This recipe nods to the poke at Ruben & Ozzy’s – a super casual downtown find in Palm Springs where, in the time before, we would sit at the counter and work our way through small plates, watching the brothers do their thing. North London now and you’d be lucky to get a seat outside since lockdown eased but I’m looking forward to my next counter seat because I eat with my eyes and love the buzz of a good kitchen.
Back to the poke. It’s hard to reconstruct from a memory formed, giddy with excitement at a desert oyster bar on my fifth marg. Luckily Ruben & Ozzy’s online menu fills the blanks – their Mexican poke is made with fresh ahi tuna, avocado, coriander, sliced jalapeño and tossed in a sweet and spicy sauce. Who knows if this comes close because all I remember is theirs was hot and bloody delicious. And I’ve subbed wakame in place of coriander because girl needed a break. But suit yourself.
If you can’t get ahi (Hawaiian for yellow-fin and not to be confused with hamachi yellow-tail/amberjack) just make sure whatever tuna you use is certified sushi/sashimi grade: the process involved is not complicated but guarantees what you have purchased is fit for consuming raw – flash frozen for a specific time at a temp well below the capabilities of a home freezer to get rid of parasites. Now there’s a thought.
Some will tell you this is all nonsense, but given our current predicament, debate over which fish are safe to eat raw over others is a dive into murky waters not worth the bother.
Serves 2 as a main, tabasco on the side.
Ingredients:
- 500g raw sushi/sashimi grade tuna
- 2 x avocado, skinned and chopped into chunks
- ½ cup dried wakame, reconstituted
- 1 x bunch spring onions, white parts chopped, green parts thinly sliced
- 3 jalapeño chillies, deseeded and sliced
- 1 tbsp. black sesame seeds, toasted
- 1 tbsp. white sesame seeds, toasted
- 20ml Kikkoman soy sauce
- 10ml toasted sesame oil
- 5 ml Acacia honey
Instructions:
- Whisk the honey, toasted sesame oil and soy in a bowl large enough to incorporate all the poke ingredients, leave to the side
- Reconstitute the dried wakame, squeeze the excess moisture out and then roughly chop so you have about a handful
- Chop the remaining salad ingredients: thinly slice the green ends of the spring onion, cut the white ends into 10mm sections and chop the avocado into slightly bigger chunks. Keep these in a separate bowl along with the wakame
- Toast the sesame seeds and keep to the side
- Now cut the tuna into 15mm chunks and avoiding the white sinew: the connective tissue is chewy and should be discarded
- When you have all these parts ready, combine in the larger bowl giving it a good toss with the dressing and leave for 5 minutes for the flavours to combine before serving, leaving some sesame seeds to sprinkle on top of each bowl at the end
FU2020 