Tredethy House

Happy Easter!

2011-04-23T10:01:00.000-07:00

There are a number of things you can do in Cornwall for Easter, but the best one if you have kids with you is to find a Easter egg hunt in one of the glorious gardens the county is not short of.

If you happen to be around Milton Abbot, Endsleigh House is hosting an Easter Egg Hunt today at 3:00 p.m.

Endsleigh House

Have an afternoon tea while the children are hunting. You will think you are in paradise, the Tamar river flowing down the valley, the place is just the perfect country house with the magic touch of Olga Polizzi thrown in. Bliss, if you ask me.

We have been blessed with the perfect weather up to today and I truly wish our visitors arriving today for the Easter weekend will be lucky enough to enjoy it too.

Have A Happy Happy Easter and ...leave the lambs in the field, please! We at Tredethy House have decided to do so and do not sport any meat on the menu. Except if you really are screaming for a full English tomorrow morning you will be served with one. After all you are a guest!

LOVE DAY

2011-02-14T09:47:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine!

Today there certainly is a lot of love and kissy kissy going around on our planet, that is why of all celebrations days brought by our consumerist society, this is one that can't be bad for us.

Apart for the lovers love, this day at Tredethy is a celebration of all things that we love about this world, ...and think about it, there is little not to love since we live on a pretty amazing planet!

A little bit closer to home, if you live in a Country where apples are sooo gorgeous, you are in Eden/Heaven don't you agree? Italian and French apples I really must admit go nowhere near the magic of The British Apples.

This is to say that every little thing (as little as loving your bread and butter and jam moment) that we love nourish us with love that we can give back to the world.

Today is a sunny magnificent day in Cornwall with the expectation of spring to come in the air and birds starting singing again.

So I guess we see you all soon for a nice weekend perhaps!

Trattoria Christmas recipes

2010-12-15T08:01:00.000-08:00

The table is ready prepared by my three little Elves, the sound of Christmas music is a cocooning lullaby, the sky outside is peach and blue, the frost is crystallizing this magical moments.

This is really a time to laugh relax and cherish the warmth of our homes, be thankful, so so thankful to be well and loved.

Two recipes are dear to us from our Christmas table and they are so simple to make you will finally think Christmas struggles with getting a feast on the table is a thing of the past. These recipes can be plated in bowls or glasses for a more sophisticated take. Monte Bianco pudding can be made smaller to serve single guests with flair.

The Monte Bianco recipe is a mouthwatering winter recipe that has travelled Europe and it is best known as the French Mont Blanc served in every respectful Parisian patisserie. Italians have their own different take on this winter staple. It is prepared during the Christmas holidays and every household has got a little secret to make it unique. Chestnuts are also a truly high nutritional food, full of winter forest goodness.

Monte Bianco Recipe

1 kg of chestnuts
1 litre organic milk
1 cinnamon stick
organic unsweetened cacao powder (raw cacao powder is best)
100 gr natural caster sugar
500 ml organic fresh whipping cream
sweet liqueur to taste

If you have the time and patience to use fresh chestnuts, once peeled boil them in the milk and cinnamon for over an hour. You can find a good brand of ready boiled or roasted chestnuts in your local supermarket or deli and I still advise to further soften them in a pan with milk. This will definitely make your life easier and you'll still end up with excellent results.
Leave the chestnuts to cool and pass them through a sieve on a round plate so as to arrange a first round layer. "Water" with the liqueur, then sprinkle sugar and cacao powder. Repeat the process narrowing each layer down until you have built a mountain.
Remember not to pat the sieved chestnuts but leave them falling nice and airy.
Leave to rest in the fridge overnight for the flavours to combine and scent the chestnuts.
When ready to serve, whip the cream to soft peaks and cover your mountain with snowy deliciousness!

It is so easy to switch this dessert to a vegan version. Just replace the milk with your favourite, being soya or almond etc, and whip up a vegan cream, non GM soya works well , with a dash of vanilla extract. Needless to say the benefits are both for the soul and waistline, plus you will be energetic enough to tackle that winter walk!

The Insalata Russa, or Russian Salad (funny name for an Italian staple), must indeed have roots in the royal banquettes of the czars, where French chefs used to dress both humble and precious ingredients with creamy and voluptuous mayonnaise.

Insalata Russa Recipe

4 medium potatoes diced
4 carrots
100 gr of garden peas
4 big jerkins
a handful of capers
juice of one organic lemon
Celtic salt to taste

Dice the vegetables to small cubes and quickly boil them. Combine with diced jerkins, capers, salt and lemon.
Take a jar of your favourite mayo, or make it yourself, and blend in the vegetables until a creamy salad is achieved. These quantities should serve four starters.
You can steam the best king prawns you can find to accompany this simple but indulgent salad.

A vegan version here requires a vegan mayo which you can find in many food stores. If you can't get hold of it, put together a quick one by mixing natural soya yogurt with extra virgin olive oil and a generous squeeze of lemon. Add a little amount of mustard for extra taste or incorporate the capers with a hand blender.

Chistmas is coming...

2010-12-14T03:34:00.000-08:00

It is this time of the year again and we had already our fair share of snow, frozen pipes and the lot here at Tredethy. I am running out of Tredethy apples, autumn has given full way to winter and we are planning holidays, edible gifts and Christmas lunch.

Or should I say we are thinking about all those things but planning, no! Not for us the Mombellis, although I truly wish we were capable of such a task. We never plan, and the thought of preparing a Christmas cake or pudding a month or more before belongs to the realm of a British fairytale.

Our family Christmas menu is lovingly put together at the last minute and usually consists of a starter of Insalata Russa, langoustines, a fish course with lots of roasted potatoes, green and orange beauties, and Monte Bianco, a traditional pudding made in many Northern Italy households. Like true Italians , although we pride ourselves with staple recipes that one shouldn't dream to twist, we do alter them in every household and we come up with so many different versions. I have got my bis nonna take, my grand grandmother. She used to prepare this pudding the night before Christmas, just to give a little time for the sweet spirit in it to "marry" this heart warming winter pudding

Stay tuned as I am going to post Bisnonna Regina Monte Bianco recipe and Insalata Russa next.

Autumn is the best time in Cornwall

2010-11-20T06:17:00.000-08:00

With all the intentions to keep writing this blog regularly, here I am after what it seems an awful lot of time, and indeed it is.

I wanted to recap the summer time with some landmark pictures, but somehow it doesn't feel right, because without realising we are already running up for Christmas.

Where is everybody at this time of the year? Autumn is a fantastic season to enjoy and grasp the real Cornwall. It is quieter everywhere, you can finally feel the energy of the sea, nature is warming the eyes and heart and everywhere you visit gives you that feeling or experiencing the real thing.

Yet we are so quiet here at Tredethy and the big house with the roaring fire is warming a very few guests, who are really enjoying having the place for themselves.

Actually it is such a great idea to rent the whole house out for a weekend. A family or a group could easily feel the house (11 bedrooms) and we offer great rates, breakfast buffet every morning and dinners if you wish as well. I need to put up a proper page on Tredethy House website with all the info.

As for us, if you want to know what we have been up to, well, we had Halloween sparkles, apple picking, Harvest festivals and all in all we are cherishing the countryside for its purest air, good produce and sense of peace.

Nibbling on Tredethy apples and sipping a warm cup of spiced tea and a home made pumpkin muffin, that's what I am doing right now.

If you wish to have a try at these little beauties, here is how:

Vegan Organic Pumpkin Muffin recipe
These are very nice savoury muffins, to pair with a nice autumn soup or a fresh salad of leaves, sprouts and nuts. They are also good with jam.

250 gr. strong flour
200 ml non GM soya milk
2tbs oil (sunflower, rice, or mild olive oil)
1 medium cooked *pumpkin
1 tsp of sea salt
2tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
a good pinch of cinnamon
pumpkin seeds

Cook the whole pumpkin in the oven for about 20 minutes at 160 degrees. It will be much easier to prepare as it peels effortlessly. Take away the centre and mesh the pulp ready for the recipe.
Set the oven temperature to 180 degrees. Mix dry with wet ingredients, in no particular order, until you reach quite a dense batter. Mix in the sunflower seeds.
Fill your muffin tin with cases and batter up to nearly the edge of the tin and sprinkle with extra pumpkin seeds.
Cook for 25 minutes and you've got yourself a nice muffin to eat almost straight away but also the day after.

Prosciutto e melone: the summer staple of an Italian table

2010-08-28T06:34:00.000-07:00

Prosciutto e melone is an Italian staple. A summer starter often enjoyed as a main and only course for a light lunch.

No secret in the recipe, most of the time is served "bare", meaning just melon and Parma ham. The s"trick" to a perfect fare is a simple and essential tip: never use a melon too cold from the fridge, it would take away the taste, and talking of taste, always use melons ripe enough to be flavoursome. That's it. This is what makes the difference between a bad and a good prosciutto e melone.

At the TRATTORIA we like to twist it slightly, but maintaining the integrity of the ingredients that must speak out in their natural form.

Replacing Parma Ham with coppa, speck or prosciutto piccante from Sardinia gives the dish a new dimension in taste, so feel free to experiment with any good cured ham you come by.

Coppa e Melone recipe

3 slices of organic cantaloupe melon
3 slices of organic honeydew melon
12 slices of Cornish Coppa
a bunch of wild or kitchen garden rocket

Dressing
organic Sardinian extra virgin olive oil
organic balsamic vinegar

Arrange the melon on a plate as in the picture above, lay the coppa slices gently on top, scatter the rocket around the plate. Pour olive oil and balsamic vinegar in a small bowl and mix vigorously with a teaspoon. When you achieve a "speckled" emulsion, pour over melon and salad and serve immediately. If you wish, some white peppercorn ground create a more "piquant" ensemble.
Enjoy straight away, don' t even think to prepare this dish and put it in stand by in the fridge, because all flavours will be ruined. If you make it a bit ahead for a dinner party, leave it out until you serve and make/pour the dressing at the last minute.

Trattoria. A word or two about our food

2010-08-27T14:28:00.000-07:00

TRATTORIA epitomizes exactly how we feel about food and the way we can offer it.

It has developed as a kind of pop up restaurant, a new trend that truly eradicates in the original style of an Italian Trattoria when food was prepared and cooked from scratch, often in a house-cum-restaurant kitchen, naturally using seasonal and available ingredients and just when there was demand for a meal from passers by.

We are in full bloom in every sense in the summer, and we cook on the spot, whenever our guests wish, for tables of ten or more for a very unique and private experience, but still relaxed and kind of homely.

You don't ask for silver service, we give you the best simple and unadulterated food prepared as we would put it on our family table, with love and care.

We use local, organic ingredients, best speciality foods from Italy and truly take advantage of our unique location for the freshest wild fish, farm eggs and award winning cheeses and local artisan breads.

Everything is prepared in our kitchen, simply following the natural rules of eating healthy, balanced meals, never too heavy.

See you soon!

Is this our new resident pet? A very short story

2010-07-24T05:43:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago an elegant peacock started to wander in our garden.

He found himself so at ease he decided to stay and every morning when waking up, we were amazed to see he was still there, parading in front of us and enjoying our company. This is the beauty of the countryside, it my be lacking in architectural features, but when it comes to nature surprises, you've got plenty to enjoy.

The peacock must have been from a nearby estate, so we knew this wandering would eventually stop, but what made the bird go in the end was one of our resident guests, who was determined to film it and started running after the poor creature with his video camera, until peacock, scared and disillusioned about the people of Tredethy, went away and never came back.

The guest in question is manager in one of Penhaligons shops in London, now a big chain but still representing the best British perfumery, and also the brand we use for our room toiletries.

What's boiling in the pan?

2010-07-24T01:19:00.000-07:00

A lot is boiling in the pan right now. It is summer, our busiest time of the year. But literally speaking, I have been making a very British, delicious rhubarb and strawberry jam with my culinary gifted daughter.

The most colourful naturally grown rhubarb from a friend and supplier kitchen garden, succulent British strawberries and the job is almost done. And by this I mean ingredients are key, the rest is a bit of boiling, a touch of vanilla and a few lavender flowers just to keep it interesting.

This time we have made a conserve, a runnier and less cooked version of a jam, ideal for pouring over hand made ice cream, semifreddo and our baked vanilla cheesecake in the TRATTORIA.

My son was saying to me yesterday while I was dishing out a dessert for our guests: "Mum, you made the cake, Macrina the conserva, you decorate with flowers picked by myself, so everything is truly home made". And that really sums up what Tredethy House hospitality is all about, a caring loving personal "homemade" service.

STRAWBERRY AND RHUBARB CONSERVE RECIPE

750 gr. organic British strawberries (3 punnets)

200 gr. rhubarb (I used the one frozen from last month)

500 gr sugar or Xilitol

2 teaspoons of organic vanilla extract

a few lavender flowers from the garden (untreated)

1 organic lemon juice and zest

Wash your beautiful British strawberries and cut them in half. Cut the rhubarb into chunks and put in a bowl with the sugar, lemon juice and zest, vanilla extract and lavender flowers. Leave to rest for a while (a couple of hours will do nicely) and transfer to the pan for simmering. It will take around half an hour for it to be ready. Bear in mind you are making a conserve for pouring so you are looking to achieve a runnier consistency and you want the colour to be still "alive". Pour in extra clean jam jars and leave to cool upside down. When ready, turn them, enjoy the sense of achievement and start thinking about sticking pretty labels with the production date on and may be that little scrap of fabric to cover the lid. This will just add to the fulfilling experience of making your own.
A little note on the sugar I use. It is called Xilitol, it is a healthy fantastic alternative to sugar, and as it happens it has turned out to be the perfect bonding consistency for jams. Oh! and the flavour is just right.

A midsummer day out

2010-07-16T08:18:00.000-07:00

Tredethy is idyllic all year round, but at this time of the year you truly enjoy its countryside location. Where everywhere else on the coast is pretty busy and a bit too touristy, here you can enjoy peace, nature, fantastic walks and cycling in the restoring shadows of ancestral trees with the soothing sound of water as from the nearby river, and why not you can plunge yourself in the river for a total immersion into the natural world.

Then again, from here you are so close to the hustle and bustle of the coast and in a quarter of an hour you can be there enjoying the spots where it is all happening, and to get that unique feeling of the British seaside, the taste of the sea that you will cherish all year round.

Today we are going to immerse in the sheer beauty of an historical building. Lanhydrock House and Gardens, a National Trust property and one of the best we visited in Cornwall so far.

We went there last week with the children for an Alice in Wonderland tea party and we all enjoyed the event, but most of all the house and grounds visit.

We started off with lunch at the cafe' with sandwiches, organic juices, scones, Victoria cake, a nice cappuccino and a very acceptable espresso served with a little amaretto biscuit. Off we went for a bit of Alice in Wonderland fun, with a lot of games, a mad hatter tea party table and lots of helpers wearing colourful costumes the children admired.

It was one of the hot days this summer has blessed us with, so we decided to find shelter in the house and do a bit of exploring there, before going out again and hit the grounds, followed by an exhibition of edible plants and flowers and a visit at the pretty church beside the house.
The house inside is a jewel, fully restored and beautifully kept and an array of kind volunteers show you the way.

If you have to go for one thing, be it the kitchens, complete with a cheese room, bread making room with bread oven, washing area, larders and various other spaces that would send any domestic goddess to bliss.

Jump on a cart for £0.50 to take you back to the car park if you are tired (this can turn in a bit of a fun ride for the children). And don't forget to stop by the delicious plant shop on your way out. We bought a healthy Lemon Verbena and found a suitable use straight away by trimming it on our evening guests' semifreddo ice cream at the TRATTORIA.