When I was a child, every Sunday my entire family—including my mom and dad, my dad's two brothers, their wives, and all ten grandkids—went to a tiny, one-room-wide row home in downtown Baltimore. My grandmother, who was a great home cook, always had a huge feast laid out upon our arrival, and it inevitably included my very favorite dish she made: crab cake eggs Benedict. The house hadn't been redecorated since the 1960s, and was decorated with brown and tan shag carpets, a powder blue couch and loveseat set, and a giant tube TV that still had rabbit ears. In the summers, we rented houses on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, took my uncles' boats out into the bay, and fished for crab all day long. Grandma always picked the crabs like a pro and turned them into those exceptional crab cakes. Serving that very same recipe at midtown Manhattan's David Burke fabrick reminds me every day that we are all family. Every customer that walks into our small dining room gets treated the same way my grandmother treated all of us on those cozy Sunday afternoons and warm summer evenings.Crab Cake BenedictIngredients

Recipe by Extra Crispy

Gallery

Credit: All photos by Teresa Sabga

Recipe Summary

total:
1 hr 30 mins
Yield:
7 servings (2 crab cakes per person)
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Ingredients

For the crab cakes
For the garlicky spinach
For the poached eggs

Directions

Instructions Checklist
  • Make the crab cakes. Mix the first seven ingredients from mayonnaise to eggs together. Slowly fold in the crab meat, trying not to break up the meat as much as possible. Portion out the crab cake batter to form 14 balls, each about ½ inch in diameter.

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  • Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat and spray with nonstick spray. Gently place crab cakes in the pan and cook for about 3 minutes on each side, or until brown and crisp.

  • Sauté some spinach. In a separate pan, sauté garlic over medium heat with extra virgin olive oil. Add in baby spinach and cook until wilted and all the water has evaporated.

  • Poach a few eggs. In a 2 quart sauce pot over high heat, bring 6 cups of water to just under a boil with 1 tablespoon of white vinegar. Swirl the water and gently drop in your eggs. Poach until the white has just set and the yolk is still runny.

  • Assemble the crab cake Benedict. Build your Benedict starting with the crab cake, then the garlicky spinach, poached egg, and top with your favorite Hollandaise recipe.

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