Okay, look, I get it. Not everyone likes seafood. Not everyone can eat shellfish. So for you folks? Skip the shellfish and gaze with wonder upon the Benedict department sans seafood- which is far less likely to foul your anchor. For the rest of you… CRABCAKE BENEDICTS!!!
note from the ex-chef author: What’s for Brunch is an allegedly weekly open invitation to anyone who cares to drop by and have a bite, share what they had for breakfast or brunch, chat about recipes and take a deep, calming breath on this, the last day of the week. It’s not going to necessarily be a weekly, but the author’s heart’s in it, and efforts will be made. Oh, and T = tablespoon t = teaspoon # = pound
Let’s take a dive into a delicious, if somewhat decadent, seafood brunch selection, carefully curated by yours truly. Just scroll on past Salty Seafaring Skipper with the Prawn Fascinator.
Once upon a time, in a magical far-away land, there was Brunch. Typically, brunch was not something you ate at home unless you were having an actual party, and you certainly didn’t eat at home, alone! Plus Breakfast Cocktails!!! Ahhh, how the times, they have changed!
These days, we can do pretty much anything we want- any time we want to...so long as it’s at home and it’s marginally legal. So, gather ‘round children, beckon your imaginary friends, and I will guide you to the bonnie shores of Brunch- because all the world is not made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust. A nice portion of the world is made of eggs-n-things on toast with sauce. It’s what God made on the 8th day to reward herself for all her hard work.
What do you think of when you think about decadent brunch treats? One thing I think of is some version of the iconic Eggs Benedict. The rich sauce, the perfectly runny poached eggs and the savory ‘distinguishing flavor’ i.e. ham, seafood, spinach, asparagus, etc. My mouth waters just thinking about it. And nice crunchy toast (of some sort) underneath it all? Perfection!
Unfortunately, the process of making a ‘Bene’ is something most people don’t want to do at home. Too many steps, too many things to mess up. And it doesn’t travel well with you in your car or train to work. Not at all. Sometimes it barely makes it to the table… The yolks can break at the mere touch of water, the sauce can separate and the whole stack can slide right off the plate. Been there. Done that.
I’ll break this down into sections and try to make it easier. You shouldn’t have to wait for the world to come out of quarantine to enjoy this sumptuous treat. After all, even though there are a number of elements and a couple techniques in this one dish they’re not as hard as you think. Okay, let’s turn out and turn to!
Story Time!
A classmate and I drove to NYC from culinary school with with plans to eat dim sum in Chinatown. After that, I wanted to visit an old friend from college (I went to regular college too!). When we arrived, we found that my friend was spelunking somewhere upstate, but her mother’s a great hostess and was happy for the visit. We returned her hospitality by offering to make her a meal- and what did she want? Yup. Eggs Benedict.
Off to Gristede’s grocery (we called it McGreedy’s) where we picked up good bread for toast, eggs, and some thin-sliced sopressata salami instead of Canadian bacon which they did not have. Figured there was lemon in the apartment- of some sort.
Long story short, we made her a new and unique form of ‘Benedict’. She had no lemon(for hollandaise) but had grapefruit. PLUS, she didn’t have a normal whisk. She had a teeny-weeny one you could hang on your key chain… But we did it! We made that eggs ‘benedict’, and it was delicious. I’ll never forget that day— plus successfully making hollandaise with a unnaturally tiny whisk! Oh- and grapefruit hollandaise is amazing.
Section 1:
The Toast. If you’re going to use English muffins, please, please really do toast them. There really isn’t anything worse than an under-toasted English muffin. I often ‘toast’ them in a convection oven dabbed with a little melted butter. They turn out crunchy and golden brown. Crunchy and golden brown are the key words. Using a little butter will ‘seal’ them and keep them from becoming soggy once you’ve broken the eggs. If you can get the last bite to be as gratifying as the first, you’re winning. This is also the reason you spread a little mayo on a tuna, egg or chicken salad sandwich. It prevents the salad from saturating the bread making the bread soggy.
You options are many. Toasted baguette, sliced on the bias for extra surface area is excellent. Biscuits are very good- and hearty, so better for colder months than summer. Rye toast is a nice switch from the usual as is pumpernickel- or swirl (these are really good if you make corned beef hash benedicts- which need no sauce at all, but rely on crispy hash patties for flavor and succulence. I’ve made crunchy skillet corn (bread) cakes which were excellent.
Section 2:
The Flavor. Whatever you choose, just be sure it’s warm. Nothing kills the joy of an egg dish more than chill. So, whether you choose some variety of ham, smoked salmon, cod or *crab or shrimp cakes, grilled fish-of-your-choice, grilled vegetables , sauteed or creamed spinach or ratatouille, they should be warm. As warm as the eggs when they come out of their water-bath.
* recipes will be listed at the end of this post
Section 3:
The Eggs.
Poaching eggs really isn’t a big deal, although scientific cooks would like to make it seem so. Lightly simmering water with a shot of vinegar is the trick (but def. no salt!). If you use too much vinegar, your eggs will taste like...vinegar. So don’t do that. Just a little acid will help to hold the albumen in the whites together. Plus- and this is a really good tip- crack your egg into a small bowl before transferring it to the water. That way you avoid broken yolks and also have a chance to pick out shell bits if there are any.
Poach for 3-4- minutes. Remove egg w/ slotted spoon and trim the weird bits off w/ a paper towel to make it pretty. Carefully turn out onto your toast-and-whatever.
Don’t worry about swirling the water. If you’re poaching more than 1 egg, it’s a ridiculous notion. And don’t BOIL your water. Just let it simmer gently in at least four inches of water.
Poached eggs can be held in the fridge! Just poach as usual, the plunge (gently) into ice water. Hold in that water, covered, in the fridge. To re-heat, place them gently into a pan of boiled water with the heat turned off. Place eggs into water for maybe 30 seconds give or take.
Section 4:
The Hollandaise.
OMG there are so many ways to make this incredible sauce- and some of them actually work! I favor a slightly simplified classic method. Please remember that this is eggs and butter. If you really mess up, it’s not like burning a tenderloin of letting lobsters rot in your fridge.
Hollandaise is one of the ‘mother sauces’ in French cookery. Escoffier was the first to offer measurements and variations for all the mother sauces- and hollandaise has quite a few. So once you’ve mastered the warm emulsion sauce making technique, you can play with it and make it your own. That said, when you start, it’s not a bad idea to pay attention to measurements. If you can eyeball well, it’s not a worry. If you can’t see or feel the difference between a teaspoon and a tablespoon, use a measure spoon until you can. Also, this is a classic sauce, and I treat it with respect, and never subject it to a blender. But you do you if that’s your beat.
For roughly 2 servings (I almost always make more):
heat to a light simmer a sauce pot w/ an inch or so of water
use a (stainless) bowl- larger than the lip of your sauce pan. In it, combine:
2 egg yolks
1 T fresh squeezed lemon juice (have more on hand to adjust at the end)
pinch salt
pinch white pepper (or black if you don't care about the appearance)
1 shake of Tabasco (or cayenne pepper)
a splash of water (I use my hand to 'splash' through running tap water (have more for the end)
8 oz melted butter
Holding the bowl over the pot with a towel*, whisk this mixture hard- incorporating air, and tempering with heat until it’s light in texture and color and barely holds to your whisk. (this is actually easier with more yolks- a larger recipe- but do the best you can without actually cooking/curdling the eggs) Eggs curdle at 150F, so take care with this step. And the fluffier the tempered eggs, the lighter the sauce. Kind of like when you’re making a cake.
*Pot should not touch simmering water!
Remove pot and bowl from heat to a towel-laden countertop where your pot won’t skid and spin around while you whisk (otherwise, employ someone to hold the pot/bowl combo for you).
Starting slowly, begin drizzling in the melted butter, whisking all the time- but not frantically (the hard whisking happened when you were tempering your eggs- above). This slow action introduces the warm fat to the eggs and acid. They’re not natural friends, so take care to introduce them slowly. They’ll be fine.
Keep going steadily.
Adjust the consistency w/ water or lemon juice if it gets too thick, and keep adding melted butter if it’s too thin. NOTE- if you’re using melted butter and not clarified butter, you might be able to squeak by using the liquid (milk solids and water) that remains after you’ve poured off the butterfat.
Taste it! Adjust with lemon juice, lemon zest, salt, pepper, cayenne or Tabasco.
This is when you can add other flavors: Tarragon-vinegar (or just chopped fresh tarragon) reduction for Bearnaise sauce, Chopped fresh dill is great (especially if you make a poached lobster and asparagus ‘benedict’!, tomato paste or roasted tomato puree/sauce (or salsa) for Sauce Charon, SriRacha sauce for whatever you want to call that… You can substitute grapefruit, tangerine, or lime juice for the lemon. Just know you might want to add a little vinegar if the fruit is sweet. Be careful if what you’re adding is a wet, loose mixture. The body of your sauce will reflect that and may not be as appealing. But it’s your baby, and only you know what you want.
Warm emulsion sauces break if there’s a big shift in temperature— or if the yolks have become overwhelmed by the fat. It’s good to hold this sauce in a warm place- but not to warm- like a stove shelf (if there is such a thing anymore), covered. If a skin develops, just gently stir it back into the sauce- it’s not like pudding skin.
The general rule is that 1 yolk can handle 4 ounce of fat. A good ratio to keep in mind if you’re making a batch for a number of people.
* Crab Cakes! (can you read this?!)
Make sure all shell bits have been removed from the crabmeat. Not hard if you just turn out the container into a big bowl and gently rake through it with your fingers. Then, just chuck everything else in and gently mix until you’re sure it’s well combined. I like to let this rest for an hour or so before making into cakes (DO THIS!). I usually make 3oz cakes (or 2oz if using for Benedicts).
Over a bowl coat/press on panko/crunchy bread crumbs (I make my cakes so they resemble a hockey puck, with actual sides- which prevents thin edges from cooking to fast and burning) and place onto a tray or plate. Do this so extra crumbs fall off- and not into the oil.
In a skillet big enough to contain all the cakes without being crowded, heat veg oil and place cakes in. They’ll take about 3-4 minutes per side give or take. Add a knob of butter towards the end for extra richness. Totally optional. Do Not Cover! The idea is to make them golden brown and crunchy on the outside. Not golden black and smoking- and also not soggy. This is expensive stuff. Respect your food. Adjust your heat as necessary.
If you need to cook the cakes in a couple or more batches, be sure to wipe clean your skillet to prevent the crumbs from burning and your oil from becoming too dark.
The combination of the sweet, rich crabmeat, the runny eggs, the tart-but-mellow hollandaise and the crunchy toast is just out of this world. If you make this for yourself, eat it at the table. Play some good music. Close your eyes now and then. Indulge in not only the food you have taken great care to prepare, but also your undistracted moment in time and space. Good food deserves this. And so do you.
Here are a couple of fabulous beverages to complete this festive moment!
First is a perky and alcohol-free ‘Peach-Mint’ (hint-hint!) Lemonade I found on line. It reminds me of the summer drink I used to make on the regular when I was the chef for a very southern destination inn and restaurant. Here you go!
stripedspatula.com/…
And here, my more ‘high-spirited’ friends is the a-mazing Im-PeachMint Mojito (care of cookieandkate.com)!!! Yaaaayyyyy!
INGREDIENTS
Per cocktail
- 1 small, ripe peach, skin removed and sliced
- Small handful fresh mint leaves
- 1 lime, juiced
- 1 ½ ounces white rum (Myer’s is my favorite)
- 1 teaspoon cane sugar or raw (turbinado) sugar
- Club soda
INSTRUCTIONS
- In a mixing glass, thoroughly muddle peach slices, mint, lime juice and sugar.
- Stir the rum into the muddled mixture.
- Fill a collins glass with ice and pour your mixture into the glass. Top it off with club soda.
- Mix by pouring the drink back into your mixing glass, then back into your drinking glass again.
- Cheers!
I Hope you all have had a Very Good week, and that your weekend has been at least somewhat celebratory. It’s been a long, long haul, and there’s always going to be more hard work on Mondays, but for just a little while, bring yourself some joy, call your friends or family— or both! Relax with a delicious plate of food and sip on a tasty drink, and play some music you love- that stirs you. Take a deep breath. Life is what’s happening right now. Not yesterday- nor tomorrow. Take small pleasures without regret or guilt. Share them if you are able- food always tastes better when it’s shared.
What are you (or did you) nosh on this morning? Or are you just getting up and barely addressing the coffee or tea question?? Whatever it is, and wherever you are, welcome! And thanks for stopping by!!