One of my goals for this year has been to make sushi rolls for Oscar. Before we went on the elimination diet, one of our favourite things to do was eat a couple of Sushi Rolls whenever we were out shopping. The problems with sushi rolls is that the Nori seaweed is suspected of containing salicylates and you don’t know what type of vinegar or flavouring is used in the rice or the mayonnaise in some of the fillings. I finally got my chance to make them a few weeks ago. I used rice vinegar, which is not on any of the lists, but the process of making vinegar creates Amines. I don’t know whether it also contains salicylates or glutamates, but there is such a small portion of vinegar in each roll I thought I’d chance it.. For a low chemical version, the RPAH vinegar substitute could be used or you could leave the vinegar out all together, either way the taste would be slightly different but worth a try if you really miss sushi. I created two types of rolls, ones with seaweed (unknown salicylates) and ones with rice paper. The rolls made with rice paper obviously had a different taste and texture to the “traditional” seaweed ones, but it didn’t detract from the rest of the flavours.I found the recipe for the sushi rice at Make Sushi at Home. It took 1 1/2 hours to make the rice (from the time I started rinsing it), during which time I also prepared the fillings, and another half hour to put the rolls together – but it was well worth it. I cut the rolls into smaller pieces, rather than leaving them as the large hand rolls. I also found the instructions on the back of the seaweed packet easier to make the rolls than the instructions at Make Sushi at Home.The fillings I used were a combination of carrot, cucumber, fried egg and chicken and cream cheese. Under fillings in the recipe I’ve listed others that I intend to try in the future. We used a dipping sauce as an alternative to soy sauce, the recipe is based on the spring rolls recipe in the Friendly Food recipe book.In the end, Oscar didn’t eat any of the sushi, but my husband and I liked it, and I’m sure Oscar will eventually remember how much he loved them.
[gmc_recipe 8177]
Make Sushi at Home has instructions for making Oshi (Box) Sushi, which can also have all the different fillings but doesn’t require the seaweed. It is made in an oshi sushi box, but I haven’t been able to find one of these in any of my local asian grocery stores. If anyone knows where to get one in Melbourne please let me know.
If anyone has any other ideas for fillings based on our shopping list, I’d love to hear them.
This does all sound like a lot of work, and it does take a while, but it is easy to do, fun, and a good one for the kids to help with.
