Innerleithen is a quiet town, about an hour's drive south of Edinburgh, in Scotland. It is in the Tweed Valley, and the centre of a downhill bikers paradise. It is also home to my Mum. So I'm here on vacation, and recently met up with a few friends from Canada as well. Every time I've been over in the last few years, we've had take out (take away in British parlance) curry from Saffron. But I've never eaten inside the restaurant. Until this trip.
Saffron is a very small restaurant, with maybe sixteen covers, lodged in the middle of Innerleithen High Street. It does a brisk trade in food going out for delivery or pick up. On this Friday night, every table was full, and there were people due in straight after our seating as well. It's busy. It should be as it has a good reputation in the area. The space itself is not your traditional British curry house. No red flock wall paper, no ornate backed, ruby-red cushioned seats. No Indian music played loudly in the back ground. It's modern feel, with grey stone bricks along one wall, pine seats and broad wooden tables. Those are covered with paper table cloths, as curry stains like hell.
We sat down to examine the options, deciding to get dishes to share around and try a little of everything. The menus are on waxed cloth scrolls, rolled up into napkin holders. It's a comprehensive menu, but not excessive. There's a dozen or so standard curry styles available with a variety of meats or vegetarian style. There is another dozen house specials, split between Chef's specials, Tandoori specials and the Chef's Mojadar. I don't know what Mojadar means, and the internet is failing to tell me. But this is where that most ubiquitous of curry resides, Butter Chicken. Listed here as Murgh Makani, the 'butter chicken' is just a subtitle.
I don't like butter chicken. I like chicken, I like butter and I like curry. Butter Chicken seems to take all three elements and combine them into a soul-less, bland mash of vaguely spicy lumps of soft, mushy protein lumps in a unctuous, bland sauce. It is Indian food made for foreigners to be safer and creamier. And often cooked in mass produced vats at places doing it for the 'Indian special'. For me, it's to Indian food what Salisbury Steak is to prime rib. However, I know many people love it, and rate places solely on their ability to make a tasty Butter Chicken dish. Like my love of Biryani, it's their go to dish.
And we had a dish of it served here, and my opinion has changed. This was still butter chicken... creamy and with a very mild heat. But there was a tasty spiciness to it, that was interesting and complex. The chicken was tender, not soft. It soaked up the sauce onto its surface, but left the insides white and tasting of poultry. They say they can make it extra spicy here too, and if it weren't for the fact almost every other dish I have had here was as good, I'd be tempted to order hot on my next visit to Mum.
Instead, I'd probably go for a lamb dish on my next vacation in Scotland. My sharing choice was the Lamb Karahi. I like lamb, but it's very expensive in Canada, and not always cooked to well. Here the chunks of meats had a savoury taste, with just enough fat to give that butter like mouth feel. It tasted like lamb. In the Karahi it embezzled the fenugreek and ginger flavours, with a pleasant medium heat. The sort that makes my mouth tingle, but not my forehead sweat. There was plenty of vegetables in the sauce too, to give variety and other flavours and textures.
Mum ordered the Lamb Dupazia for us all, and again the meat was cooked to perfection, a feature of all the curries here. The onions added a little sweet-sour taste to the dish, balanced with a mild, warming heat from the spice. There was also a portion of the Saag Chicken, a dish cooked with plenty of greens. This was excellent, with the spinach adding interest into the curry sauce.
The Tandoori chicken was a large portion, which came out sizzling on a iron platter, crispy and an intense ruby red from the rub applied to it. The leg part was tender and juicy, and well received by the person who ordered it. My sampling of the breast was not as good. Great flavour, but the meat was dry on this section, and a needed a little lubrication from a sauce. Or the pint of Cobra Lager I was drinking.
On the sides, we had a citrus-y and sharp lemon rice, beloved of my mother, and voted up by the rest of the table. The flavour cut through any grease left over from the curry. Not there was much at all. Often meat curry comes swimming in ghee. Not a sign of the orangey-red oil slick from some places. The pilau rice was also excellent, subtly flavouring the delicate basmati grain. We also shared garlic and plain naans. These were big, pillowy and fluffy flat breads. Perfect for mopping up all the left over gravy from the dishes. The boiled rice was boiled rice. I can't wax on about it really very well. It was white?
One of our group isn't a spiced food fan, so ordered the chips and chicken omelette. He liked it well enough, but did mention there was a slight spiced flavour to it, which he expected as it's made in the same kitchen as all this wonderfully flavourful food. No complaints there.
We left with full bellies and warm hearts. One miss step on our part... we didn't get out in time to get ice cream dessert from Caldwell's. It's a newsagents that makes it's own ice cream in about twenty different flavours. It closes at 7.30, so my tip is to finish your meal in time to get your sweet tooth fed before then, and amble happily home. We did pick up ice creams on the way out of the town the next morning. A gingerbread ice cream cone is the road fuel of champions.
So long, Innerleithen!
