Eating economically with Bacon Bits

I am very fond of bacon and have discovered the perfect compromise between quality and economy - packs of bacon bits from Coventry Market. You can buy 800gms for £1.50 - that's a lot of bacon - and it's good quality, so no crappy white saline/fat oozing out whilst it's frying. You may get rashers you may get odd chunks - luck of the drawer - but if you're flexible it's the most economical way to eat bacon.

Available from the butchers nearest to the cafe.

Coventry Market: making sense of shopping

As anyone who knows me will testify, I'm a bit of a fan of shopping locally in general and of Coventry Market in particular. I think market shopping is more fun than trawling around a supermarket, but it's also a lot cheaper. Partly that's because, unless you're more disciplined than I am, it's very difficult to buy only what you need at a supermarket   - but mostly because it's much, much cheaper. 

Today I spent around £12.50 and bought:

0.8 kg bacon

Pork hock

0.5 kg ox liver

Filet of natural smoked haddock 

Cabbage

1.5kg potatoes

3 punnets strawberries

13 apples

6 large tomatoes 

Bag of white onions

2 bunches of spring onions

I compared the prices of the apples, bananas, strawberries, tomatoes, spring onions and bacon to Tesco Online (before getting bored) and, for their cheapest items, I'd have paid £12.97 rather than the fiver that they cost me at the Market. 

This is hardly a scientific survey - and I got a great deal on the strawberries and spring onions, but I think it's pretty compelling. 

Shop at the market!!

Cajun Blackened Coley Steaks

A key theme of this blog is great food for those on small budgets and when it comes to fish there are some tasty options if we steer clear of the obvious. 

The finest fish in Coventry can be found in the Market - the natural home of the budget-conscious foodie. I asked Clive Miller, a fabulously knowledgeable fishmonger and supplier to Blue Bistro, what he'd recommend based on price and taste and he didn't hesitate: coley steaks. 

Coley is, despite the efforts of many great chefs, seen as a poor-mans cod. Well, great - if ignorance keeps this tasty fish in our price range. 

Clive, whose knowledge of how to cook fish is second to none, recommended a Thai curry. Delicious as this sounded I didn't have all the ingredients I needed.  So, keen to stick to my budget but with my taste buds tuned to spicy, I went over to the Nut Stall on a mission. 

If you don't know already, the Nut Stall has a great selection of spices and dried herbs, including exactly what I was looking for: a Cajun spice mix. Of course, I could produce a Cajun spice mix myself, but I'd be a muppet to design a dish on a budget that requires eight ingredients just for the flavouring. Their excellent Cajun mix cost just 60p and will be used for all sorts of delicious treats. 

Ingredients

Coley steaks

A good knob of butter

Three garlic cloves

Cajun spice mix

Melt the butter in a pan. Crush the garlic cloves and add them to the butter. Give it a minute or so to infuse the flavour of the garlic. 

Coat the steaks in the garlicky butter. This provides a deliciously sticky base for the Cajun spice - which you should apply liberally. I used a frying pan, but a griddle would do the trick. I reckon about 3 minutes on each side. The fish should be, as the title says, blackened. 

I dressed the fish with roasted sweet red peppers and served with a curry fried rice, a variety of which will be featured on the blog soon.  If I'd not run out of potatoes I'd probably have been tempted by smoked paprika roast potatoes as an alternative. 

The fish was delicious - we'll be seeing more Coley in the blog before too long.