Gluten-Free Cooking: Sushi Salad

As part of my gluten-free diet, I've been exploring a wider variety of food options. A few years back I worked on a series of sushi articles for a local magazine, in which I learned to make sushi. Sushi ingredients are easy to digest, which is fantastic for people like me who have digestive issues.
I decided to dust off the old sushi-making skills and set to making something fun and different for myself to eat, hence the creation of... Sushi Salad!

Above: Sushi Salad. I'm sure it's been done before, but I'm chuffed with myself for coming up with the idea on my own.

How to Make Sushi Salad:

1.Prepare carrots, mushrooms and cucumber as if for making sushi.             

2.Scatter the cucumber ribbons on the plate, being careful to twist them. The twists best show off the attractive skin of the cucumber.

3. Scatter carrots sticks in the center of the plate, allowing the cucumber to show through at the edges.

4. Top with cubes of avocado, followed by cream cheese.

5. Add pan-fried mushrooms and serve.

For more body, add smoked salmon or smoked chicken, watery wasabi (as a dressing), pickled ginger and rice makizushi (sushi rolls) or rice noodles.

Labels to check for gluten: Soy sauce, cream cheese, rice noodles, wasabi.

Gluten-Free Cooking: Rice Crumbed Tonkatsu Chicken

Above: My not-so-artistic plating of Rice Crumbed Tonkatsu Chicken

You will need:

+/- 800g skinless, boneless chicken breasts

300g rice crumbs

6 large eggs

Sushi rice

Tonkatsu sauce

Vegetables of your choosing

I have a very handy rice cooker that comes equipped with a steaming basket, so I steam my carrots and gemsquash while cooking the rice. This way, my rice and veg are kept warm in the cooker while I finish off the crumbed chicken pieces.

This amount of chicken can make 4-6 medium portions or 6-8 small portions

How to make Home-made Rice Crumbed Chicken:

1. Cut the chicken breasts into small pieces. These should be about the size of two dainty mouthfuls. 

2. Beat the eggs in a bowl, and pour some rice crumbs into another bowl.

3. Heat a pot of oil to a medium heat (The oil should be 'moving' in the pot, but not smoking)

4. One piece at a time, coat the chicken in egg and flour, twice (Egg, flour, egg, flour).

5. Cook the chicken in the oil until a light golden brown.

6. Serve hot, with Tonkatsu sauce.

Above: Tonkatsu sauce is very flavorful. A little goes a long way.

*Tips*

*Use chopsticks or tongs to coat the chicken with egg and rice crumbs. This avoids a lot of mess and will keep your fingers from building up a thick layer of sticky crumbs. 

*Rice crumbs take a little longer to cook than bread crumbs. Cook with a lower heat than you would use for bread crumbs.

*To re-heat leftovers, place crumbed chicken on a baking tray and grill in the oven until crisp.

*If including carrots in the meal, cook them thoroughly. Most gluten-sensitive people will, like me, struggle to digest raw carrots. These soft, sweet, steamed carrots are a much better choice.

*Labels to check for gluten: Tonkatsu sauce, rice crumbs.

This is a favorite meal of mine, although I used to make it with tempura batter. The rice crumbs don't have the same light, crispy crunch that the tempura has, but I'll keep on with my quest to find the perfect gluten-free alternative to tempura. Next experiment; potato flour.

I hope this recipe is useful to other gluten-sensitive folks. Please feel free to pass this recipe on to others.

Buy the following ingredients online:

Tonkatsu sauce, gluten-free rice crumbs, stainless steel cooking chopsticks