Shadowing Practice: How To Make A Prawn Bisque | Grande Cuisine Academy - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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A prawn bisque is a miscellaneous kind of soup.
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A prawn bisque is a miscellaneous kind of soup.
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It's a soup that incorporates the whole of the animal,
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the whole of the prawn.
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So therefore when we come to thickening the soup,
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it's actually the shells of the animal that thicken the soup at the end.
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So we have no further left to do.
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Here I have some butter and some rapeseed oil.
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Now the reason I've got the two together is because I know
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that the butter will burn easily at high temperatures whereas the rapeseed oil will help the butter flavor the dish
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but also keep that temperature nice and even,
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not allowing the butter to burn as such.
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As I said in my introduction,
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we are going to use the whole of the prawn.
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So here I have have 300 grams of prawns,
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whole prawns, shell on, and into the hot oil I'm going to add my prawns.
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I'm just going to gently roll them around
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and you'll notice they will start to change colour as soon as they start to heat through in the oil.
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I want these prawns to to be lightly roasted,
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lightly fried before I add the following ingredients.
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Just allow that a little bit of time to cook out, to cook through.
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You can see that they're changing colour.
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I can smell that they're cooking.
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I can smell that the flavour is already coming out of these prawns with the butter included.
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Into my pan with the butter
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and the prawns I'm just going to add a little bit of colour and a little bit of flavour.
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So I'm going to incorporate some tomato paste.
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This will give the finished dish a little bit of tomato flavour but also
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a nice pink colour in once I've added my cream at the end.
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Just allow that tomato paste to cook out a few minutes,
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allowing that natural oil to leach out of the tomato paste.
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As you can see there is a little bit more oil
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now in the pan due to the oil content of our tomatoes.
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I'm going to add a little bit of fire,
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a little touch of paprika to add to that flavour.
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A touch of sherry just to loosen up the bottom of the pan,
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bring any of that residue off the the bottom,
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adding colour to the dish,
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adding colour to the soup.
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Once that settle down a little bit,
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I can shake in some flour.
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Gently stir that in.
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Once it's all been incorporated,
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I can then add in my fish stock.
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So again this soup and the corners have got a good litre of our fresh fish stock we made earlier.
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I'm just going to bring that back up to the boil,
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allow it to simmer for 10 minutes before we blend the soup and finish the soup.
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Our prawn biscuits have been simmering for 20 minutes.
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The prawns are nicely cooked,
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the soup itself has formed nicely.
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We're now ready to blend.
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As I said at the beginning,
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the soup itself is thickened by the whole of the prawn.
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So into our blender I'm adding the shells,
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heads, everything in so that the soup will thicken itself up.
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Holding the blade, I'm going to pour our consomme into a chinois.
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We're using the back of a ladle.
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I will pass it through,
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pass through all our soup leaving behind the stuff that we don't want.
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Before I serve the soup there's just a few more checks I want to make.
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Obviously we need to make sure it's seasoned correctly.
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Doesn't need a lot but does need a little bit of salt.
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A couple twists of pepper.
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Serve that in.
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Soup now ready to go.
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Just going to ladle it gently into our bowl.
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Before I serve it up,
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I'm just going to do a gentle swirl of cream
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and just a few snips of chive across the top just for the little bit of extra colour.
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Why practice speaking with this video?

This video on making a prawn bisque is not just a cooking tutorial; it's an excellent resource for improving your English speaking skills. As you follow along, you can engage in shadowing, where you imitate the speaker's pronunciation, intonation, and rhythm. This technique enhances your fluency and helps you internalize the language structure, making it a fantastic way to learn English with YouTube.

By practicing with this video, you will not only learn how to prepare a delicious soup but also pick up useful culinary vocabulary and cooking-related phrases. Engaging actively with the content—such as repeating the speaker’s lines—will improve your confidence when speaking in English.

Grammar & Expressions in Context

Throughout the video, the speaker utilizes several key grammatical structures and expressions that are common in instructional contexts. Here are some notable examples:

  • Imperative sentences: The speaker frequently uses commands, such as "add your prawns" and "allow that a little bit of time to cook." This direct form keeps the audience engaged and is typical in recipe instructions.
  • Present continuous tense: Phrases like "I am going to add" and "they are changing colour" illustrate ongoing actions. This tense is useful for describing processes, which is especially relevant in cooking.
  • Descriptive adjectives: The use of adjectives such as "lightly roasted" and "fresh fish stock" helps create vivid imagery and explain the desired qualities of the ingredients and the final dish.
  • Future intentions: The phrase "we are going to use" indicates a planned action, a common structure to express future intent.

Common Pronunciation Traps

When watching the video, pay special attention to certain words and phrases that may be challenging to pronounce:

  • Prawn: The initial 'p' sound can be tricky for some learners, especially if their native language does not contain similar sounds. Make sure to practice stressing the 'r' properly.
  • Bisque: This word is often mispronounced. The correct pronunciation emphasizes both syllables: 'bisque' should sound like "bisk." Use the video as a guide to master this term.
  • Paprika: Pay attention to how the speaker pronounces this spice. The difficulty often lies in the rhythm and the placement of stress within the word.

Utilizing a shadowing app or shadowspeak technique can help you tackle these pronunciation challenges effectively. By mimicking the speaker’s pronunciation in real time, you can train your mouth to form English sounds more accurately. This will enhance your overall speaking and listening skills, making you a more proficient English speaker.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

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