Slow-Fried French Fries

There are certain foods that are better when not made at home, like french fries. To achieve golden-brown perfection, you have to fry them twice: first at a low temperature, to poach them; then at a high heat, to crisp them up. Very tasty, very much a pain in the neck. A few years back, I read about how French chef Joel Robuchon supposedly does it at his house: He puts sliced potatoes in a pot of cold oil, turns on the heat, and lets them go. It sounds too simple to work. But as the temperature rises, the potatoes cook from the outer layer in until the fries are wonderfully crunchy outside and creamy in the center. You'll never make fries any other way-even if you've never made them before.

put a û in the right box:

1. The word chef (in line 6) means

a person in charge of a hotel

a person who cooks

a person who waits on people

2. In the text fry (line 3) means:

 to cook in a pan over heat with use of fat

to cut something into pieces

to slice something

3. The word twice (in line 3) means:

one time

two times

three times

4. In the text poach (line 4) means:

to cook in salty liquid

to cook in a boiling liquid

to fry

5. French fries are better when cooked

at home

in a restaurant

in a factory

6. The French chef J.R. has his

own recipe

doesn’t know how to make French fries

doesn’t cook French fries at all

The Easter rabbit is ill

It is the week before Easter and Ben

Hopswood, the Easter rabbit, is very sad. He has got the flu and must stay in bed. His house is full of red, blue,yellow, pink and green Easter eggs. They are in each room of his house. They are on the table, on the shelves, in the fridge, in the cupboards, on the chairs and on the sofa.

Every year Ben hides the Easter eggs for the children. But this year Ben cannot do it because he is ill. He asks his cousin Jim, the Easter bunny,  for help. Jim wants to help him, but he cannot do this all alone, because he must also hide eggs for the children in his village.

“I need some more help“ Ben thinks. “I cannot ask the hens because they are too weak. I cannot ask the wolf. He would eat the eggs. I cannot ask the cat. She would play with the eggs. Who can help me?“ Ben thinks and thinks and then he´s got an idea. „I could ask the squirrels for help. They are good at hiding

their nuts. Maybe they will help me.“

Ben sends Lizzie, the hen, to the squirrels.

They live on the big trees in the wood.

A squirrel is looking down from a tree.

“Hi, Lizzie! What´s up?“ And Lizzie tells them that the Easter rabbit is ill. “Ben needs your help. He cannot hide the Easter eggs for the children because he´s got the flu. Could you help him, please?“ says Lizzie. The squirrels like Ben Hopswood and want to help him. They love the idea of hiding eggs.

On Easter Sunday the squirrels go to Ben very early in the morning. They take the Easter eggs and and go to the park. There they hide the eggs for the children.

Jim, the Easter bunny, hides the eggs in the gardens. He hides them behind the trees, in the grass and under the bushes.

 Later in the morning the children can find eggs in their gardens. But the children cannot find eggs in the park. They think that there are no Easter eggs in the park this year. But there are a lot of eggs. They are high up in the trees and deep down in the ground.

Squirrels can really hide things very well !!!

Answer the questions!

1 Why cannot Ben hide the easter eggs?
…………………………………………………………………………
2 How does ben feel?
…………………………………………………………………………
3 What animals cannot help him?
…………………………………………………………………………
4 Who goes to the squirrels?
…………………………………………………………………………
5. When do the squirrels hide the eggs?
…………………………………………………………………………

A TERRIFIC COOK

Do you see how slim I am? It’s not on purpose and it’s not my nature either; there’s a good reason for me keeping in shape: Mom. She’s a disaster in the kitchen, and besides being unable to fry an egg properly, she always causes accidents. I can’t keep track of all the times the kitchen was on fire (4? 5?) because of something weird she decided to do, despite of our advice to keep out of the kitchen – especially the stove.

She doesn’t pay attention to our advice and we have to eat what she prepares – or at least we eat what we can – so we live constantly on an undesired diet.

The last time she tried to prepare roast beef the result was a burning kitchen; Dad could barely save the family and extinguish the fire. When she goes to the kitchen we start fearing for our lives (and stomachs) and thinking of a sickness we’ll fake in order to avoid the “result”.

Despite the bad cook we have at home, our house is always full of guests for lunch and dinner. I suspect they come just to have fun watching the disasters. And – of course – they want to be the first to tell our friends what her latest calamity was like.

Mark true (T) or false (F) according to the text. You have to explain orally when it’s false:

The girl’s mother is a terrific cook. (   )

The girl’s mom tends to cause accidents in the kitchen. (   )

The girl’s mother knows how to cook. (   )

The girl’s mom gave up cooking. (   )

The family asks the woman to stop cooking. (   )

The woman keeps cooking and doesn’t listen to her family. (   )

They have to eat what she cooks. (   )

She set fire in the kitchen more than once. (   )

They have guests because they appreciate her food. (   )