Autumn Splurge – fresh crab meat omelet rice with white beech mushroom and iceberg cabbage

One of my favorite breakfast places of all time is Katy’s in Carmel-by-the-sea. I love their San Francisco omelet with super fresh Dungeness crab meat and avocado inside. Mmmm….. I’m a big time seafood eater and never shy away from seafood dishes any time of the day.

I scanned our fridge and found some leftover rice and iceberg lettuce and some leftover fresh crab meat from dinner last night. (I made a garlicy butter-pepper “wok roasted” crab but forgot to take picture before we killed it, next time!) To balance off that all ingredient is “leftover”, I opened a new pack of white beech mushroom and used 1/3 of it in this dish.

It has been gloomy and rainy in Venice. I’m conditioned to see bright sunny days in SoCal. After all, weather is the value proposition of Los Angeles (for me). So in a dark and wet morning like this a hearty and luxurious breakfast becomes a perfect fix!

One quick note here: crab is a very seasonal ingredient. Chinese people say “round tips for September; pointed tips for October.” The “tips” here means the shape of the tummy line of the crab. The more rounded ones are females, and the pointed refer to the male crabs. Female crabs best be tasted in September and male crab in October, both in lunar calendar. In American only the male Dungeness are harvested. When in season, the crab meat tastes firmer and sweeter. Even the fat in the shell taste more flavorful and less fishy. The crab meat I used here for this recipe is from the body (we ate all the legs!), and after I picked out the meat I mixed it with the fat in the shell to get a super rich crab flavor. When in season the crab fat tastes a lot better than other times. I also only buy live crabs; not only do they taste better, but they are also safer since bacteria starts developing rapidly once they die. I got mine from 99 Ranch for $5.99/lb.

Here are the ingredients for filling. Half serving of mixed grain brown rice, 1/3 pack of white beech mushroom, iceberg strips.

Heat up oil in a pan and start stir frying beech mushroom over medium heat. Remember to always start with ingredients that take longer to cook. In this case rice and crab meat were cooked, only need to be heated up. Iceberg should go in last to keep its crunch.

Add in rice and 1 tea spoon of salt and stir evenly.

Add crab meat and the juice from shell to pan and mix

Lastly add in iceberg and stir fry till it releases moisture and softens. Then put everything in a bowl. Heat 2 spoons of oil in the pan and pour in 2 beat eggs.

When eggs are half solidified, put the fillings on one side and cover with the other side. Cook for another 30 second and ready to plate.

This is the best of two worlds! Hearty but light; rich in flavor but still fresh. It’s got balanced nutrients from whole grains, veggies, eggs and crab meat.

My husband devoured the omelet rice in seconds. This is the first time I made this dish, next time I’d consider cutting the iceberg into thinner strips.