Crabsticks – Gadre seafood
– Ayushi Mathur
Gadre premium seafood, one of the largest exporters of seafood in the country, recently organized an event for the launch of their new frozen product called Gadre Crabsticks. The event hosted over thirty food, travel and lifestyle bloggers and photographers. Held at Cafe Public Connection, Connaught Place, the event had an assortment of dishes prepared using crabsticks as the main ingredient. The various dishes prepared with crabsticks included cold coconut crabstick soup, crabstick spring rolls, crabstick salad and crab cakes. All the dishes were prepared with unique recipes by Chef Vikas Khanna, who endorses the brand and its range of products.
Gadre crabstick is a ready to eat frozen product which can be eaten right out of its packaging. As demonstrated at the event, it can be incorporated into different recipes, ranging from salads to drinks. The crabsticks taste like real crab meat however these are not made with crabs. Yes, Gadre uses a Japanese favourite called Surimi for the preparation of Crabsticks. Surimi is a fish product made by ground meat from the white fleshy fish and is widely used in Asian cuisine to imitate meat flavours like crab, lobster and other shellfish. There are various benefits of using surimi in the place of real crab meat, one of them being the low fat content in surimi. Surimi is also a cheaper alternative to real crab and lobster meat and thus becomes one of the highly consumed seafood in various communities and cuisines.
Gadre is the largest producer of surimi in the country and markets a variety of frozen products that serve as imitation meats, for instance crab claws, lobster bites and crabsticks. The crabsticks are light and easy to use. They have an authentic delicious crab flavour and are packed with protein. A 250 gram pack contains 16 sticks that have a shelf life of over a year. The crabsticks are precooked and can be eaten straight out of the pack or used in different recipes, including curries, snacks and salads. All this at just Rs. 150 for a pack sounds amazing!
Gadre is the first and only brand to introduce Surimi in India and by the looks of it; I believe this will bring a huge change in the seafood consumption patterns in the country.
