Betty Hosts A Brunch

Brunch or breakfast seems to be one of the more difficult meals to prepare for guests. Perhaps because the ingredients need such precise timing.
We recently had friends over for brunch and with some pre-planning, everything got on the table perfectly cooked.

The menu consisted of Eggs Benedict, with a crab cake in place of the usual Canadian bacon, spinach salad, a choice of juices, coffee and cake.

To pull this off, I started the day before.

1. Set the table and arrange flowers.
2. Poach eggs. Yes, you can do these a day ahead. Simply drop them in a bowl of ice water the minute they are cooked and refrigerate.
3. Prepare and cook crab cakes. I broiled them on a sheet pan, cooled and covered them and refrigerated.
4. Slice English muffins.
5. Separate egg yolks for Hollandaise sauce. (Freeze whites for another use.)
6. Squeeze lemon juice, add water, cover and refrigerate.
7. Clean and stem spinach.
8. Slice mushrooms.
9. Prepare salad dressing.
10. Take a nap!

The morning of the brunch, it was a simple matter to make coffee, toast the muffins, reheat the crab cakes and eggs, toss the salad, pour juice, and make the Hollandaise just before our guests were expected.
Dessert was easy - my sister brought it!

Recipes for the crab cakes, spinach salad, and Hollandaise are all here on the website together with how to perfectly poach eggs.

CHESAPEAKE BAY CRAB CAKES

When we lived in Virginia Beach on an inlet from the Chesapeake Bay, we could - and did - catch blue crabs right off our dock. While they made great eating just boiled with Old Bay seasoning, they were even better made into crab cakes. I mean real crab cakes with lots of lump crab meat and very little else. Here's my recipe:


1lb. backfin crabmeat
4 tablespoons fine, dry breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
I cup mayonnaise
I teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce
4 tablespoons red pepper, finely chopped and sautéed in 1
tablespoon butter until softened
1 tablespoon lemon juice
6 drops Tabasco, or to taste
1 ½ teaspoons Old Bay seasoning

1 to 1½ cups Panko bread crumbs

Oil for frying

In a medium sized bowl, combine the breadcrumbs, parsley, mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce, red pepper, lemon juice, Tabasco and Old Bay and then fold the crabmeat in gently.

Dip in Panko

.
Form into 6 cakes and fry for about 5 minutes on each side or until nicely browned. You may also make these an hors d'ouevre by using just 2 tablespoons of the mixture per cake.

(Leftovers reheat beautifully and they can be frozen)

Rick and I in our front Williamsburg style garden

Our dock where we caught crabs with a chicken baited line

Watch the video demonstration: