Darina Allen: Family-friendly traybake recipes to make dinner time a doddle

A roast chicken dinner, one panfish and a chickpea braise that everyone will adore 

Baked Plaice, Turbot or Brill with Potatoes, Fennel and Herb Butter (Kyle Books)

We're all determined not to waste a second of this outdoor Summer (while still being super careful) — and certainly even those of us who love to cook don't want to spend any longer than necessary 'over a hot stove' or for that matter over a sink full of washing up.
So here's the plan, let's confine our meals to one roasting tin and perhaps a bowl of crunchy lettuces, salad leaves and soft herbs. Once you get on the ‘one tray’ track, it's like a game. It's amazing what combinations you can conjure up — a whole meal on just one roasting tin.

So this week, I've got something for everyone — meat and fish lovers, vegetarians, vegans. And all the recipes are substantial enough to feed a family.

Baked Plaice, Turbot or Brill with potatoes, fennel and herb butter

recipe by:Darina Allen

This very simple 'master recipe' for flat fish is delicious served with hollandaise sauce, mousseline or beurre blanc in place of the herb butter

Servings

2

Preparation Time

 20 mins

Cooking Time

 22 mins

Total Time

 42 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 450g potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

• 175g onions, thinly sliced

• ½ fennel bulb, very thinly sliced

• extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling

• 1 x 1-1.75kg fresh plaice, turbot, brill or other flat fish on the bone

• flaky sea salt

• freshly ground black pepper

• For the herb butter:

• 110g butter, softened

• 4 tsp finely chopped mixed herbs (flat-leaf parsley, chives, fennel and thyme leaves)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 250°C.

2. Toss together the thinly sliced potatoes, onions and fennel in a bowl. Drizzle lightly with extra virgin olive oil, season with salt and spread evenly on an approx. 30 x 50cm baking tray. Bake for 5 minutes while you prepare the fish.

3. Turn the fish on its side and remove the head if you wish; I prefer to leave the fish whole. Wash the fish and clean the slit by the head very thoroughly. Using a sharp knife, cut through the skin right around the fish, just where the ‘fringe’ meets the flesh. Be careful to cut neatly and to cross the side cuts at the tail or it will be difficult to remove the skin later on.

4. Season both sides of the fish with salt and pepper and lay on top of the partly cooked vegetables. Bake for 17–20 minutes until the vegetables are tender and the fish is cooked. To check if the fish is cooked, lift the flesh from the bone at the head: once it is ready, it should lift off the bone easily and be quite white with no traces of pink.

5. To make the herb butter, mix the softened butter in a little bowl with the herbs.

6. Just before you are about to serve, catch the skin down near the tail of the fish and pull it off gently (the skin will tear badly if it hasn’t been properly cut). Bring to the table and serve from the dish or lift the two fillets onto a hot plate and coat with the herb butter. Raise the tail and carefully lift the bone off the remainder of the fish. Break at the head and put aside. Carefully lift the remaining two fillets onto the plate. Coat with the herb butter and surround with the potatoes, onions and fennel, which should be deliciously charred at the edges. Serve immediately.