Hawaiian Red Tuna Poke

Nyteglori's Note:

Poke. Most people on the islands pronounce it Pokey (like Gumby's red pal) but it's pronounced Poke (rhymes with Okay). Otherwise it would be spelled Poki in Hawaiian. Anyway, it's usually made with ahi (the Hawaiian word for yellowfin tuna), basically it's a raw fish salad, usually flavored with soy sauce, sesame oil, kukui nut, and seaweed.

• Total Time: 5 mins
• Prep Time: 5 mins
• Cook Time: 0 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 1 lb sashimi tuna, cubed
• 3/4 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
• 3/4 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/4 cup green onion, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup maui sweet onion, julienned
• 1/2 tablespoon chili flakes
• hawaiian salt, to taste
• white and black sesame seed (to garnish) (optional)
• dried seaweed flakes (to garnish) (optional)
• candlenuts, Crushed to garnish (kukui nut) (optional)

Directions:

1. Cube your tuna and dry it with a clean towel or paper towel. You don’t want lots of water on your fish when you’re about to make poke because you don’t want the water to dilute the flavor of your seasonings and sauces. Once it’s drained, put it in a mixing bowl and prepare your other ingredients.
2. Finely chop your green onions. You don’t want huge pieces of green onions because it’s inconvenient to eat and gets in the way of the smooth and cool consistency of this dish. Next, cut your onions so that they’re long, and not diced. You can dice them, but I think it adds more to the dish to chop the onions in a different shape than your green onions and tuna. Think about it, the tuna is cubed, the green onions are sorta cubed shaped, so why do you have to also put onions in that are cubed? Make this dish interesting visually and tastefully with julienned onions.
3. Combine your soy sauce, sesame oil and chili flakes into the bowl. Fold until well mixed. Since you’re already adding soy sauce, you don’t need to add a lot of Hawaiian Salt. Then garnish with whatever else you have (sesame seeds, seaweed, kukui nuts, etc.).

Reviews

[Nif]

This is truly exquisite. Reading the ingredients, I knew that it would something that my oldest boy and myself would really enjoy and appreciate. We did, and then some! I shopped around quite a bit to find all of the ingredients, down to all of the optional garnishes and it was one of the best things I've eaten in a long time. I also made sure to use red (ahi) tuna because that's what the title mentions. I will be making this again, but only for a very special treat. Made for ZWT7. Thanks so much Nyteglori. :)

[breezermom]

I made this exactly as posted, although I used a bit more soy sauce and more chili flakes. This was a very cool salad on a steamy 95 degree day. Thanks for sharing. Made for ZWT7.

[CaliforniaJan]

I love Poke and was happy to try this recipe for ZWT. It really depends on the quality of the tuna and sushi-grade is what you want for a raw recipe...also I like my poke spicy, so we kicked it up a bit. Thanks for posting one of my favorites.