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

Sounds really badly cooked! Did your dp like it? What about your kids?

I don’t understand why those vegetables would be a problem. Does the sauce taste bad?

Sound hideous. Totally wouldn’t have eaten it just like I didn’t expect my husband to eat the dreadful offering that I accidentally cooked really badly for our dinner yesterday.

How about trying Hello Fresh or something similar? They do simple, quick recipes, it all comes measured out with simple step by step instructions so you can’t go wrong.

The beauty is it’s all delivered in individual paper bags for each recipe so no extra ingredients can be added 😂
My teenage kids love these as it’s made them feel like they can cook as all the boring bits are done for you. Well balanced and good portion sizes.
Also, once you’ve done a few you get the recipe cards to keep so you can keep them for future. Some recipes only take 10 mins to cook... you never know this might get you both into cooking!

I put anything in my curry 😬

YANBU
I would try it, but if it was awful, I would have tried to rescue the food and shown my DP what he needed to do and how to make it better.

As for choosing "a larger normal steak over a fillet" - a foodie should know that a rump or t-bone, even sirloin has far more flavour that a pale, lean and soft fillet. Only food snobs think fillet is better. Sorry, but true.

I wouldnt put more than two...tops three..types of veg in a meal. Courgettes in a curry? Hhmmm.... Maybe not. And deffo no mushrooms for me....but thats just me. Onions and sweetcorn sounds enough. But you have to educate him subtly..lol.... There are lits of recipes on Google. Just type in a couple if ingrdients and you can get a recipe! Tell him in a way where you are surprised you found a lovely recipe that way.....

Erm, it sounds good to me. Perhaps you should just cook if you don’t like what he’s cooking...?
I’m a single parent. I appreciate anything I haven’t had to cook 🤷‍♀️

YABU tk calm yourself a “foodie” (whatever that is - I love music so am I am musicie?) but you have jarred sauces in your kitchen. Curry is not that difficult to cook from scratch.

This sounds just like my husband and I am not as kind about it as you are...which is why I do all the cooking!!!

YANBU, I wouldn’t eat it!

Think I could cope with the mushrooms and courgette but sweet corn WTF😂

Depends on how hungry I was and how bad it was! No issue with the veg but watery jar sauce can be rubbish. But I'm very much a 'you get what you're given and that's it' sort of person so would just get on with it even if i didn't like it.

www.facebook.com/Natswhatireckon/videos/243120690385406/

Can I recommend this guy for some easy-to-watch (very sweary!) cooking videos? This one is for chicken curry, which seems apt.

Language warning!!!

So a couple of points:

You seem to excuse your Dh for not doing the same by saying he will eat anything, maybe it is just the fact that he can see the effort you have put in and doesnt want to upset you.
I looked at your posts and whilst you rubbish the ingredients that he has put in, I didn't see anything about the taste, atleast in the pages I saw.
I have voted YABU, because it seems you have decided on the flavour before tasting it. Maybe if its such a problem, cook with him and show him the flavours you like, or talk to him about how you liked and what you liked less.
Make sure he knows he can do the same to you too.

@Ilikegreenshoes agreed! Nat is the best! Simple cooking with a hilariously deadpan delivery. My favourite part is when he gives this direction for preparing bacon 'Chop it up, put in in the pan and cook it until it's...fucking cooked. '

Have you considered saying, 'Let's cook together tonight!" and as you are cooking, give instructions..."That veg needs to be VERY well-drained," "Oh, that's very salty on its own, we don't need to add more"?

And OP, I've struggled with this question of dealing with badly cooked food. I am a competent cook and my husband is dreadful. If he follows a recipe he's fine but he often does just what you've described your DH doing (ie throws random stuff in and doesn't cook it correctly so that flavours and textures are all wrong). He only cooks once a week at the most but eating very badly cooked food every week is too much for me (especially as it's a waste of ingredients). For over 20 years I've put up with it, but in the last 6 months I've had enough. I'm not eating his poorly cooked food, and am just making something simple for myself on those nights when the food is bad. If he asks why I tell him the meat/veg was overcooked/undercooked or there it was inedible because of too much salt or whatever - I'm factual about what was wrong and do not apologise for not eating the bad food. I don't expect food that's hard to make - eg eggs on toast is delicious but not if burned or if the eggs are mostly raw. I don't think I'm being unreasonable and I don't think you are either. However, it sounds like you both need some simple cooking classes.

@NameofTheWind

Can people stop picking on my use of the word "foodie"? I used it to try and succinctly explain that whilst I am not a picky eater, I enjoy good food. The fact that I don't enjoy cooking every day and that I can stand the taste of a jar sauce does not exempt me from liking nice food. The jars I buy because that's the best way to get DP to cook something. I enjoy trying Michelin Starred restaurants and yet sometimes I crave a KFC. It's not mutually exclusive. I work 12-14 hours a day, 6-7 days a week - forgive me for not wanting to spend another 1-3 hours each evening cooking.

And I don't have an issue with vegetables, I have an issue with badly cooked vegetables floating in a disgusting curry water.

I'm so tired and stressed and to repeatedly be insulted because I didn't use the word "foodie" correctly is the last thing I need. I like the taste of good food, would say trying new foods and exploring restaurants is a hobby, and can recognise the difference between good food and poor food, and actively prefer the good - therefore I'm a BIT of a foodie, as I understood the definition.
I didn't realise I had to reject all forms of preprepared sauces and ensure all my meals are cooked from scratch, preferably myself every single day in order to qualify for the title.

I don't think you can call yourself a foodie idiot can't save a curry.

The ones we have here were pretty much designed to cover up the fact they were made with rotten meat.

If you not idiot

Sweetcorn is a bit weird in curry. It sounds like he just boiled everything to mush which doesn't sound great. I'd have probably eaten it so as not to waste food but maybe told him politely that he needs to cook it down to be less watery next time.

YANBU for not eating something that you find unpleasant, regardless of who cooked it.

YABU for describing that abomination of boiled veg and sauce from a jar as a curry though

Sometimes cooking doesn't work out. It happens. I'm surprised it came out so watery, unless he was daft or forgetful enough to not drain the sweetcorn?

I put mushrooms in curries all the time, but I fry them for a couple of minutes before adding the sauce/tinned tomatoes/whatever.

I wouldn’t add the sweetcorn, that’s weird. I probably wouldn’t add the mushrooms either, but everything else sounds fine, he needs to keep the lid off the cooking pan if he doesn’t want it to be watery.

Wish my DH cooked anything at all. Bbq and the occasional cooked brekkie seems to be his limit.

The ones we have here were pretty much designed to cover up the fact they were made with rotten meat.

That's a complete myth.

I’d put mushrooms and courgette in a curry.
It sounds nice but I’d pick out the sweetcorn.