Fully Fed - Pulled Pork with Herb and Beer Cheese Buns

I know, there are quite a lot of things I haven't tried before. There is still a lot of food on my list to feed on ... eh to try, cook and eat. Sometimes I think, I should be cooking all day. Eh, well, for some thing you nearly have to do this literally, like for example pulled pork. An acquaintance talked about it, that he wanted to try it and then I saw something lovely on the net somewhere that encouraged me to try it, finally.
So I had a bit of a look on how to do it and then I had a go ...

Together with the pulled pork I wanted to have some Herb and Beer Cheesebuns.

Confused? Green White Cabbage Risotto

There is something lurking in the freezer part of the fridge, a few bags of frozen white cabbage. I couldn't possibly use the whole head of cabbage in one go for coleslaw or kimchi or for whatever. I needed a cabbage break. Into the freezer it went and stayed and stayed there. What to do with it?
Then I read something about cooking the cabbage with garlic and I thought by myself, why not have a risotto, a Green White Cabbage Risotto.

Isn't that a bit confusing? I don't know really, because I am kind of confused most of the time and simply try to go on. In this case here, however, I am just referring to this "Green" and "White" thingy. Well, not really. You already see, how we get the white cabbage green. Lets go for it then ...

Ingredients:
A quarter of a head of white cabbage
4 cloves of garlic (the more the merrier)
Vegetable stock
A bunch of basil leaves
A splash of olive oil
One small onion, finely chopped
200 g  of risotto rice
A splash of dry white wine (might be a bigger splash)
A knob of butter
50 g of freshly grated Parmesan
Salt and pepper

Method:
The recipe unfolds with the leaves of cabbage cooked together with the peeled and halved cloves of garlic. Just cook them a few minutes together. Then remove the cabbage and the garlic together with a bit of the liquid and transfer it to a blender. Add the basil to the blender, too and ... blend it.
As for the remaining cooking water, you can mix it with the vegetable stock and keep it warm.
Now have the pot for the risotto ready and start softening the onions in some olive oil. Once you have achieved that, give the rice into the pot and go through it with a spoon to bring things together. Pour in some white wine and cook until most of it has been absorbed.
Then we can go on with the risotto fun part by adding one ladle of stock to the rice at a time and cooking until most of the liquid is assimilated. 
Keep going for about 18 minutes. Then toss in the knob of butter and the grated Parmesan. Cover the pot for two to three minutes. Remove the lid again, spoon the risotto through and season it with salt and pepper. Then it's time to plate up.
Enjoy your Green White Cabbage Risotto.

Maybe you do. At the beginning of the month I thought, maybe I get the chance to take part in Herbs on Saturday (Cooking with Herbs) from Lavender & Lovage this month. I just made it ...

Cooking and gardening

To cook something nice depends to a large extent also on your ingredients. Having good quality ingredients can make good meals. Here a good way would be to have things from your own garden. Then it is also possible to get things you hardly can buy at a shop, like for example courgette flowers.

Here, Spring has just started. A few things are already sown or planted in my garden. Today I spotted already the first plants making it's way to the surface. Tiny spinach plants were to be seen. It's always exiting seeing things grow.

This year I have for the first time rhubarb in the garden. I got some crowns from a friend. So I'm also exited how this will develop.

Gardening and cooking really go hand in hand. So, when you have the chance to sow or plant a few things, you will be happy. I also have some things inside the flat on the windowsill. This is also a fine alternative. Somehow I can't go without having some herbs. It's always good to have some fresh herbs at home. You can not go to the shop and buy some all the time.

I will see how things develop this year, whether the windowsills will get crowded again and what produce the garden will bring.