What is a Poke Bowl? Well, to begin answering the question, you need to cast your mind to the tropical islands of Hawaii. That’s where the word poke, pronounced poh-keh comes from – and poke bowls are now the hottest thing on menus of uber trendy eateries world-wide.
The poke food trend has been given a huge boost in popularity by the hipster health culture. What began as a Hawaiian dish traditionally made by fishermen, combining their morning catch of “ahi” tuna with seaweed and sweet onions, is now the go to dish for the young and health conscious. Typically, it is served on a bowl of rice with soy sauce and sesame oil and often contains sriracha, mayonnaise and pickly fermented stuff combined with with carb-, gluten-, meat-free ingredients.
Tips for a good Poke Bowl
- Much of the flavour comes from the dressing, so choose carefully.
- A great poké has contrasting textures, flavours and temperatures.
- When plating, strew ingredients evenly or arrange by colour.
Here’s a Poke Bowl recipe by The Three Blue Ducks in Rosbery, Sydney
The base
- 1 cup cooked brown rice
- 25g rehydrated wakame
- 1 Lebanese cucumber, peeled and roughly chopped
- 3 radishes, cut into wedges
Soy mirin dressing
- 150ml soy
- 300ml mirin
- 35g white sugar
- 30ml lime juice
- 60ml lemon juice
- 1 bunch of coriander stems, washed and finely sliced
- 40g fresh ginger, finely grated
- 15g fresh garlic, finely grated
To finish
- 75g of your favourite kimchi. We make our own, but that’s a whole other recipe in itself.
- 1 egg, we cook ours to 60 degrees, but soft boiled is just as good
- 1/4 of an avocado
Firstly, you’ve gotta make the soy miring dressing, which isn’t really that hard. Whack all of the ingredients into a large bowl and give it a good mix with a whisk. When you’re tasting, you’re looking for the old balance of sweet (the mirin and the sugar), sour (the lime and lemon juice), salt (soy) and a good hit of flavour (the coriander, ginger and garlic).
Once the dressing done, it’s time to form the base of the poke. Add the brown rice, wakame, cucumber and radishes into a large mixing bowl. Give a good squirt of the soy miring dressing. It’ll probably need about 50ml. Give it a toss and then make a mound of the mixture in your bowl.
From there it’s a up to you to build you poke with the rest of the ingredients. I start with a little nest of the kimchi at the base of the rice mix. Next up, I poke in a wedge of avocado and finish the top of the rice mix with your egg of choice.
Lastly, we spoon over some crunchy goodness. We go for toasted nori sheets, toasted sesame and puffed wild rice, which give a nutty, umami finish to the poke.
The Carousel would like to thank the Three Blue Ducks at Rosebery in Sydney for this recipe.