Frying cheap bacon

I don't know why they do it but supermarkets insist on watering down their economy bacon. There is so much water that they all seem to recommend grilling the stuff.

I like my bacon fried because I like the fat. But when you 'fry' it it is more like stewing it. What is the answer? Just put a little oil in the non stick pan and fry until the water is extruded from the bacon. There is quite a lot. Pour the mixture of water and fat away [and the horrid white gunge that comes with it] and start again with a little oil.

Now the bacon is more or less the real thing and it cooks the way it ought to before the food scientists got to it.

Pommes de terre sautées à la Lyonnaise [not quite]

Tamasin Day-Lewis explains how to do the real thing in the Sunday Telegraph but my version seemed to work quite well.

Take enough potatoes, peel them, boil them until they are cooked but don't fall apart when you cut them up into as near as you can make cubes.

Fry them in fat until they are golden brown turning them carefully. You can use bacon fat, goose fat , dripping or butter. I did two portions using bacon fat in the first and olive oil in the second.

At the same time slice an onion very thinly and fry separately. This is where a sharp knife is absolutely vital. When the onion is cooked finish off in the pan with the potatoes.

Salt and pepper to taste.

You should use heavy bottomed frying pans but if you don't have them don't worry.

Côtes du Rhône now relegated to also rans

£2.77 at ASDA*. How the mighty have the fallen. And it doesn’t taste bad. It has been boosted up to 13%. It’s a blend of Grenache, Syrah and Cinsault and other grape varieties.

On the shelves medium price Australian wines seem to have collared the market. Certainly that was what I was buying. I only went for the Côtes du Rhône because it was cheap.

*ASDA is a British supermarket chain.