Something must be kinda wrong with me recently. Maybe Christmas screwed me up…. First, I go and decide to host a “meat party” for 16 guests, when I am really a seafood cook, and then I go and bake.
Me, bake.
Any long (or not even that long) term reader (hi Mum..) will remember that not only do I completely dislike baking, but I am rather rubbish at it.
Maybe this is a British thing, but there often isn’t anything better than some lovely soft cheese, a decent slice of bread, and some great chutney. Pair it with a glass of wine and you have a lunch fit for champions.
My love affair with chutney really started back in England, in my early twenties. A friend and I every weekend would go off for a walk through the countryside, chew the fat a bit (talk a bunch of complete crap), get thoroughly lost, but somehow always manage to end up at a pub.. Actually if you have been to England you will know it isn’t too hard to always end up a pub.
What the hell you say… Matt has done more baking?? Don’t worry, I haven’t suddenly found a love for cooking up all things sweet. A love of eating baked stuff, certainly, but certainly not making it!
The only hand I had in this one was in the photography, and I am happy to say, the eating. Dearie did the rest.
Bastards. Complete bastards. I have had to do some baking. Sounds odd I know - a cook that doesn’t much like to bake. Well, that is me! Baking always seems like a black art, sometimes it goes great, other times I am left swearing at a rock cake that was never meant to be a rock cake.
So. PEPs was at our house this weekend, on Fathers Day none the less. I had to bake on Fathers Day. Evil Bastards. We had managed to not host the meetings for a while, mainly due to the kitchen renovation, but it was now our turn - well and truly our turn.
First off, I want to say that I don’t bake. I honestly don’t. I truly believe that you should focus on just a couple of things, and work to get really good at them - spread yourself too thin, and well, you become a jack of all trades, which I don’t want to be.
The fact that this came off edible is a complete miracle. The fact that it tasted bloody amazing is 10 years of miracles rolled into one banana bread.