Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Tuna Poke!

Tuna Poke, pronounced "Po-Kay," is a Hawaiian dish that I tasted at Cafe 30-A last Saturday night and decided that I had to learn to make!
I bought some sushi tuna from the sushi chef at Publix that he had packaged with toothpick cuts of cucumber and carrot for some thing or another (they won't just sell it to you), freshly picked oak leaf and frisee lettuce and had the rest at home.
If you try, you can buy good tomatoes out of season. The ones on the vine are good after a week on the counter - by the way, never refrigerate tomatoes unless you've cut them.
My attempt came out well but will be different next time. I had bought some pretty, picked-this-morning oak-leaf and frisse lettuce and used it as a base topped with thinly sliced ripe (really!) tomato, toothpick cucumber and carrot and then a timbale of the raw tuna in small chunks with diced avocado dressed in lime juice, sea salt and pepper.I made a dressing to dip into of good EVOO, parsley and lime juice with a splash of red wine vinegar.
There was just too much greenery and the whole dish was enough for two.
Next time, thinly sliced baby or English cucumber, sprinkled with sea salt and topped with thin slices of the tuna. Small dice of the tomato and avocado dressed with ground pepper, sea salt and lime juice along the side and a drip of good EVOO on the edge of the plate for the occasional dip.
That should work:)