Karen Wright: ​Mouthwatering blast from the past sensational one tray meal

Do you remember the television programme called Ready Steady Cook?​ I used to love watching it, I love all food related programmes but the concept of that one was quite different at the time.
karen Wight presents Ready Steady Cook style Traybakekaren Wight presents Ready Steady Cook style Traybake
karen Wight presents Ready Steady Cook style Traybake

The idea was that contestants were paired with a TV chef and they were challenged to make a dish with a few very random ingredients. The audience voted for either the red tomato team or the green pepper team.

It was a bit like that in my kitchen last Saturday evening. I had planned to make a steak and chips dinner with portobello mushrooms on the side.

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I got the steak out of the fridge intending to marinade it in something and allow it to come to room temperature, which always helps to ensure a tender steak.

Lo and behold, I had bought braising steak by mistake and that takes a good few hours to cook.

I stood and pondered a few minutes and considered my options. The steak went back into the fridge and out came a humble pack of sausages. I just didn’t fancy good old bangers and mash or sausage beans and chips, I wanted minimum prep and maximum taste.

I made a traybake! It was tremendous, it looked beautiful and tasted sensational. I used what I could find in the fridge.

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This amounted to a couple of red peppers, mushrooms, carrots, a leek and a parsnip. From the vegetable rack I used garlic, onion and potatoes. I also decided to add a twist in the form of slices of brie topped with slivers of fresh honeycomb. I made a glaze using runny honey, Dijon mustard and balsamic vinegar.

This is what I did. I popped the oven on to heat up to 180c. I scrubbed the potatoes, parsnip and carrots and chopped them up along with the peppers, leek, onion and garlic.

I put a couple of tablespoons of oil in the oven tray and tossed everything except the mushrooms, brie and honeycomb into it. I added the sausages and I whisked together the honey, mustard and vinegar and poured it over everything.

I seasoned with salt and pepper and put the tray into the oven for about forty minutes.

Then I popped the mushrooms, topped with brie and honeycomb on the top and cooked until the mushroom had wilted and the cheese had melted, Oh my, it was such a treat!

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