Salt Wind Catering
Recipe Developer & Food Writer
Elowen is the recipe developer and food writer at Salt Wind Catering, based at our kitchen in Redruth. She writes about Cornish cooking from lived experience — the seasonal produce, the traditional methods, the local suppliers she's actually used.
15 articles by Elowen
September in Cornwall means the hedgerows are full of damsons and the orchards are dropping windfalls you can barely give away. This chutney uses both — sharp Bramley apples and tart damsons slow-cooked with cider vinegar, brown sugar, onions and warm spice. It jars beautifully, keeps for a year, and is what a Cornish ploughman's is built around.
Cornish fudge is sold at every gift shop in the county and most of it is not worth eating. Properly made fudge — with actual Cornish clotted cream, butter and sugar cooked to the soft-ball stage — is a completely different thing. It is dense, slightly grainy in the best way, and rich without being sickly. This is how it is made.
In Cornwall, you put the jam on first. Then the clotted cream. That is not up for debate. This is the classic Cornish cream tea scone recipe — light, barely sweet, with a good rise and a slight crust on top. The clotted cream should be thick enough to stand a teaspoon in. The jam should be strawberry. The debate should end.
Fresh Cornish crab, linguine, lemon, chilli and a knob of proper Cornish butter. This is one of those recipes that sounds fancy but takes under 20 minutes and tastes like you're eating at the harbour edge in St Ives. White crab meat only — the brown meat goes into a sauce you'll want to eat straight from the pan.
Curing salmon at home is easier than it sounds and the result is spectacularly better than anything you can buy. This version uses Tarquin's Cornish Gin — made in Wadebridge from foraged botanicals including fresh-picked violets — along with lemon zest, dill and salt. The cure takes 48 hours and produces silky, jewel-coloured salmon that keeps for up to 5 days in the fridge.
Cornish lamb is some of the finest in Britain — the animals graze on coastal clifftops and moorland pasture, which gives the meat a clean, mineral sweetness. This is a simple, honest braise: shoulder of lamb slow-cooked with swede, carrot, potato and rosemary until the meat falls from the bone. It is a winter dish and it is exceptional.
Cornish saffron buns are one of the oldest baked goods in Britain — saffron was traded into Cornwall via the tin and copper trade routes centuries before it reached the rest of the country. These are soft, lightly spiced milk buns with a vivid yellow crumb, studded with currants and mixed peel. They are called revel buns in West Cornwall and are still made for feast days.
Cauliflower cheese is a British institution. Made with Cornish Yarg — the nettle-wrapped semi-hard cheese made near Penryn — it becomes something else entirely. The yarg melts into a sauce with a gentle creaminess and a slightly earthy, herbaceous note from the nettles. This is a proper side dish or a main event in its own right.
Elder trees flower in Cornwall in May and June, lining the lanes and hedgerows with clusters of cream-white blossom that smell like the best version of summer. Pick them on a dry, sunny day and you have the base for a cordial that tastes nothing like the supermarket version. This is one of those recipes that makes people ask if you actually made it yourself.
Stargazey pie is a Cornish legend — a deep-dish fish pie with whole pilchards or sardines baked into the pastry so their heads poke through the crust, gazing upward at the sky. It comes from Mousehole in West Cornwall and is traditionally eaten on Tom Bawcock's Eve, 23rd December. This is the recipe: fish heads gazing out of a golden pastry crust, just as they should be.
A proper Cornish pasty is not a pie. It is not a "pasty-style" snack from a service station. It is raw skirt steak, sliced waxy potato, sliced swede and onion, seasoned well, folded into shortcrust pastry and crimped along the top. That is it. No pre-cooking. No gravy. No added vegetables. This is the recipe.
Baby Shower Catering — Beautiful Food Without the Fuss A baby shower should be about celebrating — not stressing over food. At Salt Wind Catering , we deliver beautifully presented baby shower food across Cornwall so you can focus on the mum-to-be and the party games. Afternoon Tea Style Our afternoon tea catering is perfect for baby showers — finger sandwiches, scones, cakes, and fruit platters that look as good as they taste. Add a Pimp Your Prosecco station for the guests who aren't...
Next Day Buffet Delivery — Sorted by Tomorrow Sometimes catering doesn't come with a fortnight's notice. A meeting lands in the diary. A birthday creeps up. A bereavement happens and a family needs to feed fifty people by tomorrow afternoon. That's where Salt Wind Catering comes in. We offer next day buffet delivery across Cornwall — order before 2pm and your food will be freshly made and ready the following day. Everything is freshly prepared in our Redruth kitchen. No frozen platters....
Office Lunch Delivery — Feed Your Team Without the Faff Someone's got a meeting. Someone's running a training day. Someone's just decided the team deserves a decent lunch instead of the usual sad meal deal. Whatever the reason, Salt Wind Catering delivers proper working lunches to offices, meeting rooms, and business venues across Cornwall. What We Deliver Our sandwich platters are the go-to for working lunches — freshly made, varied fillings, ready to put out on the table. Add savoury...
Delivered Hot Buffet — Warming Comfort Food, Straight to Your Venue Not every event needs a chef on-site. Sometimes you just need hot food delivered, ready to set out, and people help themselves. Salt Wind Catering delivers hot buffet food across Cornwall — freshly made in our Redruth kitchen that morning and delivered in insulated trays ready to serve. No reheating needed, no kitchen required, no washing up. What's on the Hot Buffet Menu Our hot buffet range includes comfort food classics...
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