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Real Easy English

Easy level

Talking about cooking

Episode 240913 / 13 Sep 2024

(Image: Getty)

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Introduction

Beth and Neil have a real conversation in easy English about their favourite recipes. Learn to talk about cooking and give instructions for making a meal.

Vocabulary

recipe
a list of instructions for how to make a certain type of food

taste
used to describe the food we eat

Grammar tip:
Use imperative to give instructions. To make the imperative use the base verb without pronouns.

  • Take a chicken and put garlic and rosemary and lemons inside.
  • Then boil some potatoes.

Transcript

Beth
Hello, I'm Beth.

Neil
And I’m Neil. And this is Real Easy English, the podcast with real conversations in easy English to help you learn.

Beth
If you want to read along with this podcast, you can find a text version on our website. Visit bbclearningenglish.com.

Neil
Hi Beth, how are things this week?

Beth
Things are good, Neil. How are you?

Neil
I'm very well, thank you very much. Today we're talking all about cooking. We'll talk about what we like to cook as well as our favourite recipes.

Beth
Recipes! Can you explain the word recipes, Neil?

Neil
Yes, a recipe is a list of instructions for how to make certain types of food.

Beth
OK, great. Let's get started then.

So, Neil, do you enjoy cooking?

Neil
Yes, I do enjoy cooking. When I cook, I find it relaxing. How about you?

Beth
Yeah, I'm the same. I cook quite a lot, but I really enjoy it when I can be in the kitchen with music or a podcast on and really relax and spend time making food.

Neil
What's your favourite thing to make?

Beth
I quite like making stir fries because they're quick and easy. There's lots of different ingredients and flavours you can use. But I also quite like cooking fish. I’ve got some good fish recipes.

Neil
OK.

Beth
What about you?

Neil
I like to cook a roast dinner.

Beth
Mmm, very British.

Neil
Yes, on a Sunday. Let me tell you how to do roast chicken.

Beth
OK, give me the recipe.

Neil
OK. Take a chicken and put garlic and rosemary and lemons inside. Then boil some potatoes, not too long. And put everything in the oven and roast it with some vegetables for about an hour and fifteen minutes.

Beth
Mmm, sounds really good!

Neil
OK, Beth, I want to hear about your fish recipe.

Beth
Well, there's one I like which is with cod. So, you put the cod in a pan with stock, creme fraiche and tarragon. That's it. It's really simple. There's only four ingredients, but it tastes really delicious.

Neil
Sounds amazing!

Beth
How does your chicken recipe taste?

Neil
It tastes fantastic, I have to say. I think, especially because of the gravy, and the gravy is a sauce made from all of the juices from the chicken and the vegetables.

Beth
I love gravy. I use gravy on my bangers and mash.

Neil
Bangers and mash! What's that?

Beth
Bangers and mash is another British recipe, which is sausages and mashed potato. The sausages are the bangers, and the mash is the mashed potato.

Neil
Mmm, I can almost smell it!

Beth
I know, I'm getting hungry.

Let's look at the language we learnt during the conversation.

We had recipe, the instructions for cooking a particular food or meal.

Neil
Taste, which we use to describe the food we eat. For example, my chicken tastes amazing.

Beth
And Neil, you gave me instructions on how to make that delicious roast chicken and you used the imperative. You said put lemon, garlic and herbs in the chicken, boil the potatoes, but not for too long, and add them to the dish.

Neil
That's it for this episode of Real Easy English. For more on the imperative, and other grammar tips, try our podcast Learning English Grammar. You can find it on your podcast app or by visiting our website: bbclearningenglish.com.

Beth
Next time, we'll talk more about our families and the jobs they do.

Neil
See you then, goodbye.

Beth
Bye.

Now try this...

Learn more about giving instructions using the imperative

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