2017 | Aloha Y'all Kitchen

BEGINNER’S POKE BOWL

In Hawaii, we love our poke bowls. Put some rice in a bowl and top with fresh sliced fish, customize your toppings and top with a shoyu vinaigrette. It’s the island version of grabbing a sandwich…grain, protein, veggies and sauce. Aloha, done.

Let’s break it down: fresh means raw and shoyu is soy sauce and poke is pronounced POH-keh. Did I lose you at the raw fish? Hang in with me because you’re gonna love this Beginner’s Poke Bowl.

Let’s start by the pickled toppings that really give a good crunch with your bowl but take at least an hour to marinate. Make a light pickling solution with rice vinegar and sugar. I use a ration of 3:1; vinegar to sugar. Add a pinch of sea salt. For the pickled veggie-crunch: stir together the vinegar, salt and sugar to dissolve. Julienne a large carrot and two radishes. Thinly slice a Japanese cucumber and 6 slices jalapeno pepper. Save yourself a bowl and mix the vinaigrette in a sealed storage container, add in your prepped veggies; giving all a good toss. Let it pickle at room temperature for one hour. Or if you’re really on the ball, do it the night before.

Cook brown rice according to the package directions. For an authentic Hawaiian-style rice, make the sticky by rinsing, adding a little extra water and letting it cook low and slow. Remember, you want the rice to not be fluffy as you need it kind clumpy to be able to use your chopsticks. My friend Satomi taught me this easy technique when we lived in Japan. Put your rice in a large pot, swish the rice five times (please don’t question Satomi). Pour off the extra rinse water each time because you’re rinsing off some of the starch to help it cook to the right texture. You get the exact amount of water by resting the tip of your index finger on the damp rice and gently adding enough water to reach the first joint of that finger. It works like magic for any amount of dried rice you add to the pot; no need to break out the measuring cups. Stir in a pinch of sea salt, giving a good stir, and bring to a boil. Once you see the first vigorous boil, turn down to low and cover pot with lid. Simmer and keep covered for 45 minutes (don’t peak cuz you’ll let off steam). Remove from heat and let rice come to room temperature before adding to your dish.

Once you have your rice cooked and your veggies pickled, assembling your Poke Bowl just takes minutes. The star of the Poke Bowl is your Hawaiian Ahi (or shrimp, octopus, salmon). Oh no, too soon to introduce octopus in this beginner’s poke primer? You’ll get there and trust me it’s delicious.

Take your gorgeous red Ahi steak, cut into about one-inch cubes, season with kosher salt and cracked black pepper. Sear the tuna is a hot skillet coated with a swirl of olive oil. In Hawaii, we eat it raw but for the beginner I suggest cooking it to your liking by kissing it with some heat. Let the cubes sit undisturbed in your skillet for a second to get a tiny bit browned, don’t feel you have to keep tossing it around the pan. I like my tuna with the edges golden and the center red. It will be easier to get that raw center-toasted outer by cutting the tuna into a larger cube. If you order a poke bowl here in the islands you’re gonna get your raw fish cut into small cubes. Actually, the word poke means to cut up into bits. Let’s get back to your pan and Ahi, err on the side of taking it out before you think as it will keep cooking a bit.

Assemble your bowl with a large scoop of brown rice in your bowl, then create a beautiful landscape of toppings. Top with your seared Ahi, pickled veggies, fresh avocado slices and I like a mix of thinly sliced green onions with pok choi(bok choy). Mix a simple dressing of tamari, rice vinegar and sesame oil. Finish it all with a spritz of fresh lime, especially important for keeping your avocado green and vibrant. Make it truly authentic… sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds or furikake.

While most folks put dropping pounds or learning a new language as their New Year’s Resolutions, at the top of my list is to make a better biscuit. I mean really; how can one call yourself a Southern gal and not make a decent biscuit? I’m stepping forward and pleading guilty to that one. My biscuits are usually of good flavor but rather dense and heavy for my liking (& also Big Sugar’s when pressed to give honest feedback).

So on the first day of the new year I put everyone in the house to work. Belly up to the bar, grab a biscuit and let the ratings begin. Three different biscuit recipes were used; an old recipe I had claiming to be just like Bojangles, the second from the back of the White Lily Flour bag and the last, a back-of-the-can traditional baking powder biscuit. Two of the recipes used self-rising flour and the other all-purpose For the fat, good old-fashioned lard and the other two good ol’ Crisco. Each recipe also called for a different baking temp though all were baked at pretty high heat. Each was brushed with melted butter as they came out of the oven.

Here’s how the biscuits looked for judging-

Biscuit A: Bojangles Biscuit Wanna-Be

Preheat oven to 450 degrees/ bake 12 min

3 C. Self-rising flour

3 tsp baking powder

2 tsp powdered sugar

1/2 C. lard

1 1/4 C. buttermilk

Biscuit B: Southern Soft-Flour Biscuit

preheat oven to 500 degrees/ bake 8-10 minutes

2 C. White Lily Self-Rising Flour

1/4 C. cold Crisco

2/3-3/4 C. buttermilk

I added one tsp sugar

Biscuit C: Baking Powder Biscuit

preheat oven to 475 degrees/ bake 11 minutes ( I only baked these 10 min because they browned quickly…uh, that’s a hint)

2 C. All-Purpose Flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 C. cold Crisco

3/4 C. buttermilk

I added one tsp of sugar

I TB melted butter (brush on top before baking)

And so the judging began. Well, let me back up, the judges had to be slowed down a bit so that the nibbling didn’t commence willy-nilly. The biscuits were kept separated on their baking sheets (all baked on parchment). And of course, we had mounds of softened butter and Hawaiian Honey but the initial bite had to be of a naked biscuit. We’re running a tight ship here.

Angela took the role as scribe. She also directed the boys which biscuit to each first. I gotta tell ya, it was hard not to tell them which was which. But I wanted to let them taste & judge in the blind.

Check out the comments and cool chart that Angela put up on our kitchen board:

We all designated our number one choice for the best biscuit and then which ones came in second and third place.

The Soft Southern flour and the Baking Powder Biscuits tied for first place with the copy-cat Bojangles (Biscuit A) judged by all to be the least favorite of the bunch.

Here’s the comments:

Biscuit A: dry & salty

Biscuit B: buttery, best looking, moist (Cameron & Angela’s top pick)

Biscuit C: Flaky, buttery (Mike and My fave but Cam & Ang thought it was dark and heavy)

What’s to be learned from this? Biscuit tasting Contests are a great way to start your day (& year)!

And I learned cold Crisco and a high oven temp produce the lightest flakiest biscuit.

Now I can get started on the other things on my resolution list. And I better put the biscuit baking on hold to get to the other resolutions especially the one involving less calories. C’est Bon!