Prawn poke, recipe and ideas to prepare a successful dish

Total: 25 min Diners: 2

The poke is a dish of Hawaiian origin that has come to our kitchens to stay. Its success is mainly due to the fact that it represents a healthy option in fast food, take-out and take-away offers. It is also a dish that is very easy to prepare at home and as it is a recipe that supports many different ingredients, it is also a dish that can be prepared to clean out the fridge.

Today, September 28, is World Poke Day and tomorrow, day 29, is World Day Against Food Waste and it is the perfect day to talk about this recipe and how we can prepare it at home. We have prepared a prawn poke, which although it is not a too orthodox version, but it is a more westernized adaptation, it is a healthy recipe that is prepared quickly and is perfect even to take it in the lunchbox.

I’m far from an expert on Hawaiian cuisine, but from what I’ve been able to find out about the original recipe, poke is a rice-based dish, marinated raw fish and Vegetable Recipes that is seasoned with a soy sauce-based dressing. The most common are Shoyu Ahi Poke, made with ahi, which is the Hawaiian name for yellowfin tuna, and Shoyu Aku Poke, made with aku, which is what we know here as skipjack tuna. Also traditional is poke made with tako, which is octopus, but sun-dried octopus that, when dry is cooked on the coals and cut into thin slices.

The Vegetable Recipes were originally seaweed, although in the 19th century other Vegetable Recipes such as tomatoes and sweet onions began to be added and the end result is a much less photogenic dish than the pokes we are used to seeing in Instagram photos.

From Hawaii to the rest of the world, the transformation of poke

The poke that we can find in most Western restaurants is something that no longer has much to do with the dish that we could find in Hawaii, yet it has become a dish that raises passions.

The modern Western pokes can be summarized in a base, which can be a base for a pokie or a base for a pokie./strong>, which can be sushi rice, cooked quinoa or brown rice; a protein. which can be fresh Norwegian salmon (the most common and probably the first that comes to mind when you hear about poke), fresh tuna, shrimp, prawns or even others much further from the seafood origin of the dish such as tofu, grilled chicken or crispy fried chicken; as vegetable elements, it is common to see wakame seaweed, edamame, carrot, avocado, onion, cucumber, bean sprouts, pineapple, mango and even cooked chickpeas. All this is topped with toppings such as sesame seeds or crispy fried onion and seasoned with dressings based on soy sauce, oyster sauce, ponzu sauce, sesame oil, ginger, chili flakes, sweet and sour sauce or even mayonnaise.

In short, all these licenses that we have taken in the West when presenting the dish make the poke is a perfect recipe to use leftovers from the fridge and prepare dishes like this prawn poke like the one I bring you today, that if a Hawaiian cook saw it probably would deny me even the greeting, but the truth is that it is very rich, it is easy to prepare and is colorful, even if you put it in a square dish.

How to make a prawn poke

Ingredients

For the rice base

Sushi rice, 1 small cup (about 200 ml) Water, 1 small cup (the same one we use to measure the rice) Rice vinegar, 40 ml Sugar, 1 1/2 tbsp Salt, 1/2 tsp

For the sauce

. Water, 2 tablespoons Brown sugar, 1 tablespoon Instant dashi stock, 1 teaspoon Lemon juice, 1 tablespoon Soy sauce, 1 tablespoon Rice vinegar, 2 tablespoons Mirin, 1 tablespoon Sesame oil, 2 tablespoons Sesame seeds, 1 teaspoon Katsuobushi, 2 tablespoons

For assembling the prawn poke

. Cooked prawns, 200 g Small tomato, 1 avocado, 1/2 Chopped red onion, 4 tablespoons Sweet corn, 1/2 small can Fresh chopped chives, 1 tablespoon Rice The sauce

Step 1

For our prawn poke we have chosen a sushi rice base, so it is by preparing this that we are going to start.

The first thing we have to do is wash the rice thoroughly under cold running water. For that, we put it in a colander and under the tap we rinse it very well. After rinsing it, we leave it in the strainer for 5 minutes, rinse it again and leave it again for another 5 minutes draining.

To cook it, put a saucepan with a lid on the fire off, pour the well washed and drained rice and the same measure of water that we used to measure the rice before washing it. Cover the pot and turn the heat on high (9/9 in my induction), wait for it to boil (for the amount we propose in the recipe takes about 2-3 minutes), if we use a glass lid we will know easily because we will see it, if it is not we will have to be guided by ear, but never open the pot.

When it boils, lower the heat (3/9) and count 10 minutes. We remove from the fire and, if we are in a very dry place, we leave it 5 minutes more without uncovering the pot. If we live in a very humid place, it is not necessary to wait. I tell you this because it is what works for me, but if you have a rice cooker or you have made rice for sushi in other occasions and it has turned out well, you can do it as you always do.

While the rice is cooking, we prepare the condiment for sushi rice, for this we heat the vinegar 20 seconds in the microwave and dissolve the sugar and salt well.

When the rice is ready, spread it on a wooden board, pour the seasoning on top and mix well, preferably with a wooden fork –we must not use anything metallic after adding the vinegar– and it is time to cool it, for that we pass the tines of the fork between the rice as if it were a rake while we fan it so that it gets to room temperature in the shortest possible time.

Step 2

While the rice is cooking we can also prepare the sauce with which we will season our prawn poke. We heat two tablespoons of water in a bowl that is not too large (with a few seconds of microwave is enough, because we do not need to boil) and dissolve in it the sugar and instant dashi broth (hondashi), add the mirin, lemon juice, rice vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, katsuobushi and sesame seeds.

You can prepare a simplified version of the sauce without using the hondashi and katsuobushi which are the most difficult ingredients to find in neighborhood stores, but if you are fans of Asian flavors, these are products that are widely used in this type of cooking and can be easily obtained in online stores as I explained in detail when we prepared the okonomiyaki.

Step 3

On a platter or in a bowl, arrange a base of rice, place the cooked and peeled prawns, the avocado cut into cubes, the tomato in small pieces, the red onion in smaller pieces and the sweet corn. Sprinkle with chopped fresh chives and serve with the sauce we have just prepared.