Flaming June???

Hmmmm - June's been a bit of a damp squid so far; let's hope that today was the start of summer proper. Worrying that midsummer's day is only 3 days away though.....! However, trade at Peppercorn has been better than ever so there's a lot to be thankful for.
The ice cream machine is on nearly every day now- and we have added apricot and cardamom; and raspberry, vanilla and white chocolate (very rich and very, very yummy!) to the pudding menu. We also tried a new middle eastern dish called Turkish rose pudding; it's basically a smooth rice pudding flavoured with rose petals and cream and topped with fresh raspberries.

The selection of salads is also going down a storm, we now offer a very colourful Greek salad (whilst the sun is shining) and sesame crusted halloumi slices topped with roasted vine tomatoes and home made pesto on a chilli couscous base. They really do look spectacular displayed in our huge white bowls.
The amount of fresh veg that John Skewes is delivering to us daily has now reached impressive proportions. Every day we arrive to a display of butternut squash, boxes of shiny purple aubergines, scarlet fragrant vine tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, huge red chillies and the usual carrots, lettuce and red onion for our house salads.
So - since writing the last couple of paragraphs we have made dark chocolate and cardamom ice cream which is extremely rich and fragrant and has a mousse-like texture.When I finally learn how to work this b..... blog I shall add a few photos of the dishes mentioned here, because they really are spectacular; but in the meantime please enjoy the over-sized  (why? WHY?) pictures of our cafe open sign and some figs ready to be baked

a taste of summer....

It's been really warm for a few days - is this what summer will be like?

We have finally bought an ice cream maker- and it's very exciting! So far we are offering Orange Curd ice cream and today we've made Lime and Basil ice cream (so far, this one is my favourite). These are on sale as part of our pudding menu and we are full of ideas for more delicious flavours. We both absolutely love the opportunity to invent new and unusual produce for our cafe and with the gorgeous fruit which is available at the moment, the ice cream future for Peppercorn looks promising!

Speaking of inventing - Ollie is a bit of an inventor, too - if unintentionally!

 He has been known to confuse a clove of garlic with a bulb of garlic. There is quite a significant difference between the two. About 25 cloves worth of difference, in fact! So when Ollie prepared a surprise Mothers' Day meal for his unsuspecting parents, you can imagine what the surprise was. I think they had a take away that evening, and had to fumigate the house........!
SO - when I found a tub of interesting looking sauce in the fridge and was told that Ollie had made it to accompany one of our new salads, I should have been prepared - but I wasn't. Neither was Faye; nor Amy - it nearly blew our heads off! It dawned on me that I was about to leave work to go to a singing rehearsal in someones house and that Faye would be dealing closely (!) with the public at the cafe for the rest of the afternoon - so we really had to do something about our horrendously garlicky breath. Faye reminded us that parsley was nature's answer to our problem - so we ate about 3 tablespoons of parsley, each............
have you ever tried to chew 3 tablespoons of parsley?
Or swallow it?
Or get it out of your teeth?
 Don't ever, ever try this at home -  unless it's a party game!

Or you'll end up looking something like this!!

Salads to die for!

You have to come and try the salads - they're amazing. We have 4 main course salads at the moment and they have been receiving great reviews. They are all vegetarian at the moment and all but one of them is gluten free - so to add to the 

• Butterbeans with sweet chilli sauce and fresh herbs
• Marinated aubergines with fresh oregano and chilli

we have

• Couscous with dried apricots, butternut squash and almonds
• Fennel, Feta and pomegranate with roasted potatoes, lemon and fresh sage

Miss them and it's your loss - honestly!

We are wishing madly that the warmer weather would arrive and stay awhile - I'm sure it will....soon!

Having had my two days off - I feel refreshed and can't wait to get back to work tomorrow!
I had a fun day today - cooking!
 We've acknowledged that we need to develop our pudding menu - so I had a little play at home. The rhubarb in the garden needed cutting, so I made Rhubarb and Vanilla Yoghurt ice cream and it's really delicious - so that's an idea for Peppercorn. We've also made a really delicious Orange ice cream which could go onto the Bank Holiday menu.
 Blackcurrant Leaf cordial sounded yummy, so we tried it, but it's so delicate that it doesn't really bear diluting- so seems hardly worth making again. A shame because it sounded wonderful!
We have also been looking at some new salads to serve as main courses and they seem to be very popular;
Butterbean and roasted butternut squash with  herbs and a sweet chilli dressing has sold really well and the latest new addition is Roasted aubergine with a herb dressing and crumbled feta. I shall post a couple of photos soon to tempt you!

Meanwhile here are some Peppercorn Kisses we are currently giving away with coffee!


We have decided to look at the world of Apprenticeships here at Peppercorn!
Amy - our lovely manager- is with us for another year, which is fabulous news; and Becca will be spending a year with us full time from September.  Becca has worked with us for 4 years now on a part time basis - so we have a couple of really experienced ladies to help us develop Peppercorn as well as our wonderful part timers. Ollie will be leaving us at some stage later in the year to begin a new career, and although we are thrilled for him - we are gutted at the thought of losing him and really don't want to think about it too much! Apart from being charming, considerate, handsome and extremely able - he is also bloody funny!
Anyways - back to the apprenticeships - Amy and Becca are looking at the scheme as a way to develop their front of house and management skills and we are advertising for an apprentice who will work in the kitchen with us and who we hope will have a particular penchant for patisserie......so you can see which way we're headed...!

We leave you with Angela - zesting those oranges for all she's worth!

Wedding frenzy!

Well - the wedding went without a hitch!
 Ludgvan church looked glorious in the sunshine and inside it was awash with anemones. The whole of Peppercorn staff was there (apart from Jordan who was skiing and Emily, who was away with her family) and the party in the evening was great fun - all catering run by Izzy, Becky and Sophie; pizza bases and toppings prepped by Ollie; Amy (our manager) taking the official photos and running around supporting the catering too; the Johanna Graham Jazz Trio wowing us with their music followed by DJ Jack Curnow getting everyone onto their feet later in the proceedings. We will post a couple of photos onto the blog just as soon as I've vetted them!!
Incidentally - if you want an utterly fabulous wedding reception with food to die for - go to Ben's Cornish Kitchen in Marazion. I did - and the family is still talking about it - thank you Ben and staff!

I think Peppercorn is just about ready for Easter, we have some new menu ideas to try out on you. Six main course salads to offer alongside our usual hot and cold offerings. More details in the next blog - but feedback always gratefully recieved. It's lovely that we can begin to use wild flowers in our food again. They look pretty and taste great too!
We are now open from 10am 'til 5pm, and last food orders are at 4pm. We need the final hour to stock take, plan and order for the next day - apart from cleaning the cafe to within an inch of its life!
Alex came to try out a work experience with us last week, and we're all delighted to welcome him onto the permanent staff rota now. Well done, Alex.
We've had some great reviews on Tripadvisor- it's so lovely to hear that what we offer works for our customers. We have also had two enormous ads in the Cornishman as a result of the Accelerate Cornwall competition which we entered last autumn - so check that out if you haven't already seen it.

We have all sorts of staff training in the pipeline - a teambuilding day in the summer, a landscape management walk and talk on April 15th (run by Colin Nankervis of Towednack) and we are about to join the Apprenticeship Scheme which allows us to train staff to gain an official accreditation in areas such as Front of House management, Patisserie etc - how exciting!

Well - I think we're ready for Mothers' Day.
 We've planned a menu that offers a variety of flavours so that it will appeal to every age group and to both men and women - at least, we think we have.....?
We are offering Fish Provencal as a light and tasty lunch, Organic Lamb Tagine with apricots and served with couscous as a more substantial and aromatic meal, Carrot, Parmesan and Chick Pea Fritters for a fresh and obviously vegetarian option, Local Sausage Hotpot for the traditionalists and Creamy Chicken and Sweetcorn Chowder for comfort food. We shall also have some gorgeous puddings as well as the obvious meringues and cakes. Feel free to bring a bottle of wine if you wish - there's a £1 corkage charge and we'll provide the glasses!
We are closed on Monday 19th for our annual spring clean. we have a deep clean every week, but this time we shall be painting the walls and bleaching the outside tiles and hopefully planting out some herbs and annuals to enhance the outdoor dining experience.
We are also closed on March 24th because Jenni is getting married and all the staff will be there!
Otherwise we are open every day as usual. It won't be long 'til we open until 5pm - we'll keep you posted on that.
Meanwhile - Amy's in Paris, Izzy's off to London and has been forbidden to go anywhere near Ottoleghi's, Angela is moving house, Georgia's off on a cruise, Abbi and Becca are just back from skiing, Richard's off on an amazing rugby tour to exotic places ( clearly I can't remember where, but will post the details soon) and Lisa and Jenni are still here.
This Saturday we are catering for the Hookers Day at Marazion Community Centre. It's open from 10am and there will be lots of wonderful knitwear, hooked and proddy'd rugs and many other craft items to buy- as well as the delicious Peppercorn cuisine, of course! Hope to see you there.

Lynfield Yard

I meant to mention this yesterday! Whenever we have a group of customers who arrive at our busiest time and need to wait for 5 or so minutes for a table- we always direct them to our neighbouring businesses in Lynfield Yard. Literally within a few seconds you can be in the lovely Cowhouse Gallery admiring the jewellery, fine art, photography, ceramics and sculpture for sale. They have a selection of delightful greetings cards too. The gallery is run as a co operative, so you can often chat to the very artist of the piece you are interested in!

 Right next door to the Cowhouse gallery is Toppers Too, a bijou hairdressers, owned by Jenny, which is very popular.
 There is also The Beauty Retreat - Lucy's beauty salon offering a wide selection of treatments and pampering.

 The Sewing Box - run by Rose - will alter items of clothing, curtains etc, or make to order, on request.

Last but by no means least is the Craft Centre and Cornish Wools both businesses are Val's - it's a great place to go to buy gifts, clothing, jewellery, cards, ice creams, milk, eggs, cream etc - and the selection and quality of wools available (many dyed by Val herself) are astounding. People drive from the other side of Cornwall to buy wool from here so it's really worth a visit.

Of course - if you'd rather, you can sit in our garden sipping a cordial or other drink of your choice, and wait for us to get your table ready for you. You can bring your own bottle of wine if you wish - we charge a £1 corkage fee. See you soon!