I asked myself many times whether the curry night concept would actually scale, was pleasantly surprised. Would something that worked for two people stretch out when it was ten people all learning to make curries? Would we end up with something edible? Indeed we would.
The invitation process was a bit too haphazard: the next time I do something like this, I’ll keep better track of who has been invited, and when. It’s hard to tell, though: perhaps having everything a little rough helped the night run as it did. In the end, I had to do some chasing to get the RSVPs sorted out, but I had ten blokes, and we even had 7 out of 10 by thirty minutes after the start time.
Another ten minutes later, and we worked out that if we wanted to eat at a reasonable hour, we would need to start cooking. We were all working around a large bench with a sink at one end, and the stove off to one side – this was the kitchen layout of our host’s house.
There was plenty of time after the curries went on to simmer for people to mingle and talk (not to mention wash some of the dishes), and that’s when the host and I made samosas (I’d never made them before). Folding up the pastry with as much of the mince + potato mix as possible was the real challenge, but I think I had it figured out by the end.
After eating (for some, the curries were paired with wines – a Frontiniac and a sparkling red), we had tea and coffee, helped load the dishwasher, and then headed home, completely full. If you’re trying to find something that will help a bunch of men who don’t know each other terribly well learn a few new skills, I think a curry night is an excellent way to do it. The key to it is to have an excellent host (as we did), who contributed no small amount of time and effort to making sure that everything was set up, ready to go.