Salmon Poke Bowl

     For anyone not into eating raw fish, please look away.

     Poke, a word which originated in Hawaii meaning to "slice or dice into small pieces" is a dish of diced raw fish (tuna or salmon) over rice. Very similar to the Japanese chirashi don, raw fish is usually served tossed with a sesame soy marinade over rice. And then it is artfully arranged with fresh vegetables like cucumbers, carrots, edamame, spinach or some avocado and finally a sprinkling of some spring onions.

     There are a few restaurants in Manila currently serving good poke bowls. And the variations are endless. For a tropical touch, chunks of salmon or tuna are tossed with mango or watermelon. There is also a variation with wakame seaweed, fish eggs and pickled ginger. I saw one that features an aburi-style poke bowl in which they torch the fish.

    When we had a sizeable chunk of salmon fillet at home, I made some into salmon poke bowls for dinner. Not everyone in my family is into eating raw fish so not everyone shared the excitement of my son and I. Oh well, more for us.

Salmon Poke Bowls

Ingredients
200 gms salmon fillet, cut into small cubes
3 tablespoons Kikkoman soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon refined sugar
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
2 tablespoons spring onions
carrots, julienned
purple cabbage, julienned
spinach, blanched
cucumber, julienned
cooked Japanese rice
furikake (dried fish, seaweed, sesame seeds)
Japanese mayonnaise (optional)

Instructions
1. Marinate salmon in soy sauce, seasme oil, sugar, half the sesame seeds and half of the spring onions.
2. Assemble poke bowl with rice at the bottom and then topped with the vegetables, furikake and the marinated salmon.
3. Finish it off with a sprinkling of sesame seeds and spring onions.