Poke dishes are on a roll at the moment, aren't they?
Unlike pokémon, poke bowls didn't originate in Japan but from Hawaii, where apparently "poke" means "to slice diagonally." (Hawaiian speakers, please confirm!)
The story goes that back in the day, Hawaiian fishermen used the offcuts of their catch as their own meal. The fish was rubbed in salt, probably to preserve it, then laid onto a bed of rice. The salt has now morphed into a marinade to give the fish a greater variety of flavours.
This got me thinking that a poke bowl isn't that far from the origins of a chirashi sushi bowl - the thinking behind the two is the same - using offcuts and leftover seafood to garnish a bed of rice as a cheaper meal than full on sashimi or sushi made from prime fillets.
My poke bowl dish is designed as a sharing platter, so that you and your significant others can spoon out servings onto individual dishes. I use sushi grade salmon and tuna, chopped into small chunks. Along with that, I serve this with some sweetcorn prepared in sweetened water, some salted mangetout and some avocado marinated in sushi vinegar. This way your tongue gets a whole spectrum of flavours. I serve this with soy sauce and wasabi so that individual diners can season the fish to their own taste.
Like the idea? You can find the Youtube tutorial by clicking Salmon and Tuna Poke bowl or scroll to the bottom of the page. The written recipe is just below.
Happy cooking! Kurumi XXXX.
If you like the idea of a poke dish but you aren't so keen on the raw fish, why not check out my Miso Salmon Poke bowl?
Salmon and Tuna Poke bowl
ingredients:
(4 servings in a party bowl)
450g Japanese rice (dry weight)
200g salmon (sushi grade)
200g tuna (sushi grade)
70ml sushi vinegar
1 avocado
100g mangetout, rinsed
2 tsp sugar
120g frozen sweetcorn
1/2 tsp salt
1.5 sheets of nori
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
for topping
some wasabi
some soy sauce
how to:
rinse the rice a few times until the water becomes nearly clear, then cook in a rice cooker or large saucepan
when the rice is cooked, put it in a large bowl, sprinkle 65 ml of sushi vinegar over the rice and gently turn the rice to incorporate the vinegar
bring about 300ml of water to the boil in a pan, add the sweetcorn & salt, cook for 3 mins, drain and set aside
bring another 300 ml of water to the boil in the pan, add the mangetout & sugar for 2 mins, drain and set aside
slice the mangetout diagonally into diamonds
halve the nori sheets, fold them twice, then use scissors to cut into matchsticks
peel & halve the avocado, then thinly slice & drizzle with 5 ml of sushi vinegar
cut the salmon & tuna into 1.5cm slices, then cut into 1.5cm cubes
to assemble, put the sushi rice into a large serving bowl
then sprinkle the nori matchsticks over the rice
cover 1/5 of the rice with the mangetout on one side
then spoon the tuna beside the mangetout (covering another 1/5 section)
cover another 1/5 of the bowl with sweetcorn next to the tuna, then the salmon and avocado in order to cover the whole bowl
sprinkle with the sesame seeds and serve with some wasabi and soy sauce