Ch'ng Shen Yen 17217

Vegetarian Recipe: Vegetarian Stuffed Roast Honey Chicken

Ingredients

Mock Chicken

2 and 1/2 cups soy beans (wash, soak in water for 10 hours)

1 cup flax seeds (wash, soak in water for 10 hours)

4 cups pure gluten powder

3 cups oat meal

1 cup wheat flour

¾ cup cream cheese

2 tablespoon butter

1 cup yeast flakes

1 tablespoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon powder

½ teaspoon white pepper

 

Basting Broth

½ cup butter, melted

½ cup honey

2 tablespoon lemon juice

 

Stuffing

2 cups chestnuts

1 and ½ cups bitter gourd (1cm cubes)

1 and ½ cups carrot (1cm cubes)

3 cups white button mushroom (cut into 4 halves)

1 and ½ cups chillis (1.5cm square)

½ cup oat meal

4 tablespoon butter

3 cups water

 Stuffing Seasonings

3 tablespoon yeast flakes

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

½  tablespoon dried oregano crushed

½ tablespoon dried mint crushed

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

½ cup orange juice

½ tablespoon salt

 

Method

a. Mock Chicken

 Drain the flax seeds and blend until smooth, add the drained soy beans and blend till smooth.

Add cream cheese, butter, yeast flakes, salt, cinnamon powder and white pepper to the above mixture and blend till well mixed.

Pour the above mixture in a large bowl, add oat meal and mix well. Leave the mixture aside for 15 minutes.

Now add the wheat flour and gluten powder and knead well. Add a little water if the dough is too hard. Let the dough sit for 10 minutes before kneading again until smooth. You can use a dough mixer or a bread machine to knead if available. While leaving the dough to rest for about ½ hour, proceed to make the mock chicken mould.

To prepare a mold for shaping the dough into a chicken shape, cut aluminium foil approximately 4 inches wide into a continuous long strip. Crumple the foil lightly and roll loosely to form an approximate 1 inch tube. Spiral around it to form a 6 inches long egg shape mould with an approximate 3 inch diameter at the front, 4 inch the center and 2 inch at the tail end. Grease the surface layer with butter.

Remove the dough from the bowl but avoid breaking it up. Lay the dough on a long non-stick tray or a tray lined with cooking parchment to avoid sticking. Flatten the dough out into a approximate 5 inch wide strip. Wrap around the above mould to form the shape of a chicken trunk with the front end close up but the tail end open with ½ inch long of rolled foil protruded. You will need to pinch hard the adjoining edges of the dough together to stick well. Use the remaining dough to form the 2 drumsticks by wrapping it around an 6 inch long lemon grass with the stem end sharpened and inserted into the side of the trunk. You can also use other hard stem such as sugar cane or celery stem as the ‘bone’ of the drumsticks.

When the mock chicken is well shaped, put in on an oval shape casserole to hold it with it’s breast side up. Steam it for an hour till it is well cooked. Remove and cool it while proceeding to prepare the stuffing. (While steaming the chicken, proceed to prepare the chestnuts as shown in the Stuffing –Step 1 & 2 below.)

 b. Stuffing

 Make a small incision on sides of each the chestnuts and place it in a skillet over medium heat. Cook, stirring often, until toasted. Remove from heat, peel and set aside.

Fry mushroom with 2 tbsp butter for 2 minutes, remove and set aside.

Fry carrot + bitter gourd with 2 tbsp butter for 1 minute, add yeast flakes + oregano + nutmeg + mint leave + salt + orange juice + 3 cups of water. Cook for 3 minutes, add oat meal and cook for 1 minute. Add mushroom + chillis + black pepper + cinnamon, mix well, remove content and place it in a bowl.

Remove the foil from the mock chicken cavity and fill it with the stuffing. Close  the opening with a crumpled alluminium foil. (Place the remaining stuffing content in a casserole and cover for further cooking in the oven later.) Loosely wrap the mock chicken with alluminium foil and place it in the oven and roast for 1 and ½ hour at 160^o C.

Mix the basting broth well. Remove the foil from the mock chicken, brush it with the baste and roast it at 190^o C. Repeat the basting every 10 minutes until the baste is finished. Remove the roast mock chicken from the oven when the skin turn golden brown and allow to cool while cooking the remaining stuffing.

Place the casserole of remaining stuffing with the cover on into the oven and bake for ½ hour at 170^o C. Remove & serve with the mock roast chicken.

Narrative Essay:

The Result Day

     It’s psychologically proven that more than half of the populations on Earth do not like examinations, tests, and quizzes. Me? Hell no! I dislike exams! Here’s why.

      On 21 March 2012, for other people, it was just a usual Wednesday, but for 2011 SPM-leavers, no doubt it was a life decisive day, the SPM results day. It was also a doom day for many hopeless students, like me. I went back from UTP to my hometown to face the reality. I rode a night bus with my new friends at UTP. On the bus, I sat aside at the end of row of the bus alone because I was too anxious. I need some personal space to calm down as I’m easily disturbed at that time. Finally, the music on the radio was able to bring me temperory peace and I started to fell asleep. But, to my surprise, the bus had reached my house and it was already morning. I did not expect I did not sleep for the whole night. I quickly ran up the stairs and rushed into my bed, thinking of escaping from the reality world. On that morning, I felt so unprepared to receive my SPM slip. Nervous that started yesterday night was like monster, kept eating up my soul. I became extremely panic in my room and once a while, I felt like vomitting. I had no idea what my results would look like. Bits and pieces of old memories kept flashing back in my mind. Language papers were normal. Math & science papers were hard but not too hard that I couldn’t handle. Moral & History papers were the killers. I hate these two subjects. Without studying them well, I had to crap throughout those papers. If the world was still operatinglogically, I knew I badly screwed up those papers. My mind and soul were overwhelmed by tremendous fear.

     A knocking sound of the door came by my room. It was my mother. Knowing that she would start her crap in front of me, I dared not to open the door. I couldn’t face my mother at all. In fact, my mother’s voice was already all over my head. Her nagging voice kept repeating in my head like a song played on a spoiled MP3 player stucked on replay. However that morning was different, all she said was “Be happy for whatever you will get. Everything will be fine”. I was surprised. And there she went away. Those words made me calm and felt better. That’s why people say that mothers have the natural ability to calm their children.

     Eventually I went back to school. I tried my very best to control myself along the way and prevent anxiety went beyond my consciousness. When I reached the school, the hall was full of ex-form 5 students. After months being separated from my friends, memories of school life gave me a nostalgic vibe. There was so much to catch up with my classmates, teachers and everyone. Everyone were like people haven met for years, chatting cheerfully together in their most comfortable way. Time flies, it was 11 in the morning. Everyone had to line up according to their respective classes.

     Finally, the moment of truth was just seconds away. The fear was coming back to haunt me again. My heart was pumping like it was above 130 bpm. Sweat won’t stop trickling down from the back of my spine. Waiting in line, I could see some of my friends who already got their slips. There were sad faces, disappointed faces, satisfied faces, happy faces and masked faces from those who did not want to show their true emotions. It was my turn. My Hands and legs were trembling uncontrollably. But, I told myself no matter how, I still have to face it. I made up my mind and heavy-heartedly, I reach out both my hands to my class teacher to receive my results slip. After receiving it, I tucked it into my bag and quickly walked away. Thanks to my mother’s and friends’ encouragement, I put myself together and pulled the slip out and took a look. There was a C+ but A+ for other subjects. I couldn’t believe my eyes, am I too worried before this? My heart finally calm down. Thank God. Anxiety was over. Although this result would not qualify me for any scholarship, still, I think I’m blessed and I’m satisfied with it compared to the amount of effort I had put in. Anyway, life must go on, there are still mountains for me to climb, obstacles for me to break through in UTP. I will do my best and let’s the God decide the rest. I knew I’m better than that just with a little more effort.

Arguementative Essay:

 The Decision Between Child or Work For Women With First Delivery

           The life of working women after first delivery has always been one of the hot topics of the discussion among society. Do you think that women should quit their jobs after first delivery. In my opinion, I think that women should continue to work after giving birth to their first child. It is advisable that women should not stop working after first delivery because of increasing cost of living, alternative childcare available, to increase the number of workforce as well as for the mental health of women.

            In this modern days and era, the prices of unrenewable energy resources have gone up tremendously and this causes drastic inflation in prices of goods and services as the fossil fuels are the core componenet that keeps the economy running. Unfortunately, the wages of workforce have not followed the step of inflation but rather stay stagnant or even dropping especially in developing countries like Malaysia. To cope with inflation, women have no choice but to work due to poverty, single parentship or both to support their family. Stidies have found clear evidence to show that childhood poverty has a lasting negative impact on children. If the women are working, combines with the wages earned by their couple, they can cope with the rising cost of living. Children can have quality education and more physical luxuries provided there are enough money to spare.

            However, many people will say that children will not have enough caring if their mother go working for the whole day long. Actually, this is not true. there are many forms of childcare can be beneficial and complimentary to the care provided by parents. For many centuries it has been traditional for extended families to participate in raising younger generations. Older generations for example grandparents have had hands on experience with young children before. Childcare professionals have similar experience and have often taken courses on child development that make them more knowledgeable than a first time parent. Similarly playing with other children is just as important for improving children’s social skills as contact with their parents. Nurseries and childminders can be good places to expose children to other children.

            Furthermore, more women continue to work after giving birth can increase the numbers of workers in public and private sectors. Study by world reknown human resource firm has shown that women have equal abilities in handling jobs which conquered by man. They are also more capable in socialing and act as lubricant for the gears in the company to rotate. All in all, women is much needed in the workforce so that the productivity of the country can be boosted on the way to achieve a high income and developed nation.

             Last but not least, mothers should have much freedom as anyone else in society to decide what is best for them and their children. If they would rather work and make alternative arrangements for the care of their child, then that should be considered equally valid. It could cause depression if women are forced to give up work they enjoy to care for their children.

            In a nutshell, to fight inflation, women have to continue to work after first delivery especially those living under poverty and singleship to provide quality life and education for their children. Women also should not quit after giving birth because there are alternative childcare options such as grandparents and childcare professionals to take care of their children and at the mean time train their children to be independent. With equal abilities from the women, if they renter the workforce after first delivery, this will increase number of workers thus help boosting country’s productivity. Lastly, women should enjoy their work after first delivery to maintain a healthy mind.

 Opinion Essay:

Education Curriculum in Malaysia Has Stopped Producing Intellectuals

           Malaysia is a country that is accredited for being amongst the leading flag bearers to enlighten the primitive world dominated by ignorant people. It was Malaysia that realized the importance of aspects of life other than filling the stomach and covering the bodies, man is a special animal, special because of the grey matter God provided and it was Malaysia that by promoted free and radical thinking helped in quenching the thirsty brains. But on comparing the past with the present we find a sharp contrast in terms of the quality of intellectuals produced by the country, in the mad race for materialism it seems that the basic fundamentals that made us a great country are being trampled underfoot.

            Intellects are people who see the world from a different perspective and on the larger canvas. It is such people who contribute to the world hence moving it in a progressive direction as is a saying ‘Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people’. The intellectual growth of a person begins right from childhood when he starts to develop a thinking brain, when he questions the different aspects of life and the process continues till the individual survives so the primary reason for the stark decline in the level of intellect has to be improper foundation and upbringing in terms of the type and style of education bestowed upon them.

            Nowadays, due to the education curriculum in practice, a lot of emphasis is given on the bookish knowledge, be it the class works or the strenuous homework, a student is confined to the boundaries of books and is restricted by the deadlines of assignments. The world is too diverse to be reduced to dull uniformities of rules. Education practice such as this pushes the student in a niche thereby closing his mind to the joys and beauty of life.

            As a general practice a student is always asked to replicate the notes provided by the school teachers and swaying away from the set path leads to deduction of marks hence creativity is nipped in the bud. No student is ever asked what he likes to do or what he is good at rather the custom education curriculum is imposed resulting in mental fatigue and frustration so a student who if allowed to grow in a free environment could have contributed to the nation in a big way is transformed into a normal individual with no freedom of thought. As a direct consequence the quality of intellectuals found in our country is decreasing at an exponential rate.

            The point stated above is proved when we have a look into the education system followed by the developed western countries where individuality is given foremost importance and their education curriculum is based on the same principle. As a result individuals with free mind and great ideas are produced contributing to the growth of their country in general and the world in particular.

            Our education policy induces a herd mentality and hence curbs the growth of free thinking individuals who could lead to great ideas and discoveries. Small students are made to carry extremely heavy school bags harming them physically and then they’re made to follow the customary norm without expressing their feedbacks, hurting them mentally.

            And now with the increase in the number of suicide cases amongst students it is clear that students are finding it tough to cope with the immense pressure of mugging up books aimlessly without being able to contribute something back. It is of grave importance to identify and combat this very serious matter else we will be living in an India where finding intellectuals would be a rarity.

            I would like to end by saying that it is imperative to tackle one of the most urgent but overlooked of the litany of potential show-stoppers looming for the future Indian intellectuals.

Survey Report:

 Survey On The Enhancement of English Skill Through Drama Presentation

          The english subject in semester 1 of foundation in engineering and in technology of Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP) is different from the other university because it consists of drama presentation. It is believe that the inclusion of drama presentation can enhance students’ English skills in a more lively way as well as sustain their interest towards learning English.

          To prove that, on the 4^th of April, at Lecture Room 3, Block N, Universiti Teknologi Petronas, I conducted a survey  in the English 1 Tutorial Group 1 class to find out more. The question was “Is drama presentation in English 1 FAL0014 enhances your English skills in any form?” and the answer only can be chosen from these three options which were “Yes”, “No” and “Don’t know”. The respondents were the students of that particular class amounting 29 of them. They comprised of 8 female students and 21 male students including 1 international male student. Their ages were ranging from 17 to 20 years old. The students came from different countries and were from various races and religions. For more details, they were taking foundation in petroleum, chemical, civil and electrical and electronic engineering as well as in petroleum geoscience in UTP. There were also few of them taking foundation in business information system and in information technology.

            After the survey ,the questionnaire was analysed meticulously and all the answers were calculated carefully. The result was rather encouraging. Based on the statistics collected, there were 13 students answered “Yes” which accounting 44.8% of 29 students. The number of students  answered “No” were 7, which was 24.1%. For the number of students who answered “Don’t know”, there were  9 of them, marking 31%. There were no student refused to answer the questionnaire.

            According to the result of the survey, the hypothesis can be proven as drama presentation really help the students out. To obtain more accurate result, the survey should be carried out again for UTP foundation semester 2 and 3 students to see the long term effect of drama presentation in English performance.

 By: Ch’ng Shen Yen 17217

      Foundation PE Semester 1

      Batch January 2012