Christmas at Michael House

We currently have only one room (the room with private bathroom) still available for our four day Christmas Special:

Christmas break, 2009


Fancy being looked after and spoiled over the Christmas period? Get away from it all, relax, walk and have tea by the open fire at Michael House, followed by delicious festive meals! We are offering a four night break over Christmas again this year, as follows:

Arrive on Wednesday 23rd December, in time for afternoon tea by the fire and a three course evening meal.

On Christmas Eve, have a leisurely breakfast. Enjoy the day as you choose and afternoon tea will again be served by the fire, and a three course evening meal will follow.

On Christmas Day, another leisurely breakfast will precede a four course Christmas dinner in the early afternoon. Supper will be buffet style.

On Boxing Day, there will be a light lunch after another leisurely breakfast, afternoon tea (if you can manage it!) and a three course supper. Guests will depart on the Sunday morning, after breakfast.

Four nights, partly full board, £300 per person for the en-suite rooms, and £275 for the room with private bathroom. A single supplement will apply.

Bookings for earlier or later dates will be at the normal rate.

Comments from previous Christmas guests:

‘A wonderful way to spend Christmas’

‘What a fabulous way to spend Christmas…a brie and cranberry soufflé to die for…thanks for all the cosseting and pampering – we really needed it’

We have availability over the coming weekend, and there will be a free extra hour. We very generously will not be charging for this!

I do love the extra hour, but, oh I so hate the early darkness that results.

Next week, half term, we are very busy but have the odd room available and the following weekend is free so far. I will nto be cooking on the evening of Saturday 31st, as we have our Treknow Festival of Lanterns, which should be fun, do come down and join in. I have pestered for veggie sausages etc., so need people here to eat them up, or I will get told off for making a fuss and then not eating them!

Availability

The sun is shining, the forecast for the next few days is not bad, but the guest house is empty! If you are thinking of a few days in Cornwall, hope to see you! The half term week - 26th onwards, is filling rapidly though, but there is still some availability.

spice crusted tofu with maple glaze

this is from Veggie Chic, by Rose Elliot, adapted by me!

serves four

1 tbs. paprika - Rose says three, but this is a lot of paprika!
3tsp. ground cumin
3tsp. ground coriander
1 and a half tsp. salt
3, 8 oz packs firm tofu, drained
6 tbs olive oil
9 tbs. boiling water - I leave this out altogether, it takes too long to evaporate I find, let me know what you think!
6 tbs. freshly squeezed lemon juice
4 and a half tbs. maple syrup
2 oz. toasted pinenuts, to sprinkle over the top, if wished

mix spices in a bowl and spread, with the salt, on a large platter.

cut the tofu into fingers, aprox four or six per packet

coat the tofu in the spices on all sides

heat the olive oil in a large pan, cook the tofu for four- five minutes on each side

mix the water if using and the maple syrup and lemon juice together. Pour over the tofu. it is supposed to disappear very fast, leaving a glaze, but i find it takes a while!

Serve immediately, with the pinuts sprinkled over. Yum. Experiment with this recipe.

Quinoa, almond and caper filled peppers

This recipe has been requested, is quite yummy, and unusual, not the familiar way to stuff a pepper! I have adapted it from a recipe I found on the internet for a stuffed tomato! So, other vegetables can be used.

measurements are very approximate - I just bung it all together, and it varies, but this is part of the delight!

for four people:

approzimately half a cup of quinoa, I like the red one. Cook this in three times the volume of water, for about 20 minutes.

Take the tops off four smallish peppers (preferably not green ones), remove the seeds and keep the 'lids' with the peppers. Make sure the peppers can stand up, slice a little off the base if necessary! Boil for approx five minutes in water, drain and cool.

meanwhile, chop and cook an onion in a little oil - I use sunflower oil.

Chop up a handful of almonds, mix with the onion, and add about a tablespoonful of capers, and a similar amount of currants.

mix all ingredients, pop in the peppers, put the tops on, drizzle with olive oil and place in an ovenproof dish and cook in a medium oven for 20 minutes.

Serve with rich tomato sauce:

one tin tomatoes in tomato juice, chopped

some garlic - 2 or three cloves

approx. one tbs. olive oil

a couple of sundried tomatoes, chopped

a splosh of red wine

herbs if you like

cook this gently for as long as possible - one hour is fine.

whizz in liquidiser briefly.

Serve with fresh vegetables of different colours and roast potatoes. looks good and tastes

yummy! I even found a photo, but it doesn't have the sauce

As we move away from summer, the beaches are looking more like this, just one Sky, waiting to play ball, and few people around.

This coming weekend, 3rd and 4th October and thereafter, we have availability at Michael House, so do get in touch and come for a couple of days or more!

Our three nights for the price of two offer, see the website, also starts now.

Hope to see you soon.

Availability

Until Sunday 6th September, we are fully booked, but, after that, we do begin to have some availability. So, if you are thinking of coming to Cornwall and might be interested in this area, give me a ring or email. the weather forecast is not looking too bad, but don't hold me to that, as it keeps changing!

Availability

We do have one en-suite room available from Sunday 16th August until Saturday 22nd August, if you are thinking of a visit to Cornwall soon! Otherwise, apart from the odd night, we are very busy until the second week in September.

check out page 89 of the September 2009 edition of Cook Vegetarian magazine!

The best ever scone recipe!

This recipe, which I always use for scones, has to be the best ever! The scones are crumbly, yummy and can be frozen, if you make so many you cannot eat them in one go! The recipe comes from the October 2004 edition of Good Housekeeping magazine, and the recipe has been requested, so I thought I would add it here...

8oz s.r. flour
3oz butter
1 and a half oz sugar
1 large egg
approx 2 tbsp. milk or buttermilk

preheat oven to 220c (200 for fan oven)

I use a food mixer, place the flour in and mix in the butter, and sugar, mix egg with milk, mix in, add more milk if doesn't form nice firm ball.

Flour clean work surface and flat baking tray. Roll out dough to 1 in thick. Press floured 2in cutter into mixture and pull out without twisting. Use all mixture. You should have 8 scones, I never seem to have this many!!

Brush each scone with milk and then sprinkle with flour. Bake for 10 - 12 mins. Try not to eat immediately.

Yummy.

We stil have availability later this week, so do give me a ring or email if you are coming this way!

Goats' cheese, pinenut and oven-roasted tomato charlotte

This is a recipe from Cafe Paradiso, by Denis Cotter. He runs a restaurant in Cork, Ireland, and is inspired in his combinations of flavours. I have indicated the things I alter in this recipe, but included the original recipe, as requested by a recent guest to Michael House.

for 6

6 beef tomatoes - or any ripe tomatoes, but more of them!
olive oil
6 cloves of garlic - I use less, this is a lot!
450g goats cheese - I use less, can be soft sort or hard, nice with the hard version
200g cream cheese - I use Philadelphia
2 eggs
3 egg whites
100-150g single cream
50g pinenuts, lightly toasted
basil, fresh
black pepper
100g puy lentils - I often do not do this part
1 red onion
120mls basil oil, don't even know what this is, unless you just mix oil with basil and let it sit around for a while!
wilted greens - again, never use this, but the dish is very rich, so does need simple vegetables with it

roast the tomatoes - cut into thick slices (he says remove the seeds, I never do!). Oil some trays, lightly oil the slices of tomato with olive oil, roast on medium oven for approx 45 - 50 mins. should be a bit dried out when done, but not completely, with some blackened bits, caramelised.

put cheeses, garlic and whole eggs in food processor, whizz to smooth puree, add egg whites one at a times with motor running. transfer to a bowl and add enough cream to give thick pouring consistency. stir in pinenuts and basil.

preheat oven to 190c. lightly oil six ramekins or dariel bowls and place a little piece of greaseproof paper in each, and place in a large ovenproof dish. put a tomato slice in, then some of the custard, then tomato, and finish with custard. half fill the big dish with hot water and place the whole thing in the oven for around 40 minutes. run a knife around the bowls to help with removal.

for the lentils, which do go very well with the dish, soak if you wish then boil them until tender, mix with red onion chopped up and basil oil. serve with the charlottes. yum.

The Old Post Office, Tintagel


During most of August we are very busy at Michael House. However, during the week beginning 2nd August we have availability, so, if you are considering coming to Cornwall for a few days we hope to hear from you!

Over the next few days, including this weekend, we do have some availability, give us a ring or email if you are thinking of coming to this part of Cornwall. If you like fresh berries, gooseberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants, strawberries and raspberries, this is the place to be! We have never had such a crop, it is brilliant and goes a small way to compensating for losing all our echiums last winter! The baby ones we have potted up are mostly doing well, we have over 50 in pots and several where they seeded.

Availability

Just to let anyone reading this know, we do have some availability over the coming weeks, and dont forget, until the end of June, we are still offering our 'three for two' special, see the website for details - www.michael-house.co.uk.

Since when has Peru been in Britain?

Our obsession with British, preferably Cornish, asparagus has reached a bit of a low point. On two occasions in supermarkets recently, (one of them we really thought would have higher moral standards), the box said British asparagus, but the bundle itself, on bringing it home on the first occasion, said Peru! When this happened for a second time, no asparagus came home! I wonder if the season here has been very short because of the hard winter and the boxes were not changed in time, but surely this was breaking the Trades Description Act? Hope we have not had the last of the British asparagus already.

Just to let anyone thinking of coming to Cornwall this weekend, 4th/5th/6th June know, we do have some availabilty over the weekend.



We had a great time at the Royal Cornwall show today. The weather, contrary to earlier forecasts, was perfect, warm, sunny and with a gentle breeze. As well as an obsession with echiums, I now have a developing interest in streptocarpus, which, despite its disease like name, is a beautiful group of elegant houseplants. I have three on the mantelpiece in the dining room and just bought another two, all are variants of blue and purple.

This weather is so wonderful!

Here is the recipe I use for making elderflower cordial. We have only just finished last years cordial, I had quite a lot in the freezer.

20 elderflower heads - washed
1 sliced lemon
2 tsp citric acid
3 and a half lb white sugar
2 and a half lbs boiling water

Pour boiling water over the ingredients in large pot. Stir to dissolve sugar. Stir daily for five days, strain and bottle in sterile bottles. Keeps in fridge for quite a while, or freeze in plastic bottles, leavng air gap for expansion. Serve with tap water, sparkling water or lemonade, with lemon or mint, or use in sorbet. One of the essential tastes of summer.

Cornish new potatoes and asparagus

If you love new potatoes and asparagus, the local varieties of both are here at present and we are making good use of them! Delicious.