You may have noticed small pieces of white fish with one orange-red surface that claims to be mock crab, or something similar. It is the product of an ingenious Japanese procedure to make a common fish taste like crab, lobster or something of that sort. I would not mistake it for crab, but nevertheless it is decidedly tasty. Best of all, it is very cheap. You may see a "seafood salad" already prepared in the supermarket that uses it, and this is a good way to try it. However, you can make your own salad at about half the price, and vary it to suit your tastes.
I mixed the shredded pseudocrab with mayonnaise, capers, finely chopped onion, and finely chopped celery. This made a very acceptable seafood salad. The red of the pseudocrab added visual interest, incidentally. One might add chopped black olives, pickles, shredded carrot, or anything else that can go in a composed salad.
I also put half of my pseudocrab in a pseudo-Newburg sauce (Béchamel with and egg yolk and cooking sherry) and ate it over steamed rice. This was quite satisfactory, but, of course, rather bland.
I wonder what would happen if you mixed pseudocrab with ready-made cole slaw for another kind of seafood salad. Anyway, the uses of this excellent product seem numerous.
Composed by J. B. Calvert
Created 19 December 2003
Last revised