Seared Halibut with Hot Bacon and Roma Bean Relish – 'Cause That's What I Had

When I bought the halibut you see in this video, the last thing I wanted to use with it was bacon. If I'm not mistaken, every other halibut recipe video I've posted has bacon, and I was determined to do something different.

But there I was, staring into the refrigerator, daylight fading, needing to get the fresh fish cooked, filmed, and on a plate while I still had time. Having recently traveled to New Orleans, the fridge was a barren wasteland, inhabited by little more than a few assorted condiments – oh, and two slices of bacon.

While halibut simply seared in bacon would have certainly made for a decent dinner, the idea wasn't exactly inspiring my inner Tarantino. I really wanted to do something a bit more creative than that.

Then I remembered I hadn't checked my Roma bean vines since returning to San Francisco. I was happy that despite our city's typical gray-icy summer, I was able to harvest a small handful. That's when things got crazy.

Instead cooking the fish in the bacon and serving the beans as a side dish, I decided to try a sort of hot vegetable relish. I figured by slicing the beans thin and cooking them raw in the hot bacon fat I could concentrate that great bittersweet flavor, and turn what was in danger of being a very mundane plate, into something new and exciting.

How exciting? Well, they're just beans, but I loved how this came out. A little lemon was used to make a sort of hot bacon dressing, and together with my gratuitous hot sauce design, the plate came together wonderfully.

Roma beans seem to be in season right now, but I think this would work nicely with regular string beans, or even sugar snap peas. If you want to make this "meat-free," just substitute some diced shiitake mushrooms for the bacon and proceed as shown. Either way, I hope you give this a try. Enjoy!

Note: This isn't a sponsored post, but I was sent a few knives to try by New West Knife Works, including the red-handled beauty in this seafood video. I love the look and feel, but will continue to use and evaluate them before making any kind of formal review. You can check out the New West Knife Works website if you'd like more info. Thanks!

Ingredients for 4 servings:
4 oz bacon, sliced in 1/4-inch pieces
8 oz Roma beans, or other fresh green beans, sliced into 1/8-inch pieces
4 (7-oz) halibut steaks
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Sriracha hot sauce, optional