Tater Tops
Hash Brown-Crusted Lump Crabcake
Sunny-Side Up Egg over Grilled Asparagus
For other than the usual reasons, the idea of making crabcakes have been knocking around my head for at least a couple of weeks. And it seemed I was waiting until I could resolve spending over twenty bucks on a container of lump crab just to make a little "nosh".
But in Fairway today, I noticed — possibly for the first time — that they had the supermarket made own premium lump meat crabcakes, and the special price this morning was 2-for-$8.
I only bought the one crabcake, and not remembering what was the most recent recipe idea I had for crabcakes, I decided on the fly that I was going to crust them with hash browns before pan-frying them. (Wholly possible I came up with that idea because of the early hour and I was thinking breakfast.)
So when I got home, I broke apart the market's pre-formed patty, tasting just a pinch of it to decide how else I would custom season it — if it needed.
It did need (at least for my tastes), so I added some minced garlic and chopped chives, reformed into an inch-thick patty, brushed the top and bottom with whisked egg, and hand-pressed grated potato (with the extra moisture squeezed out) to where the egg would help it stick.
As I fried the crabcake in a hot pan with olive (about 4 minutes per side), I grilled some asparagus leftover (from last night's asparagus risotto dish) in another pan for the two minutes it takes to get that rich, leafy green color, then removed them to fry an egg sunny side up in the same pan.
The crabcake — once quickly relieved of its excess oil on a paper towel — went on a plate, was dusted with smoked paprika, and was joined by the grilled asparagus topped off with the sunny-side up egg and some remaining chopped chives.
The hash browns crisped up perfectly on both sides of the crabcake, giving depth, added flavor, and textural balance to the sweet, plump, and still juicy lump crab meat. The minced garlic's natural sweetness, when heated through, helped highlight the crab's any sweetness, and the chives elevated the aromatics.
And, yes, the runny, silky warm egg yolk not only glorified the snappy, earthy asparagus, but made an unctuous dipping sauce for forkfuls of the crabcake as well.
(Even better was hitting both the crabcake and the egg with just a little bit of our own Pop Sauce!)
Grateful to make such a delicious crabcake dish that it made me forget all the other ideas I may have had for them.
