Crab Cake Benedict

The abundance of seafood is one of the reasons I love summer. I wrote about it a few times already. There’s nothing like eating seafood on a sunny day with a cold beverage.

While I’m an equal opportunity crab lover, Dungeness is a favorite. Dungeness crabs are meatier and sweeter than other types of crab. I’m so spoiled that Dungeness are found all along the west coast of North America. This means that all my crab is locally sourced and often farm to table. Recreational Dungeness crab fishing ends at the end of this July this year in California. I went crabbing once as a kid with my uncles. I found it so boring but it did give me a better appreciation of how seafood was caught. So if you’re going crabbing and come home with all this Dungeness crab and no idea what to make, this recipe is for you!

h i s t o r y   o f   e g g s   b e n e d i c t

Like many American dishes, there are several theories on the origin of eggs Benedict. We can confirm that it came from New York City though. Several NYC restaurants and hotels take credit for the creation of this dish citing different backstories. Whatever the reason is, the dish is the same: an open faced sandwich made of an English muffin topped with a poached egg, hollandaise sauce, and ham. Eggs Benedict are most popular during brunch and I have a severe weakness for them. I think the combination of ingredients makes it a full package breakfast.

As with other popular dishes, there are many variations of the eggs Benedict. Chefs and cooks create their own specialties depending on region and seasonal ingredients. For instance, the California eggs Benedict includes avocado instead of ham and eggs Florentine has spinach. I look forward to the crab cake Benedict.

c r a b   c a k e

If you haven’t had a crab cake, I highly recommend it. It’s a very simple dish made of crab meat, bread crumbs, and some other seasonings. My main gripe about restaurant crab cakes is that they tend to break up the crab meat. I want to be able to bite into chunks of crab meat! So I find making crab cakes at home much more satisfying.

Does this mean you need to spend hours cracking crabs? NO WAY! Many local grocery stores and fisheries sell crab meat by the pint. This is where Dungeness crab reigns supreme. Because of the meat texture, Dungeness crab cakes are always the meatiest and most satisfying to eat. If you’re in Bay Area, New England Lobster Market has prepackaged Dungeness crab meat available to pick up! And if you’re feeling a bit extra, you can order some lobster tails to top off your crab cake Benedict (omg, I’m drooling).

For my crab cake, I add as few ingredients possible to keep the integrity of the crab whole. I only use as much panko and egg possible to bind without it weighing down the cake. Give it a try and let me know what you think!

h o l l a n d a i s e   s a u c e

Hollandaise sauce is a crucial component to any eggs Benedict dish. It’s the velvety, creamy, and tart sauce that keeps you coming back. The sauce can be tricky to make but I use a bit of a cheat at home. I use an immersion blender to make my sauce fast and easy. You may have heard of “the sauce breaking” before. The term breaking means that the fats have split from each other because they weren’t whisked together properly.

Hand whisking over a double boiler is the traditional way of making Hollandaise. But that takes so much time and arm strength. I also feel too many things can go wrong with the temperature being too hot or too cold. So I skip the double boiler and go straight to blending. With modern technology, blender blades spin fast enough to generate a bit of heat from friction to help emulsify the sauce all on its own.

Have fun celebrating summer and brunch with this bright and filling recipe!