Kitchen Doings

....The Malt Loaf I made recently had me thumping the walls on account of it not turning out EXACTLY as I'd hoped. Nothing wrong with the mouth experience, it tasted divine but I'd idiotically let it bake a tad too long resulting in a crispy collar, which, as all bakers know is a very bad thing. But being undeterred I managed, with the aid of scissors, to snip away the hideous hardness. No-one wsas any the wiser.
But, as with everything homemade, it's the taste that matters and this brick of a loaf was delicious. Delicious in its stickiness and moreishness. And abiding by Malt Loaf Rules I left it uncut for twenty four hours ( I think!) At any rate all who had a slice agreed it was a corker.

And so to last night's curry.
Chicken Breast and Chick Pea in a coconutty Tikka Masala sauce. I like coconut cream so plumped for it instead of my usual single cream.
Basmati rice flavoured and coloured by dashes of turmeric. A big  bowl of cucumber raita to which a Cox's apple, two grated carrots and three teaspoonfuls of Sainsbury's mint sauce was added. It was delightful although an awful lot was left standing at the end of the meal, still I liked it.
A dish of shop bought mango chutney added sweetness and four coriander and garlic naan breads and two  towering piles of home fried puppodoms gave the table a nice Indian feel.The plastic daffodils were a bit English though.
Drink came rarely. My guests, Mr and Mrs Hairy, had soft drinks, where I was cajoled, nay bullied into a wine spritzer. Mr Horsehound kept clean by sipping cloudy lemonade.
We had a fine evening which was made even more fine by dishes of homemade Vanilla Ice Cream with Oat Biscuits being served for pudding.
The making of the ice cream took 8 hours. Make rich egg custard. Cool. Add mucho double cream. Vanilla extract. Freeze. Mash. Freeze. Mash. Freeze. Remove from old freezer. Stand for a few minutes then spoon out to aaaahhhhs. It was worth every penny and all the effort.

To relax after the meal we watched the recorded Great British Bake Off. I wasn't surprised by the judges choice of supreme baker... John Whaite 23, law graduate.... how the boy sweated and with his eyes rimming red and watery I thought he was close to collapse as he presented his final bake a Heaven and Hell Chiffon cake.
The 'losers' were magnanimous in defeat which surprised me a tad, had visions of tetchy Brendan storming orf set. Never thought that about Max though, always knew he'd be a gennelman. And so another year, another star baker and another big gas bill for the BBC.

Talking of gas bills..I'll have the oven on later baking a mince and onion pie. So will, being aware of rising fuel costs fill my grungy oven to full capacity. Pie in middle. Potato Boulanger on top and on the bottom a nice rice.