Guy Jackson - Poke Hawaiian-Inspired Sushi Bowls

ContentsAloha!Thank you for buying our book. Before you dive into our delicious sea of recipes, wed like to introduce ourselves: Celia Farrar and Guy Jackson, two Londoners who fell in love with poke pronounced poh-kay. Pathway to Poke Our poke story began in 2012. On a trip to LA, Celia was taken to a local hole-in-the-wall spot called Poke Poke on Venice Beach, where the team were doling out pots of delicious marinated fish to a hungry queue of surfers, skaters and locals. After teaming up with fellow food enthusiast Guy, we began thinking about how we could bring this sunny, laid-back attitude to London. After months of obsessive research and recipe testing (and a cheeky trip to Hawaii) we started Eat Poke, Londons first poke eatery, trading with Kerb, Street Feast and Druid Street food markets. Now we want to share our poke with you.

With Celias background in fashion and Guys in branding, design plays an important role in our dishes and the look of our first recipe book. We hope you enjoy creating these vibrant, healthy and seriously tasty tropical bowls.

The Aloha State Poke in Hawaii A dish that is centuries old, poke simply means to cut or section and traditionally consists of chunks of fresh, raw fish, served sprinkled with Hawaiian sea salt and mixed with crunchy local limu seaweed. Hawaiian cuisine is an exhilarating melting pot of culinary influences. Walk into any supermarket or local convenience store in Hawaii and chances are you will find row upon row of fresh poke, featuring flavour profiles from across the Pacific, Asia and Europe. During our visits to the islands, we would spend hours sampling and chatting away to the hugely welcoming and knowledgeable store owners.

At one such place, the family-run Alicias Market in Honolulu, Alicias grandson talked us through the fresh Hawaiian delicacies on offer and sorted us out with some of the best poke we had ever had. Our Poke, Your Poke Although inspired by the poke we have tasted in Hawaii and Los Angeles (tough job, but somebody had to do it), our poke is firmly non-traditional if we like the idea of it, in it goes. The key, really, is just to select the freshest ingredients available to you. As well as poke bowls, we have widened the scope of the recipes in this book to include small plates and all the tasty extras that we use to pimp our poke. This includes plenty of ideas for pickles, a bit of an obsession of ours, alongside some Hawaiian classics, such as . Poke bowls are extremely customisable to suit specific tastes and dietary requirements: if catering for vegetarians sub out the tuna in our for chopped avocado and cubes of cooked sweet potato, or replace the rice with shredded spring greens We like to think of poke as a more easy-going version of sushi, and we would encourage you to mix and match with the recipes that follow.

Choose local, seasonal produce, pick a marinade, throw in a pickle or crunchy topping and suddenly you have created your own bowl of sunshine. Olakino Maikai To live healthy A Note on Sourcing For most people, the idea of sourcing and handling raw fish is the most intimidating part of creating any poke dish. Our advice? Make friends with your fishmonger! When we started out, Sam, our local fishmonger at Jonathan Norris in Victoria Park, London, proved an indispensable fountain of knowledge about selecting and preparing the freshest fish to eat raw. He has shared some of his top tips with us on , along with a handy illustrated guide to help you get started on filleting fish. Next up, is a responsibility we all have: to make ethical and sustainable choices when consuming fish.

For us, there is nothing more exciting than getting lost within the rows of magical ingredients at our local Asian supermarket.For us, there is nothing more exciting than getting lost within the rows of magical ingredients at our local Asian supermarket.

But this isnt always practical! So we have compiled a pantry to help you find the essentials for making poke. We have also extended the list for the more intrepid dare ya!
The Essential Poke Pantry Black + White Sesame Seeds Little pearls of joy. Almost as important as soy sauce in our poke recipes. To keep them fresh, store in an airtight container or sealable jar. Chilli Red, green, whatever always have some to hand to help power up your poke. Dried Shiitake Mushrooms These add so much umami. Dried Shiitake Mushrooms These add so much umami.

Once hydrated, these meaty mushrooms can be used for stocks, pickles or as the star of a dish. Fresh Ginger A must. Fresh as it can be and as much of it as you can handle. It features in most of our recipes for good reason. It cleanses the palate and adds a fiery kick. Mirin A sweet rice wine, with a mild acidity.

A key ingredient for seasoning rice (). Miso Paste This is made from fermented soy beans. We use both sweet white miso and salty red miso. Rice An obvious staple! We often use a short-grain variety, normally labelled as sushi rice. Alternative types we use are brown and black. Rice Wine Vinegar A mild vinegar made from rice.

Ideal for Japanese salad dressings and pickles. It is less acidic than other vinegars such as sherry, distilled white vinegar and some wine vinegars. Soy Sauce or Tamari (gluten-free) We could drink this stuff definitely have! We prefer a lighter style. Tamari is a gluten-free version we also use.