Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 441, Preparing Food for Cooking.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 441.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Visit our website at eslpod.com.
You can download a learning guide for this episode, an 8-10 page guide that will help you improve your English even faster.
This episode is called Preparing Food for Cooking.
It's going to describe a lot of common vocabulary we use in English to talk about cooking food.
Let's get started.
How can I help?
Why don't you iron the tablecloth and set the table?
I already did that.
I want to help with the cooking.
Okay.
You can scrub these potatoes, peel the carrots, and rinse these grapes.
All right, I'll do that, but I think you're just giving me the scut work.
I want to do some real cooking.
Well, okay.
I guess you could cut up this chicken and then chop these vegetables.
After that, you can saute the vegetables in this pan.
Great.
Now, how do you sauté?
I've never done it before.
What?
Forget it.
You can steam the vegetables instead.
Okay.
Just show me how.
Never mind.
Here, just beat these eggs and slice these onions.
When you're done, you can toss that salad.
But I want to whip up some gourmet dishes.
When can I cook?
That's a good question.
Ask me again when you've learned how.
The dialogue between Marissa and Juan Carlos begins by Marissa saying, which is a polite way of someone saying in what way can I be of assistance?
How can I help you with what you are doing?
Juan Carlos says why don't you iron the tablecloth and set the table.
Juan Carlos is cooking the food and his wife I guess is asking if she can help him.
Juan Carlos says why don't you iron the tablecloth.
To iron means to take a piece of clothing or a piece of fabric and put a hot object on it so that it is straight and smooth.
It does not have any what we would call wrinkles or lines in it.
To iron is a verb.
There's also the noun iron, which is the thing that you heat up, usually nowadays by plugging it in.
It's an electrical device.
The tablecloth is a large cloth, a large piece of fabric that you put over a table and usually for some sort of formal dining situation.
If you go to a nice restaurant, they will usually have tablecloths.
Juan Carlos also suggests that she set the table.
To set the table means to put the plates cups napkins spoons forks knives, all of those sorts of things that you need to eat on the table.
Usually, this is something you do before the person brings out the food to eat.
In my family growing up, it was always my job to set the table for dinner.
Probably because that's the easiest thing for a child to do and, not being the brightest person, my parents didn't want me to make any mistakes.
So Juan Carlos is asking Marissa to help him.
Marissa says, I already did that.
I want to help with the cooking.
Juan Carlos says, okay, here, you cook the rest of the meal.
No, he doesn't say that.
He actually says, okay, you can help.
You can scrub these potatoes.
To scrub S-C-R-U-B means to move your hand or use some sort of tool and move it back and forth against something quickly in order to clean it.
So scrubbing the vegetables is putting them underwater, rubbing them so that the dirt comes off of them.
Juan Carlos is asking Marissa to scrub the potatoes and Peel the carrots and rinse these grapes.
To peel P-E-E-L is a verb we use in cooking to talk about removing the skin from a fruit or vegetable.
To remove the outside of something, usually with a small knife.
So to peel the carrots would mean to use a small knife or a sharp object that we would call a peeler to take off the outer layer, the outer skin of the carrot.
A carrot is a long, orange-colored vegetable.
Rinsing the grapes means cleaning them by running water over them.
Grapes are, of course, small pieces of fruit from which we make wine, or one way of making wine anyway.
You can use that same verb to rinse when you are talking about, for example, washing your hair.
I could say, I rinsed my hair this morning when I took a shower.
I could say that, but I don't have any hair, so that would be a lie.
Marissa says, all right, I'll do that, but I think you're just giving me the scut work.
Scut.
S-C-U-T, work, means work that is the most unpleasant to do, the worst job.
Someone who gives you scut work is giving you something that is usually easy, but it's not very pleasant.
It's not very fun to do.
Marissa says, I want to do some real cooking.
Juan Carlos says, well, okay, I guess you could cut up this chicken.
To cut something up or to cut up something is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to cut something into smaller pieces, usually with a knife.
Cut has several different meanings in English.
Take a look at our learning guide for some additional explanations.
Juan Carlos also asks Marissa to chop these vegetables.
To chop, C-H-O-P, also means to cut something into smaller pieces, usually with a knife.
And with a very quick motion quick repetitive, we would say motion you repeat the same thing over and over again.
So if you have an onion and you want the onion to be in very small little pieces – you would use a knife and you would chop the onion.
You would move the knife up and down quickly several times using the same motion to cut the onion.
Chop usually means that you are making something into very small pieces.
You are cutting it into small pieces.
Juan Carlos says, after that, you can saute the vegetables in this pan.
To saute, S-A-U-T-E, with an accent over the E, because it's a word that comes originally from French, means to cook something, often vegetables or meat, in hot oil or butter until it is either soft if it's vegetables or brown if it's meat.
Saute is usually done in a pan, which is the thing you put on top of the fire in order to cook food.
Sauteing is usually something that is done very quickly in the pan.
Marissa says, great.
Now, how do you saute?
Meaning, how does one saute?
How does someone who cooks saute?
I've never done it before.
Juan Carlos says, what?
Forget it.
Meaning, he can't believe Marissa doesn't know how to saute.
He says you can steam the vegetables instead.
To steam S-T-E-A-M something means to cook something by putting it over boiling water.
It isn't in the water.
It's in something else.
But the heat from the boiling water, the vapor, comes up into the food and cooks it into the pan or whatever it is that you are using to put the food in.
But steaming means that you don't put it in water, but the heat of the water cooks the food.
We often steam vegetables, for example.
You could also steam fish.
Juan Carlos is asking Marissa to steam the vegetables, and Marissa says, Okay, just show me how.
Tell me how to do it.
Juan Carlos says, never mind, meaning forget it, don't worry about it, I don't want you to do it.
He says, here, just beat these eggs and slice these onions.
To beat an egg or to beat anything in cooking means to stir something very quickly, to mix it very quickly, often in order to put more air into the food.
Beat has several different meanings in English.
Take a look at the learning guide for some additional explanations.
Juan Carlos wants Marissa also to slice these onions.
To slice, S-L-I-C-E, is another verb we use to refer to cutting something.
This is when you cut something into very thin, flat pieces.
So you might slice the bread.
You have a piece of bread, what we would call a loaf, L-O-A-F, of bread.
And then you slice it, you cut it so that it is in thin, flat pieces.
When you're done, Juan Carlos says, you can toss that salad in.
To toss T-O-S-S something is to mix things together.
Mix different pieces of food together to stir them together.
When you toss a salad, you take all of the elements, all of the ingredients, the food that makes up the salad, and you mix them together.
Marissa says, but I want to whip up some gourmet dishes.
When can I cook?
To whip up is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to make something to eat very quickly, in very little time.
Someone says, oh, I'll whip up some food for dinner.
They mean they will cook food very quickly or get dinner ready very quickly.
Gourmet, G-O-U-R-M-E-T, means very good tasting, delicious, high quality food.
Gourmet dishes refer to the food that you are cooking.
A dish is one type of cooked or prepared food.
At Thanksgiving in the United States, we have different dishes.
Turkey, potatoes, pumpkin pie.
These are dishes.
Marissa wants to whip up some gourmet dishes.
Juan Carlos says ask me again when you've learned how, because Marissa doesn't know how to do even the most basic things in cooking.
Kind of like me.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
How can I help?
Um, why don't you iron the tablecloth and set the table?
I already did that.
I want to help with the cooking.
Okay, you can scrub these potatoes, peel the carrots, and rinse these grapes.
All right, I'll do that, but I think you're just giving me the scut work.
I want to do some real cooking.
Well, okay.
I guess you could cut up this chicken and then chop these vegetables.
After that, you can saute the vegetables in this pan.
Great.
Now, how do you saute?
I've never done it before.
What?
Forget it.
You can steam the vegetables instead.
Okay.
Just show me how.
Never mind.
Here, just beat these eggs and slice these onions.
When you're done, you can toss that salad.
But I want to whip up some gourmet dishes.
When can I cook?
That's a good question.
Ask me again when you've learned how.
The script for this episode was whipped up by Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2009 by the Center for Educational Development.
