I don’t drown the traybake in oil from the bottle neck — a spoon is enough

The tray is already hot — and the hand reaches for the bottle neck “just a bit for the crust”. Easy to pour: by the table the vegetables shine in a lake, they smell of oil more than of carrot. I pour a spoon, toss the pieces with my hands — so they gleam thinly, they don’t swim.

I don’t drown the traybake in oil from the bottle neck — a spoon is enough. Oil when a spoon is plenty is another note; one layer on the tin its own; oil in the dark cupboard another story. Here it’s the autumn tray itself: a spoon, hands, a thin shine — not a diet and not “a lake for crunch”.

If the pieces are already in a puddle — I tip the excess onto a cloth, not “ten more minutes like this tastes better”. I don’t grease the tray with a layer “just in case” on top of the veg. I’m not shopping for a new olive bottle with a review in this note — it’s about the spoon on today’s tray.

I don’t need a tray that smells only of oil. I need a crust from heat and salt from which the hand takes carrot without shame. At yours does the tray gleam with a spoon — or already with a lake from the neck?