Sunday Brunch

Crabcake Eggs Benedict with homemade English Muffins

When Josh and I started dating, I was still living in the city. Josh was living in the suburbs so we would miss each other during the week and he would come see me straight after work on Fridays. Our weekends usually consisted of going out to eat brunch and dinner, a lot of napping and a cocktail or two. We tried just about every restaurant in the city. We are talking about 2 dinners and 2 brunches during the weekend so we went to a lot of places (Josh spent big bucks on me, he loves me very much). Josh’s favorite meal is brunch and he would always order ham and cheese omelet with well done hash browns and literally a pot of coffee. I was not a big brunch person.  I would usually get a soup and a sandwich.  But the more we went to brunch the more I enjoyed breakfast food at lunch time. What is not to love about brunch?  You get up when you want to get up and you start a lazy day with a meal around 11.  That's not acutally true because I am an early riser so Josh would wake to me whining about how hungry I was around 7 or 8 in the morning.  We would finally head out of the house around 9.  At first I tried something different everywhere we went but after I tried an Eggs Benedict I seemed to order it everytime after that. Some places were better than others and I tried every kind of Eggs Benedict from southern to vegetarian to Florentine to your basic. Why do I love Eggs Benedict so much? Let me count the ways. It’s a perfect breakfast sandwich with a sauce! You can get all kinds of veggies on it! The yolk runs down the side when you cut into the eggs! It contains all the food groups, protein, veggies, whole grain and sauce!

I’ve tried making Eggs Benedict at home once and it was not a huge success. The hollandaise sauce wasn’t great, I couldn’t get the eggs poached just right and I used store bought English muffins. I changed up a few things this time and I must say I outdid myself!  So here are the things I did differently this time.  I used Ina Garten's Hollandaise sauce you make in a blender, I made my own English muffins, I used crabcakes as the protein and I pan fried my eggs over easy instead of poaching it.  There is no wrong way if that's the way you like it!

Crabcake Eggs Benedict with homemade
English Muffins

English Muffins:

1 Cup Milk

2 tablespoon sugar

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast

1 cup warm water

1/4 cup melted shortening

6 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

Heat milk until it is luke warm. Place warm milk, warm water, sugar, and dry yeast in a bowl and let it sit for 10-15minutes. Add 3 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon of salt and melted shortening to food processor. Start processing and add milk mixture. Add the remaining flour and process until ball is formed. Let dough rest for 30 minutes in a warm place.

Place rested dough on a floured surface and roll out to about 1/2" to 3/4" thick and cut out 4" diameter rounds. Heat pan with canola oil and butter and pan fry dough on low heat until golden brown.

Ina Garten's Hollandaise sauce in blender:

1 1/2 sticks melted butter

4 large egg yolks at room temperature

3 tablespoon lemon juice

salt, pepper and cayenne pepper to taste

Place eggs, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper in blender and start mixing. Slowly add melted butter.

Crabcakes:

1 1/2 cups panko crispy bread crumbs

1 cup mayonnaise

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

1 tablespoon finely chopped chives ( garnish)

2 tablespoons chopped red pepper (save some for garnish)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Hot sauce to taste

2 egg yolks

1 lb lump crabmeat

1 extra cup panko crispy bread crumbs

2 tablespoons melted butter

1 1/2 teaspoons seafood seasoning

Add all ingredients together except extra panko bread crumbs and mix in bowl. Form into a ball and dredge crabcake in extra panko bread crumbs. Heat pan with canola oil and cook until golden brown.

Assembly:

Place English Muffin on bottom, then crabcake, a few arugula leaves for freshness, sunny side up eggs, top with Hollandaise sauce, chives and red pepper.