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).

Exactly. I'd like ambient ingredients to be provided and charged for then you just bring your own protein and veg. Refrigeration should also be provided!

It's not the choice of meal being at all unusual, I had flour in my cupboard go out of date between when it was bought for food tech one year and when it was needed again the next, it's having to buy things that will go to waste as you only use a bit.

😂I’ve just thrown away flour for exactly the same reason. Both plain and self raising annoyingly.

Anyone who has flour going out of date is clearly not cooking which seems to be the whole problem people have on this thread. If you can't manage to use a jar of curry paste up, or find a use for half a tin of coconut milk or can't imagine what you could put in a curry to replace chicken then your children clearly need those school cooking lessons.

I don’t buy flour as there is nothing I cook which needs it. Also wouldn’t buy coconut milk as I hate the taste.

I don’t bake so I dont use flour.
I don’t use flour to thicken sauces. Don’t often have pancakes. I have used flour to make salt dough when dc wanted to.

I do however cook a variety of dishes from scratch. Why is this surprising.

I cook, and mostly from scratch, just not with flour

I have used flour in crumble, but not a lot as I used oats too, that's all I can think of. I prefer stewed fruit on it's own or with yogurt or porridge so wouldn't buy more flour.

schools could plan their recipes so the flour is used up each session.

Or just supply ambient ingredients and charge for them, there's a lot of flour in a bag!

So what exactly do you all cook that is so cheap and tasty?

I use flour a lot because I bake- pies, pancakes, dumplings, scones, cakes, biscuits, sauces for things like lasagne, moussaka, casseroles, macaroni cheese, bread, pizza bases, crumbles etc.

Not really the point but you can freeze lemon grass, coconut milk, curry paste and the half a lime for another time to make a vegetarian option.

yes Good point It is a shocking waste of food

Totally agree with this thread. I don't get why they insist on making 4 portions of something, especially if it is something you don't know if your family will like. I now scale down what is asked for to make 1 portion so at least less gets wasted. Tbh my DC's teacher has just left, not overly bothered as they seemed disorganised and mentally checked out and quite often didn't turn up, so even more wastage, especially on multiple assurances the cooking was going to be done and then wasn't. Fingers crossed they can get someone better.

Curries
pasta
casseroles
stir fries

No requirement for flour.

I don't bake, I'm not keen on those kind of foods or else want one scone for example but then am not interested in more. I cook dhal, various curries, chilli, bolognese, casseroles, vegetable soup, keema cottage pie, and so on. I don't put flour in a casserole as the flour would go out of date before it was used.

Chickpea and tomato curry - cheap tasty filling

spag bol with green lentils in lieu of mince or to bulk mince out

same for chilli

dhals - really cheap and tasty

Really similar to your dishes @Okunevo

how do you make the keema cottage pie please

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/lamb-keema-shepherds-pie

I use this except with beef mince

Thank you!

I just amend the recipes to whatever we have, and explain to my children how to cook what I’m sending them with.

Except that isn’t what these lessons are teaching. The teacher in OP’s school specifically discourages any kind of substitution. The kids aren’t learning 8 things to do with a jar of curry paste and some coconut milk. They’re learning one recipe, which they are supposed to follow closely, and then moving on to another, unrelated recipe.

And from my experience, they won’t be learning, for instance, to taste and balance the fish sauce, sugar and lime juice to get it just right, they’ll be putting in the quantities stated in the recipe and accepting that that’s how it’s supposed to taste. So may well not like it that much because it may well not be that good and it certainly won’t be fine tuned to their taste buds.

And something being fairly common doesn’t mean it’s universally liked. Each recipe is likely to be being cooked by a few kids from families that just don’t like it. Have tried it before and know they don’t like it. That applies to pasta and pizza as well as Thai curry. So any recipe that’s asking for a small amount of something is likely leaving some families with wasted open packs of food at home.

I cook regularly (live alone) and don't have any flour
Cottage pie, pasta/pasta bakes, chicken/leek/mushroom type things, beef stew, hotpot, stir fries, nasi goreng, then the standard salads/omelettes/jacket potato quick stuff
If I needed to make a cheese sauce I would buy flour or make a cheats one with creme fraiche and cheese

Don't bake because I would eat it all and no time/energy for it. I can bake and make really nice cakes and biscuits but only do it to take stuff to work and I WFH now

What a bizarre idea. I cook virtually everything from scratch but dont use anything with flour. I dont bake biscuits or cakes, dont make pastry or eat it and dont use flour for sauces.

The threshold for free school meals is NOT low. Only those under 7K can get it.

I think that's low. 10k makes more sense to me