We planted mini cabbages in May and then seemed to wait for ever to harvest them.

Two were ready to pick this week and we gave them to friends as early Christmas presents. (Sorry, David and John, that’s all that Santa is giving you this year.) My partner harvested the outer leaves of a few others to make cabbage rolls. 

Apart from the raw white stalk, which my mother used to give me to eat raw, and which I loved, I used to hate cabbage. Now I’ll eat it raw or cooked.

Jo Rogers, in What Food is That? wrote ‘…the outer leaves of the cabbage may contain 50 times as much beta carotene as the inner white ones. Raw cabbage has a higher level of vitamin C and folate’.

My partner cobbled together several different recipes for the following, so feel free to adjust the ingredients according to taste.

The addition of the smoked pork is optional. If you prefer not to use it, just increase the amount of minced pork. And instead of meat you could add lentils to the rice.

Here’s our variation on the theme of cabbage rolls:

1 onion
1 large clove of garlic
olive oil
6 large cabbage leaves
600g minced pork
100g smoked loin of pork, diced into small cubes
1 heaped teaspoon fennel seeds
1 egg, lightly beaten
½ cup pine nuts
1 cup Arborio rice
300ml chicken stock
½ litre tomato purée
parmesan cheese
black pepper

• Cook the cabbage leaves, two at a time, in a pan of lightly salted boiling water until tender (about 6 minutes). Set aside on a flat surface to cool.
• When cool, cut the ends of the thick stalks from the bottom of the leaves.
• Cook the arborio rice in the chicken stock. Strain, place in a large mixing bowl and allow to cool.
• In a little olive oil in a frying pan, cook the onion and garlic until soft. Remove from the pan and add to the rice.
• Fry the diced pork for 2-3 minutes.
• Add the minced pork, fennel seeds and pine nuts to the diced pork and fry until the mince changes colour.
• Allow the meat mixture to cool, add pepper, then combine it with the rice, onion and garlic.
• Add the beaten egg to the meat and rice and mix well.
• Place two dessertspoons of the mixture onto a cabbage leaf.
• Fold the ends of the leaf over the mixture and roll up. Do the same with the rest of the leaves.
• Pour just enough tomato purée into the bottom of a rectangular baking dish to thinly coat it.
• Place the cabbage rolls into the baking dish, edge side down.
• Pour the remaining tomato purée over the top of the rolls.
• Sprinkle thickly with parmesan and bake at about 180ºC for 25 minutes.
• Serve with zucchini (courgettes) and broad beans or green beans.

Scrumptious!

Here’s one of those handy household hints, the mysterious origins of which have been lost over time: When cooking cabbage, if you drop a whole walnut into the cooking water unpleasant odours will be absorbed.  

Of course, if you don’t overcook the cabbage in the first place you’ll avoid those devilishly nasty sulphurous odours altogether.