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The Gen from the kitchen

As our regular customers will know, Nik uses the back of the menus for his regular rant/update on what is in season;  where to find it and his thoughts on the the food world in general etc.  In case you cannot come in to read it in person this is his current offering:

JANUARY 2010

Welcome to Saffron, some of you, maybe new to our establishment, others are darn good regulars or occasional visitors, when you are in the neighbourhood, But a good few have been tremendously loyal to us and have kept on coming back since we opened in 1999.

 As I probably say every year, winter going into spring is the toughest time of the culinary year, with easy temptation to purchase foreign imports of varying degrees of taste and quality, it is time to put ones chef hat on. The menus look slightly different this time of year, fewer dishes due to smaller numbers coming in to dine, due to various factors and also a few foreign ingredients start to sneak on the dishes. Tropical fruits become a must, hearty puddings from all over the British Isles and a delve to the bottom of the root vegetable box.

 But fear not warm times are not that far off. The first of the spring time vegetables is with us, the very under rated purple sprouting broccoli, delicious with Gremolata, or wonderous January king cabbages and the aptly named spring greens. Fish wise we tend to steer clear of flat fish due to roe season, however skate and pollack are excellent at the moment, you also might notice a bit of Scottish organic salmon from the West Highlands on the menu.

 Over at the butchers, John Roach is being tested with our off cuts, bet you haven’t seen a shin of beef on the bone in your local supermarket recently, this is for our new starter Potted Hough, which is Scottish for leg, it takes over six hours to boil, then flake, add the liquor, seasoning and spices. Over at Nancarrow Farm the mutton is hanging ready for us and Sally and Bill are on standby with faggots. 

I don’t apologise for not serving normal food, we only use ingredients that are in season, try us out, give the food a chance, and you might be pleasantly surprised.

December 2009

Saturday is market day in Truro, when the farmers market sets up its’ pitch on the Piazza. There is a splendid wealth of local products from where we source our ingredients to use in the kitchen. It is difficult to know where to start, but we usually begin with Gara Barton, the venison people, we go for the shins and shanks, but the chocolate and chilli sausages are a different option for the barbecue. Around the corner you’ll find Chow and Jonathon at Chopstick Organic Fruit and Vegetables, whom have been supplying us with various different leaves over the years and are now sourcing all our citrus and exotic fruits. Lurking down the end of the line are the honey artisans, Heatherbell with all their wonderful honeys, our favourite is the potent heather, which has an almighty blast of flavour. Forget your supermarket Argentine sugar rush, this is real nectar.

Time to nip across to the bread stall for elevenses, even chefs need a treat! Also you can purchase Cornish Wholemeal from their own flourmill, we use it in all our brown bread and oatmeal biscuits. Next just past the tart, is Roger and his Cornish Ducks. Now you may not want to bother with his necks like we do, why not treat yourself with some of his some duck burgers, our kids love them, or how about a couple of confit legs, made by Saffron. Next up Nigel and his Cornish Cuisine smoked produce, everything is delicious, but we love his Tesyn cheese, which has won a World Cheese Award. Moving on swiftly is Bill and Sally Lugg of the Primrose Herd pork products, we buy all our bacon, sausage and hogs puddings here, the pork is first class, but our current favourite is the Chorizo sausage. Full up yet? We move on to Nancarrow Organic Mutton, Beef and Lamb ideal for Sunday roasts, stews and tagines, we like the mutton so much that we take half a beast at a time! Next is Bocaddon Farm with their proper rose veal, sorry, but you can’t have the cheeks we need them, try the mince for a lighter alternative Cottage Pie, or Emily loves the garlic and herb Cheese. Last but not least is Kernow Sashimi Fishmongers, a new supplier to us, the freshness of the fish is superb, being landed from their own boat the day before. The conger eel is top notch and we are currently putting their crab to good use.

Please support these farmers, they do put up with a lot of climatic changes over the year, but they still manage to bring fresh and locally produced Cornish goodies.

October 2009

This is the autumn, all extremes of the weather and the end of all those delicious ingredients of the summer, but fear not, the larder is not empty in the winter. Cornwall has a wealth of goodies to keep us going all year, no need for those nasty tasteless imports.

 I have just disturbed Miles the forager, while he was out pillaging the fields, to see if he will have anymore cauliflower fungus, (also known as brain fungus), this is a splendid specimen of a truly wild mushroom, found in the habitat of pine trees, these are delicious, just sliced and pan-fried with some garlic butter, definitely a step up from jews ears and honey fungus mushrooms.

 Fish is always a bit tricky this time of year with the tail end of hurricanes bobbing the boats up and down in the sea, but now is the time for squid and octopus. We have given our new fish suppliers Wing of St Mawes the usual challenge, go and find us something different and local. They didn’t let us down, not only did they bring some wrasse in; also they found a Trigger fish from the netters by-catch. A superb fish, real beast of the deep sea, tough skin and scales, but the fillets were awesome, similar to John Dory in taste and texture, as soon as we can get some more it will be on the menu!

 Out in the fields Jonathon and Chow have been busy yanking up the squashes, these wonderful varieties of the pumpkin family are dotted around the restaurant and feature heavily on the menu, for now is the time to enjoy while stocks last. The squash plate is probably the trickiest vegetarian dish that we have ever attempted, but we are enjoying the challenge of making all the different textures and flavours work together, this is the fun of using only seasonal Cornish ingredients.

JULY 2009

Hello and welcome to Saffron, home of the Cornish Ingredients. Hope you haven’t had a tiring journey trying to get to us and the weather isn’t too wet, (but then, it must be raining or you wouldn’t be in Truro today). Well you’ve arrived at the right place, we’ll try to do our best to exceed your expectations

To begin with, we hope that you have brought all the family, we love children to come and dine with us. Having a family ourselves, and we appreciate the difficulties eating out, thus we do not use inferior produce for the children, we use the same Cornish ingredients that you would expect in you meal. But a word of warning, any young person running riot, will be sent to the kitchen to help with the washing up.

As for you grownups, we’ve spent the last ten years foraging Cornwall, to bring to your table a splendid collection of Cornish Ingredients. Meat, fish, vegetables and berries are local and traceable. Dairy products come from Roskilly’s, Allet, Lillie Bros. and Menallack artisan cheesemakers. We serve Tregothnan Cornish Tea, beers and lagers from our local breweries, Orchard juices from Looe, Spring Water from Bodmin Moor and even an award winning champagne from Camel Valley. Oops nearly forgot that the brown flour is from Cornish Millhouse, Honey from the Lizard hives and even the salt comes from Porthkerris.

Thinking of having a BBQ tonight or bored of self-catering from a supermarket? We have some brilliant farmers markets, pick your own and farm shops down here. There are too many to mention, but I will vouch for Truro Farmers Market on Wednesday and Saturdays, where every stall helps keep our menu topped with goodies. Our vegetable growers are based at Trevilley Farm shop near Lane, Newquay, or how about picking some berries at Mitchell Fruit Farm. If you are down West, you can’t miss Trevaskis Farm for one stop shopping and pick your own fruit and vegetables.

June 2009

The Gen on Truro Farmers Market.

Saturday is market day in Truro, when the farmers market sets up its’ pitch on the Piazza. There is a splendid wealth of local products from where we source our ingredients to use in the kitchen. It is difficult to know where to start, but we usually begin with Gara Barton, the venison people, we go for the shins and shanks, but the chocolate and chilli sausages are a different option for the barbecue. Around the corner you’ll find Chow and Jonathon at Chopstick Organic Fruit and Vegetables, whom have been supplying us with various different leaves over the years and are now sourcing all our citrus and exotic fruits. Further on and you’ll come to Tregassow Asparagus, suppliers to us for our annual celebration of green spears, make sure to treat yourself with a least one bunch each week and don’t forget the kitchen asparagus for the soup! Lurking down the end of the line are the honey artisans Heatherbell with all their wonderful honeys, our favourite is the potent heather, which has an almighty blast of flavour. Forget your supermarket Argentine sugar rush, this is real nectar.

Time to nip across to the bread stall for elevenses, even chefs need a treat! Also you can purchase Cornish Wholemeal from their own flourmill, we use it in all our brown bread and oatmeal biscuits. Next just past the tart, is Roger and his Cornish Ducks. Now you may not want to bother with his necks like we do, why not treat yourself with some of his some duck burgers, our kids love them, or how about a couple of confit legs, made by Saffron. Next up Nigel and his Cornish Cuisine smoked produce, everything is delicious, but we love his Tesyn cheese, which has won a World Cheese Award. Moving on swiftly is Bill and Sally Lugg of the Primrose Herd pork products, we buy all our bacon, sausage and hogs puddings here, the pork is first class, but our current favourite is the Chorizo sausage. Full up yet? We move on to Nancarrow Organic Mutton, Beef and Lamb ideal for Sunday roasts, stews and tagines, we like the mutton so much that we take half a beast at a time! Next is Bocaddon Farm with their proper rose veal, sorry, but you can’t have the cheeks we need them, try the mince for a lighter alternative Cottage Pie, or Emily loves the garlic and herb Cheese. Last but not least is Kernow Sashimi Fishmongers, a new supplier to us, the freshness of the fish is superb, being landed from their own boat the day before. The conger eel is top notch and we are currently putting their crab to good use.

Please support these farmers, they do put up with a lot of climatic changes over the year, but they still manage to bring fresh and locally produced Cornish goodies.

April/May 2009

Good news, spring is here, wind, rain and sunshine in various doses and this all helps the ingredients for the kitchen to grow, Trevilley Farm has been busy sourcing the best of local produce. Cornish New Potatoes just came in last weekend and Tregassow Farm asparagus is now available!! As always this will feature heavily on our menu over the next month. It is available for you to buy every Wednesday and Saturday at Truro Farmers Market.

The local fruit season has started with Rhubarb from Mitchell Fruit Farm, This has splendid firm stems and full of flavour. It is dotted all over the menu and includes the Rhubarb and Beetroot Marshmallow. Strawberries are not that far off and we are hoping to have some wild flowers to compliment our desserts. This year we made a first, with our Gorse ice cream, which seems to have an amazing nutty flavour, catch this while you can, as we won’t have it on the menu much more after the end of the month.

Miles Lavers from Foods Wild, has been busy getting up at the crack of dawn to forage some very interesting and curious ingredients for us to use. Beach leaves like marsh samphire, spaghetti seaweed and feather grass are being added into our dishes. Alexanders are appearing on the pudding menu (You might know them better as angelica stems), Wonderful micro leaves like pennywort, wood sorrel and garlic flowers are sneaking in here and there.

Now after 10 years in business, we have forged many partnerships with our suppliers, but one of the best has to be Menallack Farm, Treverva, near Penryn. Based on a field trip to their farm, before we opened Saffron, John, the much-missed Caryl and the rest of the team, have been an infectious inspiration to the ethics of our operation and they are a splendid advertisement for real artisans, whom enjoy their craft. You must visit the farm shop and if you are lucky enough, you might be in time to see the cheeses being made.

MARCH 2009

Spring is on the way, the evenings are getting lighter and we are getting some ingredients from the countryside. Miles has come out of hibernation, gorse has come into flower, wild garlic is abundance and sow thistle has landed in his foragers’ box.

Fresh start to the year has got us back into our recycling mode, we are proud to report that we have been recycling all our cardboard, paper, glass, cans and foil for several years now. However the composting side of the operation is a different challenge. We have created a monster pile of matter for decomposing by preparing all the fruit and vegetables on site. Add to this the paper shredding, coffee and tea waste, we are beginning to find it hard to keep up the processing at home. If you would like to enhance your heap, or know of somebody whom has never had enough, please get in touch with me and we will be able to donate.

We’ve had a kitchen field trip recently as part of our due diligence and been out to see Roger and his ducks over at Terras Farm near Grampound Road. This is a splendid set-up and gives a chef confidence in his raw ingredients. Talk about free range produce, we walked miles around the farm following each batch of ducks from incubation to dispatch, and all the ducks told us, about how happy they are in their surroundings and some even had classical music in their homes!

As we enter our tenth year of trading, yes we started back in January 1999, the challenges are still as great as ever with the changing face of Truro and the world outside. Little did we know what we were letting ourselves in for, as the plan was only to run a small family restaurant, with good honest cooking. Over this period of time we’ve been very lucky with our staff, who’ve enriched the Saffron philosophy and help develop the dining experience at your table. We would like to continue our crusade to use Cornish ingredients and not use inferior substitutes from lesser suppliers. With tougher economic times around, now is the time to put ones chefs’ hat on and delve deep into our local resources and see what we can bring to your table

Last updated Saturday February 20, 2010 09:46