I purchased a chunk of some kind of tuna from Billingsgate Seafood Market in the Crossroads Farmers Market a while back and finally had the nerve to work with it. It was always a noble idea – to make my own poke – but I will admit that it scared me just a bit. The lady who I purchased the tuna from (I also purchased some cod cheeks at the time) was super friendly and helpful. She gave me a separate plastic bag and specific instructions to remove the tuna from the vacuum sealed bag and place it in this separate bag prior to thawing it in the fridge. She said that the gases used in the vacuum sealing process will degrade the fish as it thaws. The packaging did say to remove the fish from the original bag as well, but you know as well as I do that most of us don’t read the small print 🙂
I couldn’t tell you what kind of tuna this was, but it was sushi grade and ready to eat raw. I searched the internet one bus ride home from work and found a number of poke bowl recipes that I thought were interesting but none that stood out as ‘the one’. So, I took a little bit of each and came up with this recipe. It was interesting – I think the acidity from the citrus kind of cooked the outside of the fish so that it had just the tiniest bit of a crust all the way around, but I actually kind of liked it because the tuna was not mushy at all. The marinated tuna turned out to be light and not too salty – something I was concerned about with some of the soy sauce based marinade recipes I saw.
There are a number of steps to making this poke bowl, but each one is easy. As long as you thaw the fish in the fridge, cut it up quickly and put it back in the fridge to marinate you should be fine. I was very conscious about food safety since I’m not used to eating raw fish at home.
I had brown rice in the fridge from the night before, but you could use white rice or even mixed greens as the base if you’d like. If you’re using previously cooked rice, just make sure you heat it up a bit before serving it. I wouldn’t overheat it or you could cook your fish when you place it on top… You may want other veggies and things such as edamame beans, avocado, seaweed, fish eggs, fried egg or pea shoots. Unfortunately my avocado was not ripe enough, but I did have some awesome rice toppings to sprinkle on top. I also have crispy fried onion and garlic bits in the cupboard that would be awesome to sprinkle on the poke bowl. In short – get creative!
Pickled Veggies:
Thinly slice a chunk of cucumber on a mandolin. Do the same for half a jalapeño. Switch out the blade and slice a medium carrot into thin matchsticks.
Make the pickling juice:
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 tsp kosher salt
2 Tbsp water
1 Tbsp sugar
Mix the ingredients together and stir until the sugar dissolves. Place the veggies into the pickling juice, cover and place in the fridge. Make sure the veggies are sitting in the juice or shake up the container once in a while.
Spicy Mayo:
This is so simple… mix 1/4 cup of mayo with 1 Tbsp of chili garlic sauce (or sriracha if you prefer). Put it into a sandwich bag (force it to one corner). Refrigerate until needed, then cut off the corner of the bag to make a piping bag and squirt it on top of your poke bowl as you wish.
Tuna Marindate:
Juice of 1 lime
4 Tbsp soy sauce (or alternate)
1 tsp sesame oil
2 Tbsp mirin
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
1/2 tsp sesame seeds (you should roast them first, but I didn’t!)
Mix all this together. Slice the tuna into bite-sized chunks. Some people like small chunks, while others like bigger chunks. The texture of your poke will vary depending on the size you cut it. All I’d suggest is not to go too small… Put the tuna in the fridge and let it marinate for only 30 minutes to an hour. This is why I did the tuna last…
Scallions:
Slice some scallions (green onions) on a long, skinny bias. Let them soak in a small bowl of very cold water so they’ll curl up and look pretty! Use them for garnish (and don’t forget them on the counter like I did).
To serve, put your rice or veggie base in a large bowl and arrange the pickled veggies around one side of the bowl. Portion out the tuna and add any other veggies like edamame and avocado. Drizzle the spicy mayo on top and sprinkle with the scallions and any seasonings you may want (I used the blue container on the left with the nori (seaweed) in it and it was awesome). You’ll be surprised at how easy making this wicked tasting poke bowl at home can be!
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