Wonderful Wednesday

… or is it mid week misery!

I mentioned in “Your Autumn Arsenal” that we are all creatures of habit and consequently food becomes boring – we tend to stick with what we know and the rest, as they say, is history and we've reached for the takeaway menus.

On the menu for Wednesday is Smoked chicken with potato cakes using your chicken fillets smoked on Sunday together with your leftover mashed potato. It couldn't get more boring if it tried so here's my plan.

You have choices depending on how much time and energy you have but none of what I'm about to suggest takes a large chunk out of your evening.

If you like food without a sauce, then you can re-heat your smoked chicken – wrapped tightly in foil and placed on a baking tray - in a pre-heated oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6 for 15 minutes. Whilst your chicken is in the oven tip your leftover mashed potato into a mixing bowl. Add some finely sliced spring onions and a couple of handfuls from your grated cheese stash, season with salt and black pepper and mix well. Divide into equal portions, mould into balls, flour lightly and then flatten into a potato cake and dry fry in a non stick frying pan, turning until golden brown on both sides. The potato cakes will be ready when the chicken is.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record you could delve into your raw slaw stash and add a couple of handfuls of grated cheese too – serve as is without any dressing – season to taste – add a glug of sweet chilli sauce just before serving – you'll still retain the crunch from the raw slaw and a nice hit from the sweet chill sauce.

Two other alternatives using leftover mashed potatoes are the Colcannon or Pea and Spring Onion Champ (The humble spud and The humble spud – take 2).

If you prefer a sauce with your meal then the fastest and tastiest has to be Alfredo (the recipe is on the blog) - submerge your already poached chicken fillets in the sauce to warm through.

If you find you have more time and can be bothered mid-week you can use one of the chicken recipes in Your Autumn Arsenal – nothing is set in stone – all of this is meant to trigger ideas of your own, tailored to your families' likes and dislikes.

P.s. I should apologise in that I didn't make it clear in “Sunday multitasking continued” - “Whilst you're at it” “Smoke” 4 chicken fillets - that the chicken fillets should be fridged when they have cooled.

May be not so boring!