Well, after what seems like weeks away, endless airports, taxis and train, we’re finally home from our two weeks of gallivanting around Spain! The house is buried under piles of laundry to be done, the camera is glaring at me with thousands of pictures to sort and days of e-mail to catch up on, we’re home! I’ve posted a quick preliminary write-up on our two weeks in Spain which you can read here.
A Byte of Life featured as the Blog of the day on Foodista
BUT, the point of this particular post is to announce that A Byte of Life was featured as the Blog of the Day over at Foodista last Thursday! I didn’t have time to write a post in time since that was our 20 hour travel day home but I was HONORED to be included as a featured blog! Foodista is great for recipes, pictures, community and inspiration! You can also follow them on Facebook.
Living so close to Pike Place Market truly does spoil us. Brunch, being one of my favorite meals to cook and eat, has recently become a fun tradition to try new recipes and variations on the good old favorites. We decided to do a seafood brunch Sunday morning so down to the market I went only to returned with fresh AMAZING crab from the Pike Place Fish Market. Not only do they stock a wonderful inventory of fresh, quality fish but they are notorious for throwing the fish great distances, much to the amazement of the crowd. It was a quite a feat to even make it the few blocks home before digging into “sample” the crab meat which I KNEW would be amazing. Even with my high expectations I was blown away. The freshness and quality of the crab was evident in how rich, buttery and just wonderful it tasted.
Potato Parsnip Pancakes with Shaved Crab, Poached Eggs and Breakfast Cocktail Sauce
As I started preparing the brunch, grating the parsnip and potato and setting aside to drain, mentally setting the table and project managing the meal, starting the cocktail sauce… pause here. I opened a jar of our much loved Pike Place Fish Market cocktail sauce, mashed up a little avocado because I love them with both eggs and crab and started the grinder for some fresh coffee grounds to mix in. DON’T turn up your nose yet! It’s quite delicious and thanks to a trip to Seatown for Mother’s Day happy hour, Tom Douglas has me hooked on cocktail cause with coffee grounds.
I mixed and I blended, mashed and molded. Calling my trust taste tester over, I scooped up a bit for each of us and we had the same response when we tasted…it’s missing something. After much deliberation it was decided that a “kick” was missing. Imagine how dejected I was that I would need to make ANOTHER trip to the market and postpone making brunch until my taste tester made a most wonderful suggestion: let’s have the left over fajitas for lunch and have breakfast for dinner! What a brilliant idea! In our afternoon chores we picked up some fresh horseradish root and then it was game time! Breakfast for dinner, yes please!
Seafood Breakfast: Potato Parsnip Pancakes with Shaved Crab, Poached Eggs and Breakfast Cocktail Sauce Serves 2
Ingredients:
1/2 lb crab meat, already cooked
eggs (one for the pancakes and one to top each pancake)
For the Breakfast Cocktail Sauce
1 Jar Pike Place Fish Market Cocktail Sauce
2 tbsp Fresh bold roast coffee, ground at a medium grind
Fresh Lemon, squeezed into the sauce to taste
Fresh horseradish root, exterior layer removed, soft white flesh grated and chopped
For the Potato Parsnip Pancakes
3 medium mini gold potatoes, grated
1 medium sized parsnip, grated
1 egg, lightly beaten
fresh cracked salt & pepper to taste
Grate the potato and parsnip in a colander and sprinkle with a bit of salt. Let stand for about 20 minutes. I also take one more step and lay out the grated vegges on a paper towel and pat dry.
In the mean time, make the breakfast cocktail by combining all ingredients to taste. Cover and let stand in the fridge.
Place grated vegges in a bowl.
Heat some oil in a skillet over medium/high heat
At this time, heat a sauce pan with water to poach the eggs
Lightly beat one egg and add it to the veggies, seasoning with fresh cracked pepper to taste.
Add a scoop of the mixture to the hot skillet, forming into a patty once in the pan and cook until brown on one side (about 8 minutes) then flip and cook the until brown on the other side.
Place pancakes on paper towel to drain excess oil and serve.
Poach eggs in boiling water for 90 seconds to 2 minutes depending on how you runny you like your yolk. Remove from water with a slotted spoon and place in a small ramekin to drain for a few seconds.
Plate up the potato parsnip pancakes and top with the breakfast cocktail sauce. Top with shaved crab, squeeze a bit of fresh lemon and place your poached egg on the top. Garnish with a bit more cracked pepper and dried parsley.
