Making Life Easier At Christmas

The AGA Portmeirion Full Size Baking Tray

 

Christmas is all about sharing and hospitality for family and friends, a chance to catch up and celebrate.  Planning the Christmas meal and festive get-togethers entails larger quantities of food and of course having larger items of cookware and serving dishes to cater for the numbers.

 

Part of the new range of AGA Portmeirion range is the Full Size Baking Tray, a serious bit of kit.  It is the depth of the AGA cast iron oven and can be used on the floor of the oven or slid onto the runners.  Not only can it be used for cooking it is freezer and dishwasher safe and makes a super serving dish for canapés and nibbles as well as the turkey, salmon, gammon or roast beef centre piece.

 

 

                   Great serving platter for filo pastry triangles                                                    Excellent size for the turkey and roasties

 

I use the Full Size Baking Tray for making my parsnips in pancetta with thyme, it easily copes with a kilo of these wonderfully sweet wintertime vegetables and the quantity of parsnips serves eight to ten people as a side dish to accompany the turkey.  Moreover it is easy to wash up and the ceramic surface is scratch resistant so it keeps its shiny good looks.  The parsnips should be golden when cooked, not over browned, so a ceramic dish is ideal to achieve my desired colour.

 

PARSNIPS IN PANCETTA WITH THYME

A delicious vegetable ‘side’, to complement turkey or gammon.

Serves 8-10

 

1 x AGA Portmeirion Full Size Baking Tray

 

1kg (2.2 lb) parsnips, peeled and cut into wedges

3 tbsp rape seed oil

2 tsp fresh thyme leaves

12 slices pancetta (1 pack)

Salt and black pepper

 

Method

Blanch the parsnips for 2 minutes and quickly cool in iced water.  Dry in a clean tea towel or kitchen paper.

 

Mix the oil and thyme leaves together in a large bowl then tip in the parsnips and mix together.  Pour any excess oil onto the Portmeirion baking tray.  Cut the pancetta slices in half and wrap around the parsnips (leave a few parsnips unwrapped if you like).  Arrange the parsnips onto the baking tray.

 

2, 3, 4, and 5 oven AGA:  Slide the baking tray onto the floor of the Roasting Oven (AGA Total Control, AGA60 and AGA er3 Series use the floor grid) and cook for 15 minutes.  Turn the parsnips over and return to the oven to cook for a further 15-20 minutes until the parsnips are golden and the pancetta is crisp.

 

 

                                                       Ingredients                                                                                                       Finished result

 

These parsnips reheat well the day after, just place on a tray and slide into the centre of the Roasting Oven for 10 minutes.

 

Dawn Roads

AGA Specialist

 

Explore more of our Christmas recipes here