Joybee, What's for Dinner? : Poke

Spicy poke (pronounced poke-eh) topping a mixed green salad.

I love living in Hawaii. We moved here a few years ago for my husband's job and I never want to leave. Besides the obvious things that make Hawaii great (like the weather and beautiful scenery) I love the easy access to sushi and fish. It's kinda funny, on the mainland you would never want to eat gas station sushi but here it's usually not bad. Yes, the more expensive stuff is fantastic but I enjoy the reasonably priced fast food sushi too (it does exist, in the downtown area there are many little walk up sushi shops where you can get basic sushi rolls for under $10 and it takes only minutes to get your sushi). I've even started having "fish Fridays" where I eat sushi for lunch on Fridays.

Poke is not really sushi. It's sushi if you consider all raw fish sushi, but here it's a Hawaiian raw fish salad. Usually poke is made with Ahi, which is yellow fin tuna, but I've been told that poke is just a term for how it's prepared and you can make poke with just about anything. Basic ahi poke (I'm no expert) is usually cubed ahi sashimi marinated in soy sauce and sesame oil tossed with thinly sliced sweet Maui onions. Poke is usually served as a snack or appetizer but I could eat it for every meal. Most sushi places here also serve poke. I love the traditional soy sauce based poke but once I found the spicy poke I had a new love. The spicy poke I get is poke that is marinated in the spicy sauce that spicy tuna is made with. I think it's some kind of mayonnaise based sauce with chili oil/sauce. At my usual sushi place I can buy 6, 12, or 16 ounces of either regular or spicy poke. It's great to bring to a party, as a football snack (or any sport), and a wonderful lunch. Usually I just eat it by it's self but it's also great with rice and salad. I've been trying to eat more salads lately so when I brought my poke home this time I put it on top of a salad.

Maybe one day I'll try making poke at home but for now it so easy and not very expensive to buy it.

Spicy Poke Salad

6 oz spicy poke
1 handful green lettuce
1 handful kale
1 handful shredded cabbage and carrots mix
2 mini sweet peppers, sliced
sprinkle of toasted sliced almonds
vinaigrette

Makes 1 salad.

Take one handful of lettuce, kale, and cabbage mixture (I keep these in separate bags in my fridge I usually prepare them over the weekend and they will stay fresh through the week, the cabbage and kale will usually stay fresh even longer. You can use just lettuce or just what you have. I like the different textures but they are not all necessary. Instead of shredding the cabbage and carrots by hand try a prepackaged coleslaw mix.).

Toss the lettuce mix with about 1-2 tbsp vinaigrette. (I used vinaigrette but the poke has enough sauce that you don't really need any. When I make this again I won't use any vinaigrette...it's up to you.).

Put the dressed greens mixture in a large salad bowl, add some sliced peppers, and spread the poke on top (I used all 6 ounces of poke but that turned out to be a lot, when making again I'll just use half the poke).

Lastly, sprinkle on toasted almond slices (gotta have that crunch).

Can be served with bread or rice. Enjoy.