How did a humble curry polarize my dinner guests?

Inspiration: English peas, tofu, & a forgotten dinner party invitation

How did we end up here?

One busy weekday evening I casually invited two of my girlfriends over for dinner on Saturday. My partner also planned to hangout with one of his friends so the gathering grew larger - the more the merrier, I say. On Saturday morning we decided to grab a late brunch and go for a long hike along the lake, meanwhile completely forgetting we had invited company for dinner. I was tired after the hike and lounging on the sofa in the late afternoon when I remembered… and immediately panicked. I leapfrogged into the kitchen and opened the fridge, scratching my head for what I was going to serve, having planned nothing whatsoever. Does this ever happen to you?

Fast forward to dinner time - I presented my main dish and sides on the table. My guests curiously looked at what I was serving, guessing from the aroma that it was some sort of an Indian style curry. Once I put their curiosities to rest and shared what was in the curry sauce, the conversation started to take an unexpected turn. I honestly thought we would just eat the food and move on with our evening. Instead, there were a lot of strong feelings.

One of my girlfriends thought it was a brilliant idea and couldn’t wait to dig in. My partner on the other hand was extremely disappointed at the combination, wondering why I didn’t send him out to go shopping for the more authentic ingredient. My partner’s friend was actually quite polite, remained diplomatic, and imagined he would enjoy the traditional combinations or the variation I had put on the table. My second girlfriend sided with my partner vehemently and flat out stated she wasn’t all that enthusiastic about the dish but would need to eat it since she was starving. 

My dinner table was clearly polarized. How did we end up here? It’s definitely not what I imagined when I opened the fridge earlier that afternoon and innocently conceived of a dinner dish based on what I saw at the eye-level shelf. All in all though, I’m so thankful I have friends who can be completely honest with me. The polarized dinner became a much more memorable evening than it otherwise would have been. 

What was the polarizing dish?

When I opened the fridge in the late afternoon I saw English peas and organic high protein Tofu staring at me (both from Trader Joe’s). In my panicked state I thought I could pull off a variation of the traditional North Indian dish called Mattar Paneer (curry of peas and farmer’s cheese). Instead of farmer’s cheese (paneer), it would be Mattar Tofu. What would also save me this evening is the batches of ingredients I already keep prepped and frozen, such as garlic, ginger, tomatoes, and cilantro. 

I started with the basics of sautéing garlic, ginger, onion, chili in olive oil on medium-high heat, adding tomatoes to soften and then tomato paste, followed by spice powders (cumin, coriander, turmeric, mango), and salt. I then added the peas with some water and let that simmer for 10-15 mins until the peas were softened. Next, I added the cubed tofu and simmered on low-medium heat for about 10 mins, allowing the tofu to absorb some of the curry flavor. I garnished the dish with frozen cilantro. I planned to serve this Mattar Tofu curry with Indian-style tortillas/flatbread (roti), homemade Indian style yogurt (which I usually have in the fridge), and store-bought mixed vegetable Indian pickles. For the roti, I combined whole wheat flour with ~25% finger millet flour (ragi), kneaded the dough, and let it rest for ~30 mins. I rolled out the rotis and cooked them on a flat nonstick pan. I finished cooking everything about 30 mins before my guests arrived. 

While I might have whipped up a more fancy multi-course meal had I remembered my outgoing invitations, at this moment all I felt was relief - thankfully I had something to put on the table to feed my guests! And in my opinion, it didn’t seem all that bad, it looked interesting and inviting. If only I had an inkling of how this dish would polarize my guests (insert laugh-cry emoji).

Eventually everyone ate the dinner I served. I would say half the table would eat this again while the other half would pass. What about you?

Dish Debrief:

• Is this my winner or disaster? I’m confused… was it a win? was it a disaster?

• How would I rate this dish out of 10? 6 out of 10? I am not sure.

• What would I change next time? screen my guests for their preferences?

• Would I make this again? probably