Salmon Poke

My version of Hawaiian raw seafood salad

Yes, another salmon resipe, there isn’t such a thing as too much salmon, especially raw or, at most, medium rare.

Ingredients that I use in Poke are similar to that of California sushi roll, without the rice, of course. Wikipedia has a good description of history of Hawaiian Poke.

Ingredients

2 salmon filets, boned and skin removed (must be very fresh)

3” of English cucumber

1 avocado

1/4 cup chopped coriander

2 green onions, finally chopped

1 Tbs. Furikake

1 tsp. coarse sea salt

Dressing

1 Tbs. Teriyaki sauce

Lime juice from 1/2 lime

2 tsp. Maple syrup

1 tsp. wasabi paste

Directions

Prepare dressing by combining all ingredients and mix till smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning. It should be on sweet side (salt is added later) and spicy.

Wipe salmon filets with clean wet towel and dice into 1/2” cubes. Transfer salmon to large chilled mixing bowl.

Cut avocado in half, remove pit and skin and chop into small cubes.

Move avocado, coriander and onions to bowl with salmon, mix and sprinkle mixture with Furikake and sea salt. Sprinkle dressing over poke and mix well.

Transfer to chilled serving bowl and serve with cucumber slices or in Nori (seaweed) cones.

Note: Furikake can be substituted by combining 1 tsp. of each: white sesame seeds, toasted sesame seeds and chopped toasted nori. Actually, there is no rule as to what you use in your Poke.

Japanese Furikake Seasoning

Furikake is our favorite Japanese seasoning but utill now we used it very sparingly because it is so expensive and we have to drive over one hour to buy it. We use it on fish, rice, cucumber salads, noodles etc.

There are few rough recipes on Internet but for me the biggest stumbling block was how to chop nori (dry seaweed) into small pieces. With the knife it is very tedious and messy job – the nori flakes fly all over the kitchen. When I tried food processor or mini chopper it was a failure as I was left with mix of powder and some large chunks, there was no consistency at all

Then, I had an idea: why not to use spaghetti attachment on my pasta machine? Today I gave it a try and it is a winner!!! It is so fast and easy I couldn’t believe it!

Here is my version of Furikake and my technique to chop nori. You can adjust ratio of ingredients to your taste, add some more or omit some. Just use your imagination.

Ingredients:

2 Tbs. toasted white sesame seeds

2 Tbs. black sesame seeds

2 Tbs. bonito flakes

2 dried shiitake mushrooms

1 tsp. Dashi soup base powder or 1/2 tsp. fine sea salt

1 tsp. dried mandarin or tangerine peel, cut into small pieces

1/2 tsp. chili powder or to taste

4 sheets toasted nori, chopped (see tip at bottom)

Instruction:

Remove stems from shiitake mushrooms, chop into smaller pieces and grind in coffee or spice grinder into powder consistency. Add orange peel and grind till fine. Add bonito flakes and pulse couple times to break larger pieces.

Empty grinder contents into mixing bowl, add sesame seeds, Dashi, chili powder and nori flakes and mix till well combined.

Tip: How to chop Nori into flakes using pasta machine.

Take 4 nori sheets and cut into 4 equal pieces.  You will have 4 piles with 4 small sheets.

Take each pile and run through spaghetti attachment of pasta machine. Keep strands running in same direction.

When all piles are cut into strips, place them across cutting roller and cut them into flakes. If you want longer flakes use fettuccine cutting roller.

All done and no mess.