sf wrote:

>> I enjoy fake crab. I have not cooked with the real thing . My
>> Grandpa alsways said if you can't afford a Cadilac don't test drive
>> one . So I got to thinking if I minced it and baked or fried them
>> into balls could I use it in pocket pitas with cucumber sauce and
>> shredded lettuce, Or soft shell tacos. What is your experience with
>> using a quality fake crab product?
>> Thanks in advance.
>
> I tried cooking something or other with it once and it fell apart in
> flakes (nasty flavor) because it's already cooked. I think if you
> don't intend to reheat it much (or at all), it should be okay.

Unless you buy live crabs, all the real crabmeat you get will already be
cooked. Every crabcake recipe I've ever seen starts out with cooked crab.
But you are on to something: Whether it's fake crab or real crab, it doesn't
do well being cooked much more than it already is. So if pamjd wants to make
surimi balls with a crisp exterior, she should cook them as quickly as
possible, so the heat has less chance to penetrate to the interior and
overcook the meat. That means either a batter coating or a crumb coating,
and deep-frying. Pan-frying would also work if the mixture were shaped into
disks rather than balls. For use in a pita as she describes, I'd shape the
mixture into thick pancakes just a bit smaller than the pita, coat them with
crumbs, pan-cook them in a hot pan with grapeseed oil, and then cut them in
half to stuff into the pita halves.

Bob