Poke

The original Native Hawaiian poke used no soy sauce at all — it was raw reef fish seasoned with sea salt, seaweed, and crushed kukui nut long before soy sauce arrived with Asian immigrants.

Cubed raw ahi tuna is tossed with soy sauce, sesame oil, green onion, and seaweed, then scooped into containers to go from poke counters in grocery stores and food trucks. Countless local variations add spicy mayo, onions, or macadamia nuts.

What is Poke?

Poke (pronounced poh-keh) is a Hawaiian dish of raw fish cut into cubes and seasoned. The word is Hawaiian for to slice or cut crosswise into pieces. The fish is most often ahi (yellowfin or bigeye tuna); octopus (usually cooked) is also popular, and today it is usually tossed with soy sauce, sesame oil, onion and seaweed and served cold, either on its own or over rice in a bowl.

Traditional poke is commonly described as very simple: reef fish seasoned with sea salt, seaweed (limu) and crushed roasted kukui nut (inamona). Soy sauce, sesame oil and other flavours are generally said to have been added with later Japanese and other immigrant communities. Poke counters in Hawaiian grocery stores sell many variations by weight.

How to make shoyu ahi poke and a poke rice bowl

Serves 4 · prep 30 min · cook 20 min

Ingredients

• For the poke: 450 g very fresh tuna steak (ahi) labelled as suitable for eating raw, 3 tablespoons (45 ml) soy sauce, 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil, ¼ sweet onion (about 40 g), finely diced, 2 spring onions, thinly sliced, 1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds, 1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger (optional), about 5 g dried wakame (soaked in cold water for 10 minutes and drained) or a small handful of fresh ogo (optional)
• No extra salt is needed, as soy sauce is salty
• For the rice: 300 g short-grain or sushi rice, 360 ml water, 1 tablespoon rice vinegar and ½ teaspoon salt (optional but nice)
• To serve: 1 ripe avocado, sliced, and a few cucumber slices (optional)
• Ice, to keep the fish cold while you work

Method

1. Wash the rice in several changes of cold water until the water runs almost clear. Put it in a saucepan with the 360 ml water, bring to the boil, cover, reduce to the lowest heat and cook for 12 minutes. Take off the heat and leave covered for 10 minutes. Stir in the rice vinegar and salt, if using, and keep warm.
2. While the rice cooks, keep the tuna in the fridge until the last moment. Use a very clean, sharp knife and a clean board to cut it into 2 cm cubes. Put the cubes in a bowl set over a larger bowl of ice.
3. In a small bowl, mix the soy sauce, sesame oil, onion, spring onions, ginger and seaweed.
4. Pour the dressing over the tuna just before serving and fold gently. Do not leave it marinating for more than 15 minutes, as the soy sauce changes the texture and the fish turns firm and darker.
5. Spoon the rice into four bowls, top with the poke, sesame seeds, avocado and cucumber, and eat straight away.

Tips

• Raw fish is a food safety risk, so buy it from a fishmonger you trust, tell them you plan to eat it raw, and ask what it has been through. 'Sushi-grade' and 'sashimi-grade' are marketing terms: there is no official legal definition in the US.
• What matters in practice is freshness, careful handling and, for most species, freezing. To kill parasites, the US FDA recommends freezing fish meant to be eaten raw at −20 °C or below for 7 days, or at −35 °C or below until solid and then stored at −35 °C for 15 hours, or at −35 °C until solid and then stored at −20 °C for 24 hours. EU rules call for −20 °C or below in all parts of the fish for at least 24 hours for fish eaten raw or almost raw. In the US guidance, six species of tuna, including yellowfin and bigeye, are exempt from the freezing recommendation because of their low parasite risk, and some farmed fish are too, but do not assume the same exemption applies elsewhere. Freezing does not remove bacteria or the histamine that forms in tuna kept warm, so the fish must still be kept cold.
• A home freezer is usually only about −18 °C and may not be cold enough for the recommended guidance, so do not rely on freezing fresh supermarket fish yourself. Buy fish that the seller states is safe to eat raw, and if it is frozen, thaw it in the fridge, never at room temperature.
• Keep the fish at 4 °C or below, on ice while you prepare it, and eat it the same day. Throw away leftovers dressed with the marinade rather than keeping them.
• Pregnant women, young children, older people and anyone with a weakened immune system are generally advised not to eat raw fish.

Regional versions

• Spicy ahi poke: stir 2 tablespoons mayonnaise and 1 teaspoon sriracha into the dressing.
• Traditional style: use sea salt, chopped limu (seaweed) and inamona (roasted, crushed kukui nut) in place of soy sauce and sesame oil.
• Octopus (he'e) poke is usually made with cooked octopus; salmon poke and tofu poke are also common; salmon should be farmed fish sold for raw consumption and handled in the same careful way.
• Poke bowls on the US mainland and abroad often add mango, edamame, pickled ginger and crispy onions.

Questions

Is poke raw fish?

Yes. Traditional poke is raw fish, though some shops also sell cooked versions made with cooked octopus, shrimp or tofu.

What does 'sushi-grade' mean?

Nothing official. It is a label sellers use to say a fish is fresh enough, and has been handled carefully enough, to be eaten raw. Check with the seller how it was handled and whether it was frozen.

How long does poke keep?

Eat it the same day you make it, ideally soon after mixing, and keep it cold throughout. Do not keep leftovers.

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