I'm a bit miffed about this Food Tech ingredients list

[IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads]

Not feeling brave enough for AIBU, and I'm sure the teacher has her reasons, but this is what DS needs to take to school next week. He's 14/Y9, do not into GCSE course yet, and food tech isn't one on his options. Also, he has food tech after lunch, and has to carry his cooking around for the rest of the day, as the fridges are full of heat the morning lessons have made. OK for scones, but for chicken?

Here is the offending ingredients list:

Thai Green Curry - 1 onion, 1 clove of garlic, 80g sugar snap peas, 2 small chicken breasts, 30ml Thai green curry paste. 200ml coconut milk, ½ lime, small bunch coriander.

My concerns - there's about £8 worth of stuff there, many of which (curry paste, coconut milk, coriander) come in bigger packs than required. That doesn't seem to be considerate of the CoL crisis - it's a big standard academy comp in a not-particularly affluent area.

Also - no veggie alternative ingredients offered - so half our household wouldn't eat the results anyway.

DS is not matey enough with anyone in his FFT class to suggest sharing ingredients. Expensive ingredients!

I'm delighted that the school is teaching the kids to make something other than scones and pizza, but there are so many cheaper curries to mark in an hour! They could start by making the curry paste! Or school providing (and charging for) the ingredients the kids won't need need "all" of.

(DS's previous school/DD's school charge for all FFT and RMT ingredients and materials at the start of the year, abs supply everything. I appreciate limited kitchen space doesn't always make this possible).

You are wrong - in my school at least which is mainstream secondary. The pupils do one term of Food Tech each year up to the point at which they start GCSEs.

Assuming you mean it’s ridiculous to expect Vegetarians to cook meat, no teacher would expect this. There would be a wave of complaints from home and no teacher wants that. People are getting annoyed about things that don’t happen. It’s very common for lots of children in the class to use vegetable substitutes for meats.

@Twiglets1 that's good. I am only going by what friends have told me about their children's schools.
A lot seem to do what I think is called 'carousel' - one term of cooking, one term of textiles, one term of photography, one term of pottery etc so in theory everyone gets to try something before choosing it at GCSE.
Although thinking about it a couple of the schools I know do the 3 year GCSE system so they have to cram carousel into just Yrs 7 and 8 which could be why they got barely any cooking lessons.

My school actually starts GCSE courses in Year 9 so they only get compulsory cooking for 2 years but that’s pretty unusual locally. They do cooking one term each year then do a term of woodwork then something else ( used to be sewing but they stopped that thank God because no one could operate the sewing machines, not the pupils, not the TAs, only one solitary teacher).

@Twiglets1 ooh I'd be well annoyed cos I would much prefer sewing to cooking 😂

@Broderieanglais Ah yes but the thing about taking risks with food is understanding the actual principles. and risk assessment. I am fully aware of the risks associated with warm chicken, but some years ago whilst in a country with different practices with regard to food, I bought some chicken portions from a market stall. We carried it round all morning at ambient temperature, took it back to the apartment, washed and dried it before putting it in the fridge. Cooked it well the next day for Christmas lunch - no problems what so ever. I'd be more concerned about carrying it round after cooking, but in all honesty if it was thoroughly cooked it wouldn't be too much of a risk for 2-3hours.

£8 sounds about right to me.

That is fine. OP's school doesn't appear to.

I understand that bit. The jar isn't going to go to waste if the family cooks the meal again. They will use a fair portion of it. The half a lime and glove of garlic yes I agree these are pointless to ask someone to buy one of as there will be waste.

And that's exactly why textiles lessons are needed!

Got my doubts about that or that OP had been given the correct information by her son. Most parents don’t really know what goes on at schools. It is ludicrous to think a school wouldn’t be sensitive to vegetarians for example, or others wanting to substitute chicken breast for something else.
Her child will know he can bring alternatives but maybe he doesn’t want to or can’t be bothered to discuss it.

I get some families cannot afford it. Ingredients should be provided for them. But it can't be a race to the bottom where we just go sorry kids you're just going to make another dried pasta and tinned tomato dish. You wouldn't tell kids you're just doing the basic maths over. You wouldn't hold back kids who can do more in any other subject. PE sorry - you can't run as fast, you can't take on extra curricular actives etc.

You say that but I could never get the hang of the sewing machine (my eyesight wasn’t up to threading the tiny needle despite wearing glasses) so I had a lot of sympathy with the pupils who couldn’t do it either, even after a term of lessons. It was a source of much laughter in the tea room at work with the TAs talking about the disastrous lessons where nothing much got achieved.

The jar is going to go to waste if it's not the sort of food the family like (or can afford to cook often). And that will have a disproportionate impact on less well off families.

I don't disagree that variety is good. In many ways I think schools should be trying to widen palates in school cooking lessons 9though also see the argument for covering basics that are likely to be popular). I disagree with kids being expected to bring in small amounts of an ingredient instead of the school getting the right amount for the whole class and supplying it like they do with, say, chemistry.

im not suggesting a race to the bottom but to take into
account costs and wastage.
Good for family finances and the environment.

You can freeze the surplus coconut milk

But agree it is a lot and they need to provide refrigeration for the chicken before or afterwards

They have to get variety in somewhere. Families might love a thai green curry and be like horray let's have that again.

Coconut milk is about 90p in lidl if that helps anyone

They might, the may also already know whether they like it or not, but they might be like "oh my god! I cant finish that!" And have to make some sandwiches. (Or they may never try it because school aren't providing refrigeration and they might deem not fit to eat).

Regardless, it's not ethical (or legal) to require families to fund that exploration if they aren't onboard with it.

Absolutely ridiculous.

The school should be organising the ingredients and asking for a contribution.
This way they can share out things such as spices, curry paste etc and not have parents buy big containers that they only need a little bit of.

This thread makes me realise that there are a lot of people with very rigid attitudes to food. I thought Thai Green curry was something fairly common these days- can't believe the angst on here about a bit of curry paste and a can of coconut milk.

Where are the kits in Aldi - never seen them.

@FancyFanny to be honest I have no idea what goes in a Thai Green Curry. Not a meal I have ever eaten. Can't stand the taste of coconut so wouldn't really want anything with that in so it's not a recipe that would jump out at me with a "must try that".

@FancyFanny also I don't eat chicken so would have to seek out an alternative - but I would need to know what exactly would work as a replacement.

It’s the cost and waste.