Poached Eggs & Satsuma Hollandaise over Crab Cakes

Breakfast/Brunch

Recipe courtesy of Chef John Besh's A Passionate Plea for Home Cooking: My Family Table

Serves 8

Ingredients: 
Crab Cakes

  • 1 pound crabmeat, picked over
  • 1 cup diced white bread
  • 2⁄3 cup mayonnaise
  • 2 green onions, chopped
  • 2 dashes Tabasco
  • Salt and Freshly ground black pepper
  • 3 cups bread crumbs
  • 1/4 cup canola oil

Hollandaise

  • 1/2 cup satsuma or orange juice
  • 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
  • 1-inch piece of ginger, peeled and crushed
  • 1 shallot, minced
  • 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
  • 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
  • 1 sprig fresh thyme, leaves only
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1/2 lemon juice
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 1 cup hot clarified butter (between 135° and 145°)
  • 1 pinch cayenne pepper
  • Salt
  • Tabasco

Poached Eggs

  • 1 tablespoon white vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 8 eggs

Poached Eggs & Satsuma Hollandaise over Crab Cakes

Poached Eggs & Satsuma Hollandaise over Crab Cakes 

Click image to enlarge

Method: 

1. For the crab cakes, gently mix together the crabmeat, diced bread, mayonnaise, and green onions in a bowl. Season with Tabasco, salt, and pepper. Put the bread crumbs in a shallow bowl. With your hands, gently form the crab mixture into 8 patties and carefully dredge in the bread crumbs.

2. Heat the canola oil in a skillet over medium heat. When the oil is hot, cook the crab cakes, in batches, until golden on both sides. Transfer to a baking sheet. The crab cakes may be cooled and refrigerated, then reheated or kept warm in a 200˚ oven.

3. For the hollandaise, combine the satsuma juice, vinegar, ginger, shallots, peppercorns, coriander, thyme, and bay leaf in a small saucepan over medium heat and boil until the liquid is reduced by half. Strain the reduction into a small bowl (discard the solids), whisk in the lemon juice, and let cool.

4. Pour the satsuma reduction over the egg yolks in a bowl and whisk well. Whisk in 1 tablespoon water. Place the bowl over a pot of simmering water, to make an improvised double boiler. Continue whisking the eggs over the hot water until they thicken and coat the back of a spoon, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat.

5. Place the bowl on a secure surface or have someone hold the bowl as you continue to whisk the yolks while adding a slow, steady stream of hot clarified butter. When all the butter has been added, season with cayenne, salt, and Tabasco, and keep the sauce in a warm place near the stove.

6. Remove the crab cakes from the oven and transfer to a large serving platter.

7. For the poached eggs, combine 2 1⁄2 cups water, the vinegar, and salt in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a barely bubbling simmer. Crack each egg over the pot and gently lower it into the water. You can poach the eggs in batches. Cook the eggs for 3 minutes, remove with a slotted spoon, shaking off the water.

8. Place one poached egg on each crab cake. Drizzle the hollandaise over the top and serve.

—From My Family Table: A Passionate Plea for Home Cooking by John Besh/Andrews McMeel Publishing

Chef's Note: "This dish is much easier than it looks because you can make the crab cakes well in advance, browning them and keeping them on a baking sheet, ready to reheat moments before serving.Which leaves time to focus on the nuances of poaching the perfect egg. The satsuma hollandaise is an adaptation of a sauce called Sauce Maltaise made with blood oranges. Satsumas, our local tangerines, were brought from Japan to Southern Louisiana by the Jesuits in the 18th century. The orchards they planted in nearby Plaquemines Parish thrive to this day. I love satsumas, but any kind of orange juice will work."—Chef John Besh

Louisiana Recipes Weekly



 

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