To not have eaten the meal DP cooked for us?

[NameofTheWind]

For context: DP will eat pretty much anything, he's more of a quantity over quality type and open admits that fancy food is largely wasted on him. He would choose a larger, normal cut of steak over filet, for example.
I'll eat most things, but am a bit of a foodie so get excited about a good meal.

DP's cooking style could be described as... "pot luck dining" - if it's in the fridge, it's in the pan. Most of the time it's vaguely edible, if a bit eclectic.

Today he decided on curry - Jar of sauce, chicken and maybe some onion and pepper... Or so I thought.

I've just been presented with a curry comprising of chicken, sauce, onion, pepper... Courgette chunks, sweetcorn and button mushrooms.

The sauce has turned to coloured curryish flavour water because of all the veg, and something has happened to the chicken to make it indistinguishable from the mushrooms.

I made a really valiant effort to eat it but its so grim

I've had to admit defeat and DP has obviously noticed. He's such a lovely man and I feel like such a cow, but this is a terrible meal right??

Yanbu. Part of being a pot-luck cook is knowing how to cook lots of things so that they're tasty.

E.g. if you chuck a load of large chunks of raw veg into a sauce they will just boil and likely be a bit grim, but chop them finely and saute to caramalise a bit and reduce liquid, then add sauce will be ok.

I can't stand big chunks of boiled onion and it puts me off dh's Bolognese because he often just bungs the tomatoes in before they're cooked so they're crunchy and the sauce is always a bit watery.

I don't think courgette and mushrooms are that weird in a curry and am sure there are plenty of authentic curry recipes which include these ingredients. Sweetcorn probably a bit more unusual but again, if it's done well it could work.

But it sounds like the problem is he is combining ingredients kind of randomly and it's resulting in a bit of a mess.

I would sensitively say to him that you really appreciated him trying but you found it a bit too strange with all those random ingredients. Maybe suggest he tries a recipe next time, or that he just chooses two or three vegetables to use so it doesn't overwhelm you with too many flavours?

I'm like your DP in that I will eat anything.
However, like you I have standards.

I wouldn't care what it looked like as long as it tasted nice.
I'm assuming it didn't taste nice?
In which case YANBU.

But if it's just because of the colour then YABU

@ShrikeAttack

Many years ago a bloke I'd just started seeing asked me to his and said he'd cook me a curry. I was looking forward to it and was really pleased he was into cooking as I'm a really keen cook.

He made me chicken korma. From a jar.

The relationship did not progress.

This made me laugh. I've had a very similar experience!

It sounds disgusting, OP. Sweetcorn! In a curry! Nope.

I’m afraid I have a similar DH and sometimes you just have to be honest. He’s mostly stopped putting in very random stuff into things now. And he’s perfected a few recipes that are all his, so he mostly cooks those, which is MUCH better than letting him loose on some minced beef and hoping for Bolognese because it will definitely end in (oddly flavoured) tears.

I’m intrigued that you’re a foodie who’s indifferent to cooking, though. I love to cook - good job!

Eat half be polite
Have a bath and scoff biscuits until your full

So cooking method was:

Fry chicken, add sauce, add chopped veg, boil all together, serve.

Conversely, I have an annoyingly fussy husband.
He's not really fussy that often but when he is, it's really fucking stupid.

He says he doesn't like parsnips, and I don't see how/wasn't convinced.
Then one time I made a chicken, cider, mustard and parsnip casserole. He asked me what the veg was in it and I said it was turnip. He commented that it tasted amazing and ate all of it.

A few days later I admitted it was parsnip.

I made the recipe several times since, following a Sainsbury's recipe and he refused to eat the bloody things.
Says he doesn't like parsnip
When I reacted wtf? He said I'd cooked them differently after the first time.

I really hate that kind of pointless fussiness.

Not that I'm saying you are OP, you may or may not be! I've no idea.

I'd have probably eaten it to be polite, but even if you are a bit of a lazy cook, there's a way of doing it so it's not shite.

Well that's why it was shite- he should have cooked chicken, added veg and cooked then added sauce. I presume it even has instructions on the jar so sounds a really piss poor effort to me.

I’m intrigued that you’re a foodie who’s indifferent to cooking, though. I love to cook - good job

a lazy foodie! I'll go through random bursts of cooking, but the slog of everyday cooking bores me to tears. Thus the cupboard stocked with jar sauces

It's definitely one of things where you'd have to cook everything individually to make it all work together. I'd have roasted the courgette. Fried the chicken first then removed from pan and done the onions and peppers, mushrooms. Added sauce, then sweetcorn, then chicken to get back to temp and mixed the courgette in right before serving.

Sounds like everything was just just put in a pan and heated up and just blended together into watery mush. YANBU to not like it and it's not like you're being horrible about it.

I don’t think fillet steak is the tastiest cut of steak either, I always choose sirloin.

(Misses point of thread).

Well the cooking method is horrible! Boiling chicken breasts (I presume he used breast, I always use thighs for curry and cook slowly) is guaranteed to give you rubber chicken.

Sadly we're both ambivalent to cooking. That's why it's evenly split.

But you describe yourself as a foodie! It's not really possible to be a 'foodie' and get excited about eating yet not be interested in or want to learn to cook meals, unless you intend to dine out in restaurants all the time. (Clearly not possible at the moment).

I'm a good cook, purely because I'm greedy and like nice food, I think. I'm not desperately interested in cooking - but I am desperately interested in eating good meals.

@sleepyhead

Yanbu. Part of being a pot-luck cook is knowing how to cook lots of things so that they're tasty.

E.g. if you chuck a load of large chunks of raw veg into a sauce they will just boil and likely be a bit grim, but chop them finely and saute to caramalise a bit and reduce liquid, then add sauce will be ok.

I can't stand big chunks of boiled onion and it puts me off dh's Bolognese because he often just bungs the tomatoes in before they're cooked so they're crunchy and the sauce is always a bit watery.

Yes! This is it.

I can wing an anything-from-the-fridge dish because I know what goes well with what, and how to cook it to make it lovely.

My DH just chucks a load of stuff in a pan, and then adds a tin of tomatoes, or balsamic vinegar or sweet chilli sauce or whatever the latest condiment he once added to something and it turned out surprisingly well, with no regard as to why the mint sauce worked OK in the petit pois and is fundamentally weird in the turkey mince...

I'm a big fan of rib eye Cottage. Fillet has its place occasionally (especially in a steak tartare), but you do need fat for flavour.

The veg is fine! You can put any vegetables in a curry sauce. My Indian family very very regularly use all sorts of vegetables with spices and curried sauces etc.

The problem was the way he cooked it! He ruined the sauce by adding unnecessary water to it.
It’s like making a jug of coffee instead of a cup but still only using the one spoon and expecting it to still be nice.

It’s like when dp is an excellent cook but for some still unknown reason did a very weird cheese water instead of the cheese sauce that should have been made, obviously it was rank and ruined everything!

I think it sounds really nice! I will eat virtually anything if I'm not cooking it.

I totally get what you mean OP. It is one thing combining ingredients to make a tasty meal, quite another to chuck whaterver is in the fridge in a pot with some curry sauce and expect it to taste nice.

I regularly cook vegetable curry and it sounds grim.He should have boiled or steamed the veg bur not mushrooms without the cooking water and added the cooked veg to the cooked curry. The mushrooms should have been cooked with the onions.

It sounds grim, OP.

@user1471538283

I think it sounds really nice! I will eat virtually anything if I'm not cooking it.

How?

The sauce has turned to coloured curryish flavour water because of all the veg, and something has happened to the chicken to make it indistinguishable from the mushrooms.

Eww.

Sweetcorn's the only outlier. The other veg I put in curries all the time, so while you might not like the individual veg (and maybe the texture of the mushrooms?) I don't see it as being terrible, as you can fish stuff out that you don't like.

The only time I've had to reject a curry was when DH put banana in it, which made the whole thing taste of banana, and was mushy. Anything like that, or extra chillies, or something hard to remove, then I'd say you're NBU.

That's why I learned to cook @NovemberR, I like good food! I quite like the process, pottering around the kitchen with the radio on is very relaxing. I love dreaming up menus and wine pairings and feeding my face!

I like eating really bloody good food on a daily basis. Life's too short to eat crappy food.

DH is cooking tonight so I'm drinking a martini and putting my feet up.

I agree with you OP, we all cook things the way we like them and your DH's curry doesn't sound very appetising. My DH enjoys cooking but I don't really like the way he cooks, nothing wrong with it, but just not to my 'taste' . I usually eat it, out of politeness but I much prefer to cook for myself (& in fairness, my DH would say he prefers to cook for himself).