Hawaiian Poke

My very good French friend Dominique, who just spent a year in Hawaii working with indigenous Hawaiians, sent me this recipe to post. I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds excellent...a little bit like ceviche. As Dominique is now on her way to Peru, she may want to send me a Peruvian ceviche when she  is there and see how it compares.

Poke (pronounced poké) is served as munchies with a drink, with greens for a light lunch or before dinner as an appetizer.  It requires extra fresh fish, easily found on the islands of course! Most Poke are made with some variety of tuna fish. Here in Oahu they generally use white, red and yellow fin tuna (called Ahi). I am not sure what can be found elsewhere else but many people make poke with other types of fish because tuna is expensive. The fish needs to be sliced thick enough to cut into small cubes.

Now for the fun part:  you have to massage the slice of fish before cutting it. A Hawaiian massage is called “lomi-lomi”. It is gentle but deep and “souple”. (I recommend that you practice first on your partner before doing it on your fish.)

Choose a thick slice of extra fresh fish.

Cut it into small cubes (1 cm x 1 cm)

The Marinade: 

There are as many marinades/dressings as there are gourmet cooks and here, all cooks have their own secret recipes – but in general, the marinade is made of  water, oil and either soy sauce, vinegar or lime juice, plus spices, crushed nuts, fresh herbs etc…

Here are some of the recipes I tasted and can recommend!

1.  Sprinkle with soy sauce, sesame seed oil, Hawaiian chili peppers cut into tiny pieces (best fresh but dry is ok as long it is crushed) and Hawaiian salt (the pink one is best but black is fine as well). Add water - the quantity depends on the amount of fish you are using. Be aware that the salt and the soy sauce might make the marinade too salty for some people. The key is to serve poke in lettuce leaves. It also looks quite pretty served this way.

2. You can also make the marinade with olive oil, thyme, garlic, rosemary and plenty of lime juice. Crushed Hawaiian chili peppers add a welcome little kick. Add some water but not too much.

3. Sprinkle with crushed seaweed, salt and crushed macadamia nuts  --if macadamia nuts are not available, use crushed salted cashews -- plenty of freshly ground black pepper, sesame oil and balsamic vinegar. Do not use soy sauce with this marinade because of the high salt content of the nuts. Add water to make quite a liquid marinade (the seaweed will soak up much of it.

4. Crushed garlic, green onions sliced finely, Hawaiian chili peppers and plenty of lime juice. Add a bit of water, sesame seed oil and Hawaiian black salt (black is for the color combination but pink works just as well). This one is my favourite!

Present in a dish with lettuce or greens. Fresh baby spinach goes really well.

Pick at the Poke with a toothpick!

I think tequila might go really well with Poke but… it is hardly a Hawaiian drink and to tell you the truth I never tried!

Let me know how you like it!