COOKING ENGLISH VOCABULARY IN USE PRE INTERMEDIATE

 

ENGLISH VOCABULARY IN USE PRE INTERMEDIATE UNIT 25 COOKING

 

A Ways of cooking food You boil potatoes or rice in a saucepan. You can fry sausages in a frying pan. You grill toast or meat under a grill. You roast meat [using oil] in the oven. You also bake cakes [without oil] in the oven. You barbecue meat and fish on a barbecue. Food which is not cooked is raw. B Preparing and cooking food Peel the potatoes [remove the skin] and boil them. While they’re boiling, chop an onion. [cut it into small pieces] Fry the onion before adding some chopped tomatoes. [putting them together with the onions] Then stir it all for a few minutes. [move it around in a saucepan using a spoon] C What does it taste like? Chefs [people who cook food in a restaurant as a job] always taste the food [put a small amount in their mouth to see what it is like] while they are cooking. I don’t like the taste of too much garlic. I tried the soup and it tasted a bit strange. Michel’s food is very tasty [has a good taste]. Indian food is a bit too spicy for me [with a strong hot flavour]. You get ice cream in different flavours [the type of taste that food or drink has, e.g. vanilla, coffee, strawberry, etc.]. Lena said her pasta was horrible [terrible, unpleasant], but I thought it was delicious [fantastic, with a wonderful taste]. Language help   We use the word sour to describe the taste of lemons (opp sweet), but usually bitter to describe coffee that is strong and has a sharp unpleasant taste (opp smooth). Strong, dark chocolate can also be described as bitter, but this is not always negative. D Are you a good cook? “I’m a bit nervous when I cook, so I always follow a recipe [the cooking instructions for a particular dish, e.g. lasagne], and make sure I have all the right ingredients [the different food you need to make a particular meal] before I start. However, I am quite good at making pies, especially apple pie. (Pie is pronounced /paɪ/ like ‘my’.)” Common mistakes   A person who cooks well is a good cook (NOT a good cooker). The cooker is the large piece of equipment you use for cooking. You could also say that you are good/bad at cooking (NOT good/bad in cooking), e.g. I’m quite good at cooking fish. Also we ‘cook’ a type of food, e.g. I’m cooking some beef, but we ‘make’ a dish, e.g. I’m making dessert. (NOT I’m cooking dessert.) EXERCISES 25.1 Write down five more ways of cooking food. ____ boil ________, ___________________, ___________________, ___________________, ___________________, ___________________ 25.2 How do you pronounce the underlined letters? Use the index to help you. 25.3 Cross out the wrong word in each sentence. Write the correct word at the end. 1 The paella was very tasteful. __________ tasty______________ 2 My brother is a very good cooker. _______________ 3 Don’t forget to heat up the fry pan before you add the aubergine. _______________ 4 This chocolate is very sour. _______________ 5 I’m afraid my mother has never been very good in cooking. _______________ 6 You can buy this ice cream in five different tastes. _______________ 25.4 Which words are being defined? 1 The flavour that something has in your mouth when you eat it. ______taste_______- 2 A person who cooks food as their job. ________________ 3 Having a good taste. ________________ 4 The large piece of equipment in the kitchen for cooking food. ________________ 5 The word to describe the taste of lemons. ________________ 6 Not cooked. ________________ 7 Having a fantastic taste. ________________. The opposite is ________________ 25.5 Explain what the person did, using the correct word. 1 I got the list of food and cooking instructions. 2 I bought all the food I needed for the dish. 3 First I removed the skin of the potatoes. 4 I cooked the potatoes in water. 5 Then I cut the onions into small pieces. 6 I cooked the onions in a frying pan. 7 I put the potatoes together with the onion. 8 I put in some milk and moved it round in the pan. 9 Then I put a little in my mouth to see what it was like. You got the ____ recipe _______. You bought all the __________________. You __________________ the potatoes. You __________________ the potatoes. You __________________ the onions. You __________________ the onions. You __________________ the potatoes to the onion You put in milk and _______________ it.   You _______________ it. 25.6

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