A Pinch of Salt: Second Micro Teaching Session

The second micro teaching session was our turn to teach! We were so nervous before the actual day! We had a trial session of our recipes the Friday before our lesson and our tutors, Mrs Stevenson and Ms Soo kindly gave us feedback and pointers to note for each of our dishes. It was too bad that the supplier could not procure duck meat for our lesson and therefore our poultry dishes had to be limited to all chicken dishes. Our three dishes are Tandoori Chicken Waffle Club (Candice), Chicken Lasagna Rolls (Atiqah) and Chicken Meatloaf Muffins (me). The dishes were all prepared to suit children as our theme for the presentation was CIRCUS PARTY! :)

So here are our three recipes:

Tandoori Chicken Waffle Club

Yields 3 servings

Ingredients for Tandoori Chicken

200g small chicken breast ¼ onion
62.5g plain yoghurt 1 clove of garlic
½ tbsp vegetable oil 1 slice of ginger
1 tsp of lemon juice ¾tbsp garam masala
2 ripe tomatoes, sliced ½tbsp chili powder
1tbsp mayonnaise ½tsp salt
3pieces of lettuce leaves

Ingredients for Waffle/ Pancake

65g all purpose flour ½ large egg, lightly beaten
3/4 tsp baking powder 120ml milk
1/8 tsp salt 14g unsalted butter

Method: Tandoori Chicken

1. Cut chicken into 4 small pieces. Wash and pat dry the meat. Prick the flesh with a fork and cut deep slashes.
2. In a bowl, mix yoghurt, lemon juice and salt.
3. Chop the onions, garlic and ginger. Add in chilli powder and garam masala.
4. Add the chicken and mix well with the marinade.
5. Cover and leave it aside for 30 minutes.
6. After 30 mins, brush aluminium tin with vegetable oil. Grill chicken at 180 °C for 15 minutes.

Method: Waffle Mix

7. Melt the butter in a microwave for about 40 seconds.
8. Whisk flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together egg and milk.
9. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture, all at once. Stir until combined then add in melted butter.
10. Brush the waffle maker with butter.
11. Add in a portion of the batter, swirl it till it forms a thin circle.
12. To assemble, divide lettuce leaves and place between 2 waffles.
13. Brush with honey mustard sauce. Top each with a spoonful of chicken mixture followed by the sliced tomatoes.

Chicken Lasagna Rolls

Ingredients

170g chicken breast meat
3/8 teaspoon chili powder
3/8 teaspoon ground cumin seeds
9g olive oil
Pepper to taste
3 lasagna sheets
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon oil
Shredded chicken meat
20g black beans
20g corn
20g red and green bell pepper, finely dice
20g onion chopped
1/3 teaspoon cilantro, finely chopped
2 teaspoon vegetable oil
50g mozzarella cheese
1½ cup pasta sauce

Directions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 150oC. Score the chicken and marinate with chili powder, cumin seeds, olive oil and pepper. Wrap the bowl with cling film and put aside for 20 minutes.

2. Fill in the pan half-full with water and boil. Add in salt and oil. Once the water boil add in the lasagna sheets. Boil the lasagna until al-dente. Remove and dip into cold water before placing it on the plate.

3. Heat 2 tspn vegetable oil in a frying pan. Brown the marinated chicken meat for about 3-5 minutes on each side on medium heat. Remove from pan and let it cool. Do not throw the oil.

4. Chop the onions. Brunoise the red and green bell pepper. Finely chop the cilantro.

5. Shred the cooled chicken meat and heat up the pan with the oil from step 3. Once heated add in black beans, corn, peppers, onion and cilantro into the frying pan. Stir the mixture for 3 minutes on medium heat. Remove and put aside.

6. Lay one lasagna sheet on a chopping board. Put a generous amount of the filling on the edge of the lasagna. Do not over fill the lasagna. Drizzle a tablespoonful of pasta sauce on the filling.

7. Roll the lasagna slowly to avoid breakage of the sheets. Cut the lasagna into half and lay it in the aluminum tray. Repeat for the remaining lasagna sheets.

8. Once all lasagna sheets are in the aluminum tray, cover with half of the mozzarella cheese. Pour the remaining sauce onto the lasagna.

9. Bake the lasagna in the oven for 15 minutes. Take out the lasagna and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top and bake for another 5 minutes or until cheese melts.

10. Cool and serve.

Chicken Meatloaf Muffins

Yields 6 muffins

Ingredients

150g raw ground chicken breast

½ egg

10g breadcrumbs

1 tbsp mix vegetables

1/8 tsp dried thyme

1/8 tsp oregano

1 garlic clove, minced

1 small onion, chopped

½ tsp salt

Dash of pepper

4 tbsp pasta sauce

45g parmesan cheese, grated

20g mozzarella cheese, shredded

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 150^oC. Line a muffintin with aluminium muffin cups and set aside.

2. In a large bowl, combine the ground chicken, egg, mixvegetables, breadcrumbs, thyme, oregano, garlic, onion, salt, pepper andcheddar cheese and lightly mix together. Do not over handle.

3. Form the meat mixture evenly into the muffin cups.Spread the pasta sauce evenly over the tops of each muffin.

4. Bake for 20 minutes and remove from the oven when theinner temperature of the muffins is at least 73^oC. Top each muffinwith about a tablespoon of shredded mozzarella cheese and then return to theoven for 2 to 3 minutes until the cheese is melted.

We were lucky that everything went rather smoothly and the lesson went as planned, even when the class was instructed to be rowdy by Mrs Stevenson to make the classroom environment more authentic. Here're the feedback that the tutors gave us during our debrief session:

Our voices were loud and clear.

We provided good explanations for the questions raised by the "students".

It was good that we got the students to help us with some of the steps when demonstrating the recipes. It displays good teamwork!

Any points that we have missed out during the lesson can always be covered again in subsequent lessons.

Inform the class about how the food is portioned to avoid confusion during the practical.

There should be proper queuing system when students are collecting food.

The common ingredients in the three recipes can be collected together rather than separately.

Use food or ingredients that are already prepared to the point where we would like to demonstrate specific methods to the students.

Use ready-made food to show the desired final effect of the food.

It is always good practice to place a damp cloth under the bowl when mixing to provide stability.

Definitely good pointers provided by both tutors and we'll take note of them in the future! This micro teaching session reminded me of my lessons in Chong Boon and how much I miss them! Practical sessions have always been fun for me and I believe I should allow the students to have fun during the lessons as much as possible (that's if they do not misbehave). :)

Anyway, the pictures of our children circus party are posted below. I made small party favours using the DIY paper bags that I've posted in the previous blog post. How can any party be complete without party favours right? Ms Soo has an adorable little trolley that she loaned to us and it was perfect for filling with all the party favours. Besides that, to add a special touch to the party, I made napkin bags containing the napkins and cutlery so that guests can pick them up individually. This certainly makes things more convenient in a buffet line, don't you think? Again this is another idea from my previous blog post and this is definitely one idea I will be using for my future house parties. Other items DIY-ed was the popcorn paper cups and also the muffin aprons! It was such a mad rush on the actual day of the micro teaching and I regret that I did not get any close up pictures of these items. I hope the pictures below suffice!

A lot of DIY went into the prep for me because it's something I enjoy doing in my free time. Its mid-semester break for the Home Economics course now and I'm taking this break in the course to catch up with assignments and also with my own wedding stuff. No guesses there I'm DIY-ing quite a few items too! I've made use of some of the techniques learnt during our textiles class to create presonalised gifts for my bridesmaids so stay tuned to that! :)