MORE PLEASE - TRAY BAKES

Chicken, Saffron and Carrot Rice, Poached Trout with Potatoes, Fennel and Olive Salsa and a Broccoli, Gorgonzola and Butter Bean Gratin

HELLO More Please Subscribers and THANK YOU as always for being here! I am delighted to share with you today three recipes for very very good tray bakes.

I understand the glorious ease of being able to shove a whole dinner into one tray and into the oven to be forgotten about until needed, but I must admit its not something that comes naturally to me. As a trained chef I have a tendency to over-complicate things to be completely honest. It’s hard to unlearn the rigorous pursuit of absolute perfection and forget rules that have been written in permanent marker in your head for so long. Cooking everything in one tray is hard for me because I am robotically programmed to know not everything will cook at the same time or same way. Of course, you will see in the recipes that follow that there is an obvious way around this (add things in stages!) but my reflex is just to grab a pan and split the work. BUT THAT’S NOT THE POINT! It’s easy to cook beautifully using just one knife, one board, one tray and maybe the odd bowl (for prepped ingredients or otherwise). So those things, plus a timer of some sort, are all you will need for these recipes.

First up is Chicken, Saffron and Carrot Rice. This recipe is heavily inspired by one of my all time favourite rice dishes, Persian Havij Polo. Sweet carrots, soft onions, spiced meat and fragrant saffron all come together in harmony with perfectly fluffy rice. It’s normally cooked in a pan to get a thick, golden crust or tahdig which I do recommend giving a go, but this tray bake version is wonderful, slightly simpler and a great way to feed a crowd. I’ve included a note at the end on how to make this veggie/vegan.

Then we have Poached Trout with Potatoes, Fennel and Olive Salsa. Oven poaching is a sublime way to cook fish as it is very low-risk, high-reward. In fact we are basically poaching the whole lot here, ending with beautifully brothy and light potatoes and fennel, expertly cooked trout and a delicious fresh salsa of chopped olives and dill to brighten.

Finally we have a great one tray dish for creamy comfort - Broccoli, Gorgonzola and Butterbean Gratin. Broccoli is softly steamed in the oven and mashed, combined with cream, plenty of gorgonzola and rich butterbeans. Baked until golden on top with breadcrumbs, this is such a soothing, savoury dish and glorious for these freezing winter evenings.

Time to get the oven on!

CHICKEN, SAFFRON AND CARROT RICE

There are two rules to follow when cooking basmati rice or long grain rice, that always