Cue Card Sample
IELTS Cue Card # 176 - A food menu/dish you know how to cook
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- Written by IELTS Mentor
IELTS Speaking Part 2: IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card.
Describe a food menu/dish you know how to cook.
You should say:
- what menu/dish it is
- what ingredients are required to cook it
- where or how you learned to cook it
and explain how you cook this food menu/dish.
Model Answer 1:
Today, I would like to talk about one of the popular food dishes in Malaysia, which I don’t only enjoy eating, but also know how to cook.
The name of this food dish is “Nasi Biryani”. It is a rice dish flavoured with spices and rose water. The word “nasi” means rice in Malay. By the way, aromatic rice (i.e. Basmati rice) is the base for all kinds of meat biryanis that we cook. Of course, one can also serve it separately, topped with his or her choice of curries. But as far as my nasi biryani is concerned, I prefer it separately with my choice of curries on top of it.
And, the things, needed to cook this dish, may include ingredients like vegetable oil, 3 large shallots (peeled and thinly sliced), butter, cinnamon stick, 2 "star anise", 3 cardamom pods, 6 cloves, 500 gm basmati rice, 80 gm golden raisins, 2½ cups water, 1 teaspoon of salt, ground turmeric, rose essence or kewra (an extract from pandanus flowers) water, and finally, and some toasted cashew nuts.
After learning about its cooking methods from my sister, I have cooked this delicious dish many times. To cook this dish, you should, first, fry sliced shallots in vegetable oil until they get a golden colour. In the same pot, fry all the spices, mentioned above, in melted butter, for about 1 to 2 minutes until the fragrance starts to come out. Then, boil the rice in water after adding golden raisins to it. Later, add some salt with them and cook them in medium heat for 8 to 10 minutes until all water is absorbed is required. Then, reduce the heat to the lowest setting and let cook for another 5 minutes. Finally, mix ground turmeric with 1 tablespoon hot water in a small cup while mixing rose essence or kewra water within another. Now sprinkle both mixtures onto the rice and fluff rice gently with a spatula. Cover and allow the rice to sit for another 10 minutes. Garnish the cooked rice with fried onions and cashew nuts. Your delicious "nasi biryani" should be ready to be served now!
Sample Answer 2:
I am not a good cook, and I know very little about cookery and such stuff. But, I know how to cook a few common dishes as I had to prepare my meals sometimes during my college/university days. One such dish is the "boiled rice and mutton curry".
To cook this dish we need rice (aromatic rice is better), mutton, some common spices, onion, vinegar, mustard, water, oil, salt and some other very basic cooking ingredients. I have learned this dish from my mother, who is one of the best cooks I have ever met. As I have seen my mother cook this very dish many times, I think I have learned it just by watching her cook. When I tried to prepare this dish for the first time, I actually recalled what my mother did, and I just followed the steps from memory.
To cook this dish, you need to wash the rice for 5 minutes, and then boil it in the water for approximately half an hour until the rice is perfectly cooked. You can mix some ghee/tasty butter to give it a nice aroma and a delicious taste. To cook mutton curry, you need to wash the raw mutton first, and then keep it in the water mixed with vinegar for about 20 minutes. After that, leave the water from it and put some spices, onions, olive oil, bay leaves, salt, butter, herbs and mix them for 3 to 4 minutes. Now add a few cups of water and cook it in flame for about 45 minutes. Now it would be ready to be served with the rice you have already prepared.
I would say, this is a comparatively easy dish to prepare. It does not require many different and expensive ingredients and could be prepared and served within an hour. I like to cook and enjoy this dish from time to time.
Similar Cue Card Topics
Your ability to talk about this Cue Card Topic would also enable you to talk about the following Cue Card Topics:
- Describe a food item you like to eat.
- Describe your favourite dish.
- Describe a food item that you often eat outside.
- Describe a food item you like to eat at home.
- Describe a skill you have.
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