped
Olive oil
Salt
For the purple potatoes and liquorice charcoal:
8 purple potatoes
2tbs of cooked peas
100ml marjoram oil
4 liquorice sticks
METHOD
Make a malt vinegar and black pepper glaze by boiling the sugar and the peppercorns to thick syrup. Pass through a chinois and add four big turns of pepper to season.
For the pea salad: Place all the ingredients in to a blender and "pulse" to a coarse consistency adding a splash of olive oil. Season.
For the purple potatoes: Cook the potatoes with the skin on, cool, then finely dice. These will be warmed up with the marjoram oil to dress the plate.
For the liquorice charcoal: dry out and burn the liquorice sticks. Pass through a chinois and add a couple of tabespoons of liquorice powder to taste.
Before roasting the beef, ensure that it has been out of the fridge for a couple of hours as it should be room temperature. Place the tail fillet in a frying pan (bone side down so that the bone, not the meat, touches the pan). Place in the oven at 220°C degrees for 15 -20 minutes depending on the thickness of the meat. Remove and leave it to rest for roughly the same amount of time.
To plate: Paint the vinegar glaze on to the plate with a brush. Place a quenelle of cold pea salad on plate. Warm through the potatoes and the peas with the marjoram oil and dress the plate.
Carve the beef on the bone - dust with ginger powder, season with rock salt and place on top of the vinegar glaze. Melt down liquorice purée and add a couple of dots of this on plate. Drizzle a small amount of reduced beef stock over the meat and dust the whole plate with liquorice charcoal.
