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Hawaiian Ahi Poke Bowl

Hawaii's classic shoyu poke: cubes of raw ahi tuna tossed with soy sauce, sesame oil, sweet onion and sesame, piled onto warm rice.

ServingsServes 2
Total cooking time18 min
Marinating (chilled)+ 15 min
DifficultyEasy
About servingsThis dish uses raw fish. Buy only fish sold as sashimi or sushi grade from a trusted fishmonger, keep it cold and eat it the day you buy it. Raw fish is not recommended for pregnant women, young children, older adults or anyone with weakened immunity.

Method

  1. Keep the tuna in the fridge until the moment you need it, then pat it dry with paper towel. With your sharpest knife, cut it into 2 cm cubes using one long pulling stroke per cut instead of sawing. Put the cubes in a bowl set over ice water, or back in the fridge.

  2. Slice the onion into thin slivers 3 cm long and 3 mm thick and soak them in cold water for to tame the bite, then drain and pat dry. Thinly slice the green onions.

  3. Toast the sesame seeds in a dry 16 cm pan over medium-low heat for , stirring, until golden and a few start to pop. Tip them onto a plate right away to cool.

    Add in this stepSesame seeds 1½ tsp

    medium-low heat

  4. In a chilled bowl, stir together the soy sauce, sesame oil and pepper flakes first, then add the tuna, onion, green onions (keep a little for the top), sesame seeds and salt. Fold gently with a spoon from the bottom up so the cubes keep their shape.

    Add in this stepSoy sauce (shoyu) 2 tbspToasted sesame oil 2 tspRed pepper flakes 1 pinchSashimi-grade ahi tuna (yellowfin or bigeye) 260 gSweet onion 50 gGreen onions 1.6Coarse sea salt (Hawaiian salt if you have it) 1 pinch

  5. Cover and refrigerate for so the flavors soak in, stirring once halfway. Eat within 2 hours: any longer and the soy sauce cures the tuna and makes it firm.

  6. Put warm (not steaming hot) rice in bowls, spoon the poke and its juices on top, scatter with the reserved green onions and eat right away.

    Add in this stepFreshly cooked short-grain rice 400 gGreen onions 0.4

Cook's tip

Sashimi-grade salmon works well instead of tuna. Add only three quarters of the soy sauce at first, taste, then add more. In Hawaii, roasted kukui nut relish (inamona) and ogo seaweed go in; if you can't find them, chopped toasted macadamia nuts give a similar nutty crunch.

Cooking it at camp

Keep the tuna vacuum-packed between ice packs in the coldest part of the cooler and make the poke on the day you arrive. Mix the sauce, slice the onion and toast the sesame at home, so at camp you only need to cut and toss.