Welcome to another newsletter from Farmhouse Kitchen. Have a look at our programme of cooking classes, with some great new classes. And foodies don’t forget to secure tickets for the summer F.A.W.C! series from 1-10 November, some events have already sold out!

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Aroha,

Pauline & Chris

Our new programme until the end of the year is out, with some exciting new classes. Click here to view our full program.
Gluten-free Baking
This hands-on class shows you how to make delicious gluten-free food that everyone will enjoy.
Delicious Raw Food
The incredible benefits of raw food are becoming more widely recognised by health professionals. Join this workshop and learn how to prepare healthy wholesome juices, smoothies, snacks, meals and desserts.
Perfect Christmas Dinner
Perfect Christmas Dinner is a fun class that will teach you a wealth of time-saving tips, organisational skills and fantastic recipes to help make this year’s family Christmas Dinner a magical festive feast – without the stress.
Morning Cooking Course                                                               Improve and refine your kitchen skills and have a good time together while preparing some delicious dishes from our evening programme.This course is every last Thursday morning of the month from September till November

Come and join us for the F.A.W.C! (Food and Wine Classic) on Wednesday 6 November. Meet expert pasta master Danny Brown, who will visit Farmhouse Kitchen and show you all the secrets how to make delicious and authentic, fresh Italian pasta.
During the evening Chris will share his insights on how to make another Italian favourite: ricotta.
Pauline will bring it all together in an Italian style two-course dinner, including fresh, local greens, and matched with award winning wines from Pukeora Estate.
Places are filling up fast so book here if you don’t want to miss out.

F.A.W.C! is a ten day (1-10 November) celebration of food and wine involving creative collaborations among winemakers, local and international chefs, food personalities and some of Hawke’s Bay’s best known food producers. A tasty selection of over sixty events includes James Beck in Six Courses (Taste Cornucopia) , Locavore’s Lunch (Farmers Market) and many more. You can buy tickets and find full programme and information online at www.fawc.co.nz

The Edible Garden Show will be held on 25 & 26 October 2013 in the beautiful Waikoko Gardens on the same grounds as the Hawke’s Bay A&P Show.  Public attending either of these events on Friday 25th will have access to both. The show brings together four key components – Food, Garden, Animals, and Landscape.  It will feature expert demonstrations, celebrity appearances, practical workshops, competitions, exhibitions and more.
Farmhouse Kitchen will be present with a stall to promote cooking classes and sell cheese making products for the home cheese maker and Chris will be giving cheese making demonstrations on both days.

Watercress was introduced into New Zealand  by the French as a food plant. It is a fast-growing, aquatic or semi-aquatic, perennial herb native from Europe to central Asia, and one of the oldest known leaf vegetables consumed by human beings.
We are fortunate to have a running stream on our property from which we, and many Maori locals, harvest the fresh leaves for use in the kitchen.
With deep green leaves, and crisp, paler stems, watercress is related to mustard and is one of the strongest-tasting salad leaves available. It has a pungent, slightly bitter, peppery flavour and is highly nutritious, containing significant amounts of iron, calcium, vitamins A, C and E.
Watercress is delicious eaten raw, cooked in soups, or with meat. Pauline recommends mixing watercress leaves in salads or blending with olive oil to make a pesto. Maori use it in a boil-up, which consists of watercress, succulent pork, sweet potato, spinach and pumpkin dumplings.

One of our favourite watercress recipes is a watercress soup. In the soup, the watercress is added at the last moment so that it retains its tender crunch. We blend the soup for a smoother consistency.

Recipe: Watercress soup

2 tablespoons butter
1 large onion peeled, chopped
1 large leek, washed, chopped
2 large potatoes, peeled, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled, chopped
1 big bunch of watercress, washed and  roughly chopped
4 cups stock or water
1 cup full cream milk
pepper and salt
yoghurt or sour cream for serving

Melt the butter in a large pot.
Add the onion, leek, garlic and potato, and soften the vegetables on a medium heat.
Add the stock and simmer until the potato is cooked.
Add the watercress, reserving a few leaves for the garnish, simmer for just a few minutes.
Take off heat and add the milk, and season to taste.
Pour into a blender and blend until fairly smooth.
Serve with yoghurt and the reserved watercress leaves