英语博客(A cup of English):092 Herbs in the kitchen.

　　Beginners.

Welcome back to The Tour of Homes. We are still in the kitchen, but today, instead of going over vocabulary related to furniture and appliances, lets get on with some cooking. Now, what is cooking without herbs and spices? They make our food so interesting! I have a variety in my kitchen cabinet, all in one place. Often people will have a spice drawer. It's a way to organize all of the spices so you can find what you are looking for immediately. Some of the dishes I cook are fairly simple and don't require herbs or spices, but the most interesting ones always need a few. My Spanish mother cooks a traditional tomato sauce which you may have read about. As far as herbs and spices, it has oregano, parsley, pimiento and chili 1 powder. If you look further back on the blog page you will find a podcast all about it. Another dish that we eat often is a chicken and rice dish. I actually don't have a name for it, but if you listen more, you can learn the ingredients, and try it for yourself.

Advanced.

The ingredients you will need are:

2 cups of rice

3 cups of water

1/2 lb lean chicken breast

1 1/2 cubes of chicken stock

1 medium onion

3 tbs oil

salt, pepper, turmeric, and chili powder to taste

You start by peeling and chopping the onion into very small pieces, as small as possible. Cook on low heat in the oil, stirring occasionally, and cover with a saucepan lid. Do not allow to brown. On the chopping board, remove any skin from the chicken, and chop into very small pieces, slightly larger than the onion pieces. Optionally, you can cut into short slices. Stirfry with the onion until there is a slight browning. Add the dry rice and stir. Add water and chicken stock. Add salt, pepper, turmeric, and chili powder, reserving some turmeric and chili powder for the top. Stir thoroughly 2 and let simmer with lid on top until rice is cooked. Do not stir while it is cooking. Every few minutes, check the water level, making sure that the frying pan does not lack water. Top up with water until rice is cooked. When cooked, sprinkle with more turmeric. Serve while hot or chilled.

This is the kind of dish that can be served as a side dish, with a salad, or even a main dish. If you can think of a good name for it, let me know.

Grammar notes.

Related vocabulary: to brown, to stirfry, reserving, thoroughly, to lack, top up.

Exs:

The mushrooms we ate last night were browned to perfection.

In my favorite chinese dish, about twenty vegetables are stirfried.

After I made the cake, I reserved some of the chocolate for shavings for the top.

We walked home in the storm. By the time we reached the house, we were thoroughly soaked.

I think, what this soup lacks, is salt.

At the service station I topped up the car with gas/ petrol.