Christmas is Coming.....!

Crikey - November is nearly gone and the weather is still so mild. We are delighted that there are still so many of you who can sit in the garden to eat, drink and be merry. We really have been blessed with the weather this month; we've tried twice to light the Peppercorn logburner, but we had, on both occasions to let it go out before guests and staff alike expired!
Lisa is half way through her month off; she's spent two weeks in Cyprus and is sharing the remainder of her winter holiday between her family and friends. We all miss her a lot!
It seems an age since my trip to Spain, even though it was only two weeks ago that we came home. I shan't bore you with endless stories - suffice to say that Graham and I walked 500 kilometres of the Camino de Santiago. It was tough, exciting, relaxing, beautiful, hot and dry, snowy (yes, really!) and I'd do it all again tomorrow! I will post a couple of pictures on the blog eventually - if they look half decent!
One learns a lot on such a trip - and one of the most important lessons for me was that - generally- people are innately generous, kind and helpful. But then we already know that from the wonderfully loyal local trade which we enjoy at Peppercorn. Thanks to you all for enabling us to stay open throughout the year - we really do love to see you, cook for you and catch up with your news.

It won't be long until colleges and universities break up for Christmas and we can't wait to see Lauren, Jack and Emily back at work with us - where they really belong!

The menu is really changing now - to reflect the season. This week we have Rich Beef Stew with red wine and dumplings, Spiced Roasted Parsnip Soup, Creamy Pumpkin Soup with Bacon, Local Sausage and Mash with Red Onion Gravy, Aromatic Chicken Casserole and Sweet Potato Cakes with a soured cream and coriander dressing. On the pudding front we have offered a scrummy Apple, Cinnamon and Raisin Crumble and we are currently serving a fantastic Apricot, Sultana and Honey  Bread and Butter Pudding, made by the fair hand of Becca Buckland - no less! The meringues seem to be getting even bigger this month - maybe it's something in the water that those free range chickens are drinking?

We are open every day except Christmas Day - but we are reducing the hours of Christmas Eve, Boxing Day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day to 11am until 3pm. Other than that it's 10am until 4pm as usual and we look forward to seeing you over the festive season.

Autumn Update

Finally the weather is turning a little chillier! Don't get me wrong, I love warmth and sunshine but I look forward to the changing seasons and to pulling on the winter woollies to go on a tramp along the coast. We are all keen at Peppercorn to see the first morning when we can justify lighting the woodburner! To reflect the shortening days our opening hours are now 10am-5pm and from 31^st October we will be open from 10am until 4pm. Our menu is changing with the season so expect to see warming stews, curries and soups on our specials board as well as comforting puddings and cakes. Our creamy cinnamon and cardamom infused Dal Makhani has made a comeback, and I keep having visions of a rich beef casserole with crusty bread or buttery mash – must make it!

For all talk of colder weather and more hearty dishes, we have just had the most stunningly warm and sunny weekend at Perranuthnoe. Customers opted to bask in the late sun in our garden and I was thrilled when Karen Wall dropped by with some straight-from-the-sea mackerel and herring which meant that whole grilled herring with gremolata as well as mackerel fillets with chilli jam were on offer on our specials board. Orange blossom and cinnamon meringues proved very popular and our lemongrass and ginger cordial quenched many a thirst.

The best news of the weekend is that Rachel and Simeon Royle now have a lovely daughter, Lily-Rose, to join their two boys. Congratulations to you all! And bravo Simeon for delivering Lily in the Hayle bypass layby on Saturday evening. I kid you not!

More congratulations are due, this time to Becca Buckland on passing her driving test first time and all at Peppercorn would like to wish our very own Amy a happy 21^st birthday!

Of course, Jenni is oblivious to all these goings-on as she and Graham are somewhere in the middle of Spain enduring a heatwave and shared hostel dormitories as they undertake the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage. I've had a few wonderful missives from Jenni, some describing the stunning views over the Picos and the marvellous singing of a famous Spanish singer whose name escapes me whilst other messages aren't quite as rosy – Jenni has suffered heatstroke and so has been forced to wear a sunhat. Jenni doesn't suit hats. She sent a photo of her wearing the hat donated to her by another pilgrim. I'm still giggling. Despite hardships, or perhaps because of them, I believe that Jenni and Graham are having a fantastic time and I'm sure she'll write about it on her return.

Lilla had her first morning at nursery last week and loved it! I wobbled a bit as I left her while she turned tail and crawled off to explore the toys and barely noticed my departure!

Indian Summer?

The summer holidays have gone in a flash! Trade was good and we saw many of the regular visitors lunching at Peppercorn as well as many of the lovely locals whom we now count as our firm friends.

The Peppercorn Pizza Parlour was such a success that we've decided to hang on to Friday evenings as pizza evenings - in the hope that folk will pop in for an easy and delicious take away or "sit in" supper, to start the weekend with ease. (Thank you again, Emily and Ollie for running it all so beautifully for us.) Don't forget that you can 'phone ahead to order your pizzas (07907 691 639) and if you're eating in then you are most welcome to bring your own booze if you wish. We charge a small corkage fee, £1-00 for wine and 50p for beer - and soft drinks are available to buy.

Lisa and I were interviewed by two very charming Austrian ladies last month. They are writing a book - "Eat, Surf, Live" which is designed to inform european holiday makers about the best places to eat, walk and visit. Vera and Katharina selected only two venues from West Cornwall....Peppercorn Kitchen Cafe and The Minack - we are priviliged! When we get some details about the book - we'll post them on this blog!

Speaking of the Minack, we are looking forward to catering for their end of season barbecue this Saturday.This is the third year we've done it and we love it- it's always really good fun, especially watching their team games at the end of the evening. We particularly enjoyed the wheelie bin races last year........!

We also catered for a beautiful wedding a couple of weeks ago - Rachael and Matthew, we absolutely loved working with you. Landithy Hall at Madron was transformed into a fairyland of white linen, flowers and twinkling lights. Good luck to you both and we look forward to seeing you at Peppercorn when you return from honeymoon.

September is proving not to be the lull we were expecting - life is really busy. We are all thrilled that it's "local time! again. It's great to see all our friends back again after having gone to ground for the silly season. If the past few days are anything to go by - we could be in for a lovely Indian Summer - let's hope I haven't spoken too soon!!

Simply Delicious

Owing to the success of the pizza evenings, Jenni had to make pizza bases and ragu on an industrial scale today. Peppercorn Pizza Parlour seems to have really taken off! We've added a new topping: homemade pesto with roasted mixed peppers, and pretty popular it is too. We hope to feature a special topping each evening alongside the regular flavours on sale. We qualified for Lilla's stamp of approval when she ate ⅓ of a Margherita on the first evening, and managed a similar feat the day before yesterday. Not bad for 8 months old!
Back to the daytime Peppercorn Kitchen, we've extended the choice of meringues (inspired partly by Amy's boyfriend, Harry, who doesn't like rosewater - strange but true). My favourite is the dark chocolate & Morello cherry meringue but if that's not quite for you, there's also lemon & cardamom or white chocolate & cranberry.
The specials board today included some beautifully fresh local mackerel (thank you Karen) pan-fried and served with a generous dollop of gooseberry jam, toast and our house salad. Simple but delicious! This idea of simplicity brings me on to the Rick Stein in Spain series – it's great to see excellent ingredients prepared with little fuss and packed with huge flavours. We are thoroughly enjoying the programme and recommend it.
And finally... a question. Why do people 'Tweet'? We're on Twitter but I'm not sure why. Please advise.

Peppercorn Pizzas are on Sale!

Tomorrow at 5pm our pizzas go on sale! We have opted for a 9" pizza; a good size for a child's supper and not too big for someone with a larger appetite to enjoy two (which also means the possibility of different toppings in one meal!). Jenni, Ollie, Emily and I have been experimenting with bases and toppings over the last couple of weeks, and we are extremely pleased with the results. Our bases are crispy thin with a hint of fennel, our tomato base is rich and lightly spiced, and we've decided on four toppings for now:

• a classic Margherita
  
• roasted aubergine and garlic
  
• prawn, rocket and chilli
  
• lamb with red onion and 'Boharat' (one of our favourite spice blends that includes nutmeg and rose petals – don't be afraid it is truly delicious)
  

We have had a go at developing a gluten-free pizza base but, to be honest, with little success – any recipes/advice most welcome. We hope that we've kept the pizza menu reasonable with prices starting at £5.50.

In our last blog entry we said that corkage would be charged at £3 per bottle, but on reflection we felt that this was a bit steep so have settled on beers at 50p and wine at £1. As previously stated, soft drinks and hot drinks will be available to buy, and you can also finish your meal with a slice of cake from our wide selection. Do come down to enjoy pizzas at the café, or take them away to enjoy elsewhere!

On a sweet treat note, our meringues are back to being light and crispy – goodness knows what the problem was but it seems to have resolved itself (I suspect that it has something to do with me not making them anymore but leaving them to Jenni and Amy).

Inspired by the blustery weather our specials menu this week has included our trusted Lebanese tomato soup and a flavoursome pea & ham soup with minted cream. However, we are convinced that summer will be back and so (thanks to Jenny at Toppers Too giving us the marrows) we've reintroduced marrow schnitzel with marinated olives and feta. The sun will shine again soon, preferably by Wednesday when Jenni and I hoping to enjoy a performance of Madam Butterfly at the Minack.

It's lovely to have Amy, Izzy and Becca back at Peppercorn even if they have been parading around the south of France (Amy & Izzy) and Valencia (Becca) drinking fine wines and feasting on mussels and squid!

Summer Holidays and Peppercorn Pizzas

The sun is high, the weather is sweet (-ish), the holidays are here and Peppercorn Kitchen Café is proud and excited to announce that from Monday 18^th July we will be open until 7pm. So, if you fancy picking up a bite to eat and to take a sip of something South African and chilled after a day at the beach, or you sense the need to feed sleepy children quickly then get them home for bath and bed then we are the place to be. Our regular menu with our tantalising specials will run from 9am – 4.30pm as usual, and then between the hours of 5pm – 7pm our Peppercorn Pizza menu will take over (topping, size and price details to follow). You can bring your own wine (corkage £3 per bottle) or you can buy soft drinks, hot drinks, puddings and cakes from us.

Summer is definitely reflected in our menu of the moment. Currently on offer we have a refreshing green salad with watermelon and feta as well as a halloumi and nectarine salad with a light chilli dressing. Seafood has really taken off with our fragrant Thai crabcakes, pan-fried local mackerel with gooseberry compote along with our fish Provençale (pollock caught in Perran). Our puddings are light and airy with the still popular 'Summer in a Glass' as well as a new addition, white chocolate and basil mousse (we sold out today so will be making more tomorrow –get them while you can!). We are having a slight setting problem with our meringues probably caused by us using a different lining for the trays – we'll be back to the usual silicone paper and will let you know the results!

We would like to mention the arrival of what must be a record for the youngest customer – two hour old baby Margaret with proud parents came to the café one soft summer morning last week to enjoy the peace of the village with a reviving smoothie (for Margaret's mum) in our picnic garden. Congratulations and we hope to see you back again soon!

Enjoying the Seasonal Fruits of our Labour

May and June have provided us with an abundance of elderflowers which one of our wonderful staff, James, has been busily picking and transforming into our deliciously refreshing elderflower cordial. As soon as the sun shines our customers go mad for our sparkling or still homemade cordials (currently lemon or elderflower) and we're hard pressed to keep up with demand...or at least James is!

On the subject of seasonal picking, we'd like to thank Emma for her tender and tasty spinach and broad beans!

Now that the chilli, chocolate and beetroot cake is well-established at the café we thought it was time to extend our repertoire – you can now enjoy our clementine and almond cake as well as a slice of apple and sultana cake. Sticking with the sweet treats, we are offering more puddings on our specials menu including 'Summer in a Glass' – a light and airy confection of Chantilly cream, strawberries and our own homemade lemon curd. One of our customers came over all poetic after eating one claiming that it was, '...like eating clouds, and I could dive into the glass and swim in it...' I think there was more but you get the gist.

The events catering side of Peppercorn is going strong. We continue to feed, on an almost weekly basis, the hungry participants on the 'Team Teach' courses and at this point I think it is worth congratulating our lovely Ollie for single-handedly running the kitchen for one Team Teach day when 52 people attended. With a cool head and a steady hand Ollie served breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea and also completed the washing-up in record time. Normally, two Peppercorn people serving a mere 30 participants is no mean feat. Well done Ollie!

Other catering events in May and June have included a delightfully cosmopolitan 25^th wedding anniversary in Newlyn (see photos) and an idyllic wedding held at Tomperrow Scout Ground near Truro. Congratulations to both the established married couple and to the newlyweds! Our wedding anniversary couple brought together family and friends from the UK, France, Spain and Italy and the sense of celebration was heightened with the lively babble of several languages and the colourfully decorated canopies framing the groaning trestle tables of food.

                      

Carrot, orange & sesame salad with wild garlic

Radish & broad bean salad with a green tahini dressing

Spiced labneh

Carrot & cumin terrine

In the foreground, glimpses of green bean, hazelnut & orange salad; crab tart; goats' cheese tart; cucumber, poppyseed & chillis salad

Peppercorn Kitchen Mezze: white bean hoummous; beetroot & orange hoummous; butternut & berber spice hoummous

Rosewater & pistachio labneh with shortbread biscuits

Roasted plum & star anis compote with creme fraiche

                                 



Tom and Lucy's wedding day dawned sunny and warm – guests camped at the scout ground creating a mini-festival atmosphere complete with live music, plentiful salads (provided by us), a barbecue (provided by family) and even a puppet show (don't know who provided that one).

Away from catering and café, Jenni spent a relaxing week in France cycling and walking, and she may have forced down the odd glass of wine to keep friends and neighbours happy – what a trooper! Back on the home front, Lilla has progressed onto solid food – favourites of the moment are baby rice, avocado, soft-boiled egg and buttered soldiers and a bit of mango to satisfy her sweet tooth (currently 2 sweet teeth in fact).

May 2011!

Why, oh why are we so bad at keeping this blog up to date? Over a month has passed and SO much has happened. Where to start.....
Well - for a start, we've had a great Easter. The weather for everyone in the UK has been fabulous, and we have seen a real increase in trade over the holiday. I know that we had a great idea about take away picnics for the summer holidays - however - after a rethink we've decided that we will not be going down the flags on the beach route. We WILL be able to provide take aways for the beach and you will be able to pre order if you wish; and come and collect your lunch at the time you have selected. The only real change is that we won't be delivering to you- it was all getting too complicated, and would tie up a member of staff for 5 hours, and we reckoned it wasn't really neccessary. To be honest,  we've done quite a few take aways this holiday and there's been no problem at all; however, the really interesting thing for us is that most people want to come and eat lunch in the garden, either in the shade under an umbrella - or on the grassy terrace looking out to sea - I'm guessing that a brief respite from the tropical heat is required?

On the food front - we've developed some really exciting new dishes which seem to be very popular - particularly our sharing mezze platter. You'll see from the photos that it's certainly big enough for two as a light lunch and is often a starter for three or four people. The mezze varies from day to day, depending on the ingredients which are looking particularly delicious that morning, but there are always 4 items to share along with a house salad and some crunchy home made crostini. Currently we are including beetroot and orange hummus, butternut and za'atar hummus, tzatziki, white bean hummus, lamb kofte with minted labneh, fennel and feta bhajis, greek salad with black olives and feta, beetroot and chick pea kofte to name but a few. We garnish most of our dishes now with fresh flowers - partly because they are growing in the garden and are edible, but maily becasue they look WONDERFUL! See what you think when you look at the 'photos.


Otherwise puddings are really popular now, something we've not been used to. When we were at the Cabin - the majority of our customers ate and left fairly promptly but now we have customers dwelling and eating at leisure. It's lovely because we get to chat to our lovely customers and they get to eat - LOADS!

As always - a lot of our dishes are created as a direct result of having some food left that we don't want to waste. For instance - we saw some irresistible strawberries on offer, but having bought them we wanted to do something more imaginative than just strawberries and cream; so we created Summer Strawberry Delight - layers of fresh strawberries and softly whipped chantilly cream, topped with a crumble of crushed buttery flapjack. Today we've made a new pudding on a similar theme. We had some pineapple and some orange curd (a new by-product from the loads of egg yolks left over from our giant meringues again!) - so we've made layers of softly whipped chantilly cream (a little caster sugar and vanilla transforms whipped cream into chantilly cream) chopped fresh pineapple, orange and cardamom curd and again topped with a crunchy crumbly flapjack lid - YUM!!

The Royal Wedding provided us with a bit of a dilemma - do we open or do we not? We decided to open in the full knowledge that it may be a very quiet day - and it was! We made a lot of giant meringues (orange and hazelnut is a new development ) a couple of dozen scones (a daily routine now!) and mackerel pate for the freezer and we generally kept busy ( - we even started the weekly deep clean early, at 3pm!). The village combined to create a wonderful street party (see the photos on the village website - http://www.perranuthnoe.com/ ) - we made miniature meringues to add to the feast (we tried to make red white and blue ones, despite our usual reluctance to use artificial  food colourings, but they turned out a very strange colour indeed!).
At the end of the day - Lisa (who has Fridays off ) informed me that she had been making scones at home whilst watching the wedding, weeping copiouly into a teatowel,  with Lilla (now 5 months old, and no lightweight!) strapped to her front! I left work and plopped onto the sofa for a few hours of heaven - I opened a bottle of rioja, and watched the replay of the wedding followed immediately by the Masterchef final - heaven! I seem to remember that somewhere along the line - Graham and I toasted the Royal Couple with some extremely delicious whisky from Skye - but I remember very little after that - oh dear!

So - life at Peppercorn is continuing to flow along beautifully and we are having such a great time - come and see us soon. We promise to try and  feed you with exactly what you need and want - food from your dreams!



The lovely Faye

Greek salad

End of the day perk!



Mezze Platter







Sweet labneh with pineapple coulis



Spring is Here!

Spring has arrived and with it some glorious new items on the menu!

Since Lisa has been back at work after her maternity leave, we have been trying out some new and delicious morsels to tempt our discerning customers. You'll see from the 'photos that we've posted from last week that we were really focusing on sweet treats  - the creamy gateaux seem very popular - 'specially with weekend lunchers - we've tried Chocolate and Blueberry, Boozy Apricot and Vanilla, passion fruit and lemon and in the 'photo is our Strawberry and Vanilla delight! The other cake included in the blog is Chocolate and Beetroot with a chocolate ganache and rose petals.

On the meringue front, crikey are they selling fast!! We now make rosewater , chocolate , and coffee and cinnamon flavoured giant meringues and they seem to go down really well with a similarly giant dollop of unctuous clotted cream - yum!

We will endeavour to include some 'photos of the outside of Peppercorn Kitchen Cafe in the next posting because it does look lovely with fresh pots of primulas on the tables and the two cherry trees we planted a couple of weeks ago hopefully coming into blossom in the fullness of time. We will be turfing the terraced area shortly and we're having some more lovely picnic tables made by Sean of Castle Gates - then we'll plenty of room - so we're ready for the season!

We have a cunning plan for efficient and decadent picnic takeaways for the beach this summer. We will take orders and payment for your beach picnic in the morning and you'll be able to select a delivery time from 12pm, 12-30pm, 1-00pm, 1-30pm and 2-00pm. You will be given a flag on a stick(!) which you can stick into the sand next to you on the beach. When your allotted delivery time arrives, you can send one of your party to the beach entrance and collect your picnic and we''ll collect our flag and tick your name off the list. Should you be swimming or asleep when your lunch is delivered, then we'll be able to spot your numbered flag and leave your lunch for you. What do you think? Feed back gladly received and processed!!

here's our wonderful log burner in action

Our Spring savoury menu includes :
- Sweet Potato cakes served with a soured cream and yoghourt dressing.
- Boharat infused Lamb Kofta served with lime, mint and pepper labneh.
Creamy Parsnip and Fennel soup.
- Mediterranean Chorizo and Bean Broth
_ Thai Fishcakes with a spicy dipping sauce

and the puddings include:

-Rich Chocolate Beetroot cake with a brandy and chocolate ganache and rose petals

Creamy home made fruit or vanilla Yogurt pots
- Rich Chocolate Mousse

-Scones with jam or home made lemon curd and clotted cream

-Eton Mess

-Meringues (of course!)

- Star Anise infused creamy Rice Pudding

- and our delicious Gateaux

to name but a few.....

It won't be long until the opening hours change to 9am - 5pm. April 1st is the date we've decided is most appropriate, for obvious reasons. Until then we're still open every day from 10am -4pm and we can't wait to see and hear from you!

                                              the last customers of the day.


Strawberry and Vanilla Delight - resist it if you can!!

All in the Name of Progress!

Jenni has had a tough old time of it lately.  Not only did she have to schlepp all the way to Prague for a few days of Tosca and Mahler but in the spirit of research and development, and with her normal sense of duty and devotion to the job, she made a detour via Notting Hill to visit the flagship cafe Ottolenghi for brunch.  Jenni sampled the salmon with aubergine and feta salad and was completely smitten!  So impressed was she with her visit and the luscious food on offer that she e-mailed the boss himself, Yotam Ottolenghi - and he sent a reply!  We are both starstruck and very impressed that he took the time to respond (and it definitely was him and not a secretary).  Ottolenghi has been a source of inspiration since the beginning of Peppercorn, and it did not disappoint.  Thank you Yotam (or Yot, as we like to call him now).

I have had an equally glamorous time changing nappies and wondering how long it will be until Lilla sleeps through the night (sources tell me it is likely to be when she is a teenager).  Nappies and sleeplessness aside, I have thoroughly enjoyed my maternity leave but am also very excited about returning to work Friday 18th February!

Now back to food and general Peppercorn goings-on.

The catering side of our business is going great guns; we are being asked to cater for birthdays, christenings, weddings, various anniversaries as well as our regular commitment to Team Teach training days.  This has allowed us to develop our repertoire and to showcase dishes before we introduce them at the cafe.  We are looking forward to making beetroot hoummous, spinach and sorrel tzatziki, goats' cheese cherry tomato and spring onion quiche and chicken breasts stuffed with pesto and sun-dried tomatoes.  On the pudding front we are salivating at the thought of Ottolenghi's clementine and almond syrup cake and Peppercorn's roasted plum & star anis compote with creme fraiche.  In the Spring look out for our new rhubarb & orange cordial and lots of other scrumptious things!

Swoon!

Jenni worshipping at the Temple of Ottolenghi

Lilla at 8 weeks

We've got some really exciting ideas for our take-away customers and for family tea-time to be launched around Easter.  Watch this space!

Happy 2011!  January is supposed to be the quietest month of the cafe year, isn't it?  Not so at Peppercorn.  Jenni buggered off ski-ing for a week in the belief that Amy would have a gentle introduction to the new year.  However, much to our surprise and delight trade has been very brisk and our staff have more than earned their stripes.  We feel privileged to have such a wonderful group of people working with us.

Our regular menu continues to work well and we have been thrilled at customers' response to our Specials Board.  Puddings have really taken off; Jenni is making piles of meringues to keep up with demand and Amy can't bake enough scones with her new recipe for extra sweetness and light (thank you Chef Robert for sharing!).   We hate waste, hence the popular introduction of fresh lemon curd cake and creme brulees made witht the hundreds of egg yolks left over from the meringues.  On the subject of cake, Di's deliciously moist chocolate beetroot cake with chocolate ganache and sweet geranium flowers sells almost before it is put out on the counter.  Equally, her orange and poppyseed cake is a welcome and juicy addition to our cake repertoire - particularly yummy with a generous dollop of Cornish clotted cream!  For those of you nostalgic for those childhood winter warmers, try Lisa's creamy vanilla rice pudding infused with star anise.

Here are some photos of our village open afternoon.  How many familiar faces can you spot amongst our customers?