調理方法 – 7 Essential Verbs for Japanese Cooking
There are many different cooking methods out there. Depending on if you use oil, water, or steam there are different ways to prepare the same ingredients into something else. In Japanese, there are several words for cooking. Here are 7 essential verbs for Japanese cooking.
INDEX
焼く
First, the word 焼くhas a broad range of meanings when it comes to cooking. It can mean to cook something with or without using oil by directly cooking it in fire or by grilling it.
焼く also means to bake something like bread or a cake. Finally, you can say 焼く when you want to talk about roasting or pan-frying something in some cases. This usage of 焼くthough can get tangled up with our next word.
クッキーを焼く匂いがする。
I smell cookies baking.
焚き火で焼いたりんごはおいしい。
Apples roasted over a campfire are delicious.
炒める
炒める is a verb only referring to cooking something or sauteing it in a frying pan. If you put vegetables, meat, or whatever in a frying pan and stir-fry it swiftly, you would say 炒める in Japanese.
切った野菜を強火で炒める。
Saute chopped vegetables over high heat.
揚げる
The word for deep-frying something in Japanese is 揚げる. Unlike 炒める which is just using a little bit of oil in a pan, 揚げる is the word for submerging something fully like fried chicken in oil.
美味しいフライドポテトの揚げ方
How to fry good French fries
煮る
Next, 煮る is the verb for cooking or simmering ingredients in water, broth or other liquids. You would use 煮る when you talk about making things like soup or other recipes where the water or broth is part of the final recipe.
シチューを３０分煮る。
Simmer the stew for 30 minutes.
炊く
炊く is similar to 煮る in the sense that you are cooking something with water or broth. For the most part, though this word is only used to talk about cooking rice.
父がご飯を炊いた。
Dad cooked the rice.
茹でる
茹でる is also similar to 煮る and means to boil something. The difference here is that you are boiling something and removing it from the water. The water is not part of the final recipe. So, if you wanted to boil an egg you would use 茹でる.
トウモロコシを茹でる。
Boil the corn.
蒸す
Finally, we have 蒸す. This is pretty straightforward. 蒸す means to steam something.
蒸し野菜
steamed vegetables
