Hey Everyone..

When I was in high school, I spent 6 months as an exchange student in Japan. I found a love for Sushi, Moochi, and a million other Japaneese foods. All this time, I have been telling myself that its too high in carbs to even consider eating, but when I checked the label on the Nori I usually used for making Sushi rolls, I discovered its only 2 carbs per 2 8 by 8 inch peices. Nori is known worldwide for being high in Calcium, and it is considered a green leafy veggie. My question is this - has anyone come across any LC recipes that use Nori, or other Japaneese products, like Miso (also low in carbs!!)?

Thanks.


Angelica

Nori rocks!

One of our members likes it with butter and you can make a grilled cheese sandwich out of it that's actually not that bad. Have you seen the squares of seasoned "snack" nori? there's different flavours like soy, chili and wasabi.

Use it as a wrap for tuna, egg or salmon salad. Or make what I call "unplugged sushi". On a plate, I arrange diced avocado, thin strips of cucumber, chopped raw tuna – may not be your cup of green tea but it’s mine – cooked baby shrimp, strips of plain omelette, cooked or raw salmon, chopped green onion, mayonnaise…

Make sure that any raw fish you use has been frozen first.

You can make your choices as elaborate or as simple as you want. Cut pieces of nori into quarters. Don’t forget to give it a light toasting over open flame or under the broiler. Wrap the bits of filling in the nori, dip into soy mixed with wasabi and eat.

Karen

Thank you SO much. Unplugged Sushi sounds wonderful. I've never even thought to add butter to Nori. I will be taking my tuna salad in a Nori roll from now on..

Don't know why, since I am a big fan of sushi/sashimi, but whenever I try to eat nori it just sticks in my throat. I'm the one you'll see eating the insides out of the artfully crafted rolls and leaving the nori behind...

Karen, has anyone tried cauliflied as a sushi base? I miss my tuna... I know that sushi rice vinegar is sweetened, but I can handle plain brown rice vinegar just fine. I'm not sure how to get the "sticky" into the cauliflied.

Cauliflower just doesn't work in the same way because it won't stick together. You could fool around with gums like xanthan and guar but I think it would just turn out yucky.

If you liked rolls, you could use really finely shredded, blanched cabbage in place of rice.

I find sushi a lot more enjoyable than sashimi, only because I can use my hands to eat it!

If you come up with something, let us know!

Karen

Thought of more...

You can use miso as a marinade for fish. Mix miso, sake, a bit of water and artificial sweetener together and let the fish sit in it for up to two days. Mackeral can sit in it for 5 days - just make sure it's well covered with the miso. Pork is good with this treatment too. The white miso is the best to use.

If you want to get fancy, duck breasts in dark miso is just great! You can also broil tofu under a coating of miso.

I have a recipe here for Sake Braised Pork Belly, Celery with Sesame, Korean Style Tofu and the Japanese steamed custard - chawan mushi - is perfect for low-carbing.

Karen

Have you ever tried Miso with chicken? I am afraid of working with fish, mainly because it can go bad so easily.

It doesn't work as well as it does with pork.

If you have a good place to by fish or fish that has been frozen at sea, you should have no fear. Believe me! In my job I go through tons - and that's the truth - of fish every year!

Overcome the fear and you will have a huge new world of eating available to you. Start with salmon!

Karen

I will try it. What should I be looking for when I pick fresh fish? I heard something about looking at the eyes of the fish - and if they were cloudly, not to buy it. Is there any truth to that?

Obviously I will defer to Karen's expertise here.

The criteria I have always used with success are

- clear eyes, not cloudy
- no overt "fishy" smell
- firm, not "mushy" texture
- frozen at sea

Living here in the Northwest our house favorites are salmon and halibut, but lately my son discovered sea "scallops", so I got a big Costco bag of them and plan lots of interesting dishes around those.

Yes, S_Hysmith is absolutely correct with his criteria.

Another thing you should do is open the package and smell it before you leave the store. If it smells "fishy", return it. It's a bummer getting home and finding you have a smooky piece of fish! You can't always tell with filets by their look.

S_Hysmith, when you buy scallops, check the bag to make sure that sodium meta-bisulphate is not one of the ingredients. It plumps up small scallops but when they're cooked, they release tons of water and and turn into nasty little turd balls. Pardon the expression!

Karen

Hello all!

I must congratulate this Low Carb site, It's absolutely wonderful! And the forums etc, are truly enlightening & inspiring. I've been so busy reading here that I've had no time to share, until now. Thank you all!!

Now reading about the seaweed/Nori, in my research it's wise to choose your water vegetable carefully since many seaweeds are high in carbohydrates. Also the carb. structure is actually a "Lactose" ( surprising, it's not only in milk) which is not digestible but ferments in the colon. It also has a good amount of iodine in it too.

I get my dried seaweed at the Canadian Superstore. I get the sheets & cut up as needed. I don't buy the roasted type since that has a large amount of MSG in it & who knows what else.

I use my Dried seaweed for various wraps & hors d'oeuvres, the same as I would lettuce or any other green leaf veggie for any of my normal foods, and also instead of any bread or bread substitutes I use the seaweed for soaking up liquids in the plate/bowl and also crumpled into soups stews etc.

I also use various homemade Fat spreads like beef, pork,lamb, butter, coconut oil, coconut milk & nut butters.

Have a nice day :-)