My Food Bag - Semester 1

This semester we spent two terms developing skills that would allow us to create a food bag for a made up stakeholder. We first had to decide who our stakeholder actually was and what their food requirements would be. I chose a college student who kept kosher and was preparing a meal for her and three friends. We had to take into consideration things such as time (how long it took to prepare, make, cook, etc), amount of people it would feed, what skills it would require, and if it fits the nutritional requirements. My final decision was based mostly on how much it cost and how long it took to actually make. Below is my final slide

Final practical

In the end, we chose Jakita's Thai green curry which was very nice. We as a group chose this recipe because she was the one to propose the idea and none of us objected. I think this recipe fits the dinner plate food model. We have chicken to provide the protein, spring onions, corn pieces, beans, capsicum to provide the vegetables, though I don't believe we had any starch products. I'm not sure what was in the green curry paste but I will link Jakita's blog so you can have a more in-depth view of the recipe. 

Recipe
Ingredients:

• 1/2 Broccoli head
• 250g Stir fry veggies
• 3 Spring onions
• 2 Cans of coconut milk
• 2 Chicken breasts
• 51g Green Thai paste
• 136g of rice (1 cup)
• Whole green beans

Method:

1. Cook rice (do this first as rice can take a while to cook).
2. Cube chicken and cook in a pan till white
3. Cut beans in half and prepare spring onion and capsicum.
4. Once the chicken is cooked add the veggies. Once veggies are cooked stir in coconut milk and paste. Stir and leave to simmer. Remember to stir occasionally.
5. Once the rice is cooked remove the pan from heat and serve on top of rice.
6. Garnish with either coriander or white parts of spring onions. 

Changes

The first time we did the recipe, most of the reviews from the teachers (our judges) were positive though most of them wished it had more color and was more spicey. We also had a watery sauce which was fine but we were hoping for something more thicker. This is when we decided to add corn, capsicum, and spring onion. We chopped the spring onion and mixed the green parts in and used the white bits to garnish on top. Unfortunately, we didn't figure out how to make the sauce thicker but I believe that we added too much coconut milk which caused the watery-ness. We also planned on adding coriander but forgot to add it to the shopping list. We got quite a few positives when the teachers tried our new, re-made recipe. The only problem was too little sauce and, again, not spicy enough. 

What I've learned

I've learned many things this semester which include the effort and what you need to consider when creating a meal for someone else. I also learned about various dietary needs that people have and what causes them. For example, I didn't know the gluten intolerance is caused by something in the intestine that causes gluten products to not be fully digested. 

Overall I really had fun these past two terms and I've learned a lot and I'm excited for next semester.

Jakita's blog