Recipe: Crab Cakes Benedicts | I just want 2 eat

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Recipe: Crab Cakes Benedicts

I discovered crab cakes in this country. Well, the first time I tried them, it was at the cafeteria at work and I did not like it (wondering why???). I then tried few years later at Del Frisco's in New York and it was a revelation! Since then, anytime I can, I have crab cakes. The issue with them is that a lot of restaurants put too much bread crumbs and you cannot taste the crab. I tried to make some few months back at the French Culinary Institute (Sunday Brunch with Dave Martin) and decided to make them again, but changed the quantity and some ingredients. So, here I am: put to the test! I have to complete three parts of the dish: the crab cakes, the poached egg and the Hollandaise sauce.

Crab cakes:

Ingredients for 8 crab cakes:
- Claw meat (1 lb)
- 1/3 cup orange juice
- 3 to 4 tablespoons of honey
- 1/2 cup of bread crumbs


Mix all the ingredients together and season only with pepper as the crab is salty. The honey is your binding ingredient and replaces mayonnaise. To shape the crab cake, use an egg ring: use you hands to put the crab in the ring and press to remove any excess of juice, otherwise, the crab cake will fall apart (claws are very moist). Cook the crab cake for 4 minutes on each side in olive oil.
Note: if the crab cake falls apart, add one more tablespoon of honey and some breadcrumbs until you reach a satisfactory consistency.

Poached egg:


For an easy way to make a perfect poached egg, check one of my previous posts by clicking here.

Hollandaise sauce:

Ingredients for 2 servings:
- 2 egg yolks
- 1/2 cup butter
- cilantro

In a sauce pan on low heat, melt the butter. Once melted, add the egg yolks, the cilantro, salt and pepper. Whisk energetically so the egg yolks do not cook. Once the sauce is slightly thicker, remove from the stove.

Toast an english muffin, put the crab, then the egg and finally the sauce! It's ready!

So now you want to know what I though about it? Well I made a big mistake going with the crab claws! The claws have a lot of sweetness; this added to the honey makes a too sweet crab cake!

It was good, but not a recipe I would strictly follow and next time I will try the lump crabmeat. Clearly, after doing this, I have more respect for those who are making delicious crab cakes from scratch! Not that easy!


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