Paleo Crabcakes Benedict

For this month's Daring Cook's challenge, we are supposed to poach an egg.  I just recently warmed up to the idea of having a poached egg.  I was never particularly a fan of egg yolks, but in the last few years, I've started really like them :)  I decided to make one of my favorite types of dishes, crabcakes benedict.  Basically, it's your typical eggs benedict with a Maryland twist.  You have an english muffin, then instead of Canadian bacon, you use a crabcake.  Then, you add a bit of Old Bay to the hollandaise sauce.  Since an English muffin isn't exactly paleo and I'm trying to be good, I just served my own rendition:

Crabcakes Benedict

* 1/2 lb of crabmeat (lump crabmeat is the best)

* 2 cloves garlic

* 1 tbs Old Bay

* 3 egg yolks

*1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard

* 1 tablespoon lemon juice

*1/2 cup butter

I've made hollandaise sauce before... wait, let me revise that... I've attempted to make hollandaise sauce before.  This time, just like last time, it's turned out less than ideal, but I think it's because I don't really have the patience to have it turn out well.  The other part to that is the fact that I never really read the directions well enough to follow them.  I think that next time I attempt to make this, I'll really follow the directions the right way because hollandaise sauce is delicious!

 

Basically, I melted butter in a double boiler.  Then, I think I was supposed to add in the egg yolks and stir until they are cooked (will turn a light yellow color).  Then you add in the lemon juice and then Old Bay for flavoring.  However, I think I added in the lemon juice first and when I added in the egg, it didn't turn out as smoothly as it should.   Anyway, it was edible and actually kinda tasty, it just had little chunks of egg yolks that didn't really incorporate into the sauce, but oh well!

  

Next, I added a bit of butter to a pan and added in the minced garlic.  Once the garlic started to soften, I added in the crabmeat.  I generously seasoned the crab with Old Bay.  Hey, I'm from Northern Va and I LOVE Old Bay on anything, so the more the merrier!  I let everything cook up and get nice and tasty.  If I had more time, I would have actually attempted to make a crabcake, like it is traditionally served, but seasoned and cooked crab works just as well for me!

 

While the crab was cooking, I heated up some water in a pot.  You are supposed to add some vinegar to the water to help keep the egg together (I think).  I made this when we were in Myrtle beach and I didn't feel like running to the store to buy an entire bottle of vinegar for a few poached eggs.  I decided to chance it and just use regular water. 

I cracked the eggs, one at a time into a small bowl.  If you do this, you can pour the egg into the boiling water more gently, which is the goal, because you don't want to break the egg up  too much.  Slowly, I poured the whole egg into the simmering water.

 It dropped in and immediately, the egg white spread out making it look kinda like a ghost or something.  I started to get nervous because I thought that it might not stick together and just turn into a semi solid eggish mess.

Fortunately, the egg just kept gently rolling around in circles in the water and I think that helped to get the egg white to stick together again.  After a few minutes, I gently scooped it out with a slotted spoon and rested it on the crab mixture.  They looked surprisingly like poached eggs!

I then drizzled a little bit of my hollandaisy sauce on top of it, sprinkled some more Old Bay on it (for good measure) and served it with a few strips of bacon. 

This turned out to be an AMAZING breakfast!  I loved it!  The crab was seasoned well and had a lot of flavor.  The eggs were cooked perfectly.  When I cut into them, the yolk ran all over the crab and gave it a nice rich flavor.  The hollandaise sauce could stand for some improvement, but we've talked about that before...

 

I'm definitely going to have to try this again at some point.  I think I'm going to try making it with sauteed spinach and maybe some regular bacon, as I'm not a huge fan of Canadian bacon.  The combination just sounds really yummy to me. 

Overall, I'm really glad that I was able to complete this challenge.  I'd always thought that it would be really tough to poach an egg, but I've been pleasantly surprised!