More Proof

WTH? Salmon with bacon?  Who ever heard of such a combo?  Certainly, not me, until this week when I had a single rasher of cooked bacon left from a previous meal. Not enough for a BLT. Hardly worth putting into scrambled eggs. Insufficient for bacon bits on a salad, or for sprinkling on a baked potato. But entirely too precious to waste.


As I got the salmon for our dinner out of the fridge, I spied that lone piece of bacon and thought, "Well, now, that might be interesting. What the hell!"


So, I put a little water, just a few tablespoons, into a heavy-bottomed pan, added the chopped bacon to render a little of its flavor into the water, then topped the bacon pieces with the salmon, skin side down, and covered it to bacon-steam for a few minutes. I have found that after a few minutes in the water, I can flip the salmon and easily remove the skin and the dark flesh with a spatula.


After a few more minutes, the fish was separating easily along the muscle lines but still slightly pink-orange inside - time to remove to plates and let it finish cooking with the residual heat in the fillet. While it rested, I turned up the heat under the pan to reduce the salmon-bacon water to a light sauce, then poured that and the bacon bits over the salmon. 


We inhaled that salmon. It was lightly smoky and salty from the bacon, but still wonderfully salmony as well, not overpowered by the small amount of bacon in the pan and sauce. We looked at each other and said, "More proof that everything is better with bacon."


Cora agreed as she licked the plates.