poke-ing around: fresh salmon poke bowls

God, my puns are getting worse and worse. But I am 200% not sorry.

Okay, so I legit don't even know if I can call this a recipe because there are like two steps and it's so ridiculously simple.

My friend Rey and I have had a standing cooking date for ages, and it finally happened! I've been mildly obsessed with poke (pronounced "poh-keh") ever since I tried it in Hawaii, and I came across this recipe, so a couple of weeks ago we decided to give it a try. My sister Marisa also happened to be in town, so she and I went downtown to the Santa Barbara Fish Market to gather supplies.

It turned out that the "fish market" was literally just one counter. And it was pretty expensive. But they had all kinds of very nice, very delicious-looking fish. We decided on salmon, since the gorgeous ahi tuna was 1.5x the price. If you decide to do this, MAKE SURE you ask specifically for sushi-grade fish. You can't just buy any fillet from the market and expect to cut it up and eat it as poke without consequences (granted, this was contaminated sashimi, but still).

Poke is an awesome meal. Not only is it relatively healthy, but it's delicious as well, and it makes a great summer meal because it's very light but also filling. Not quite sure what I was doing with my life before I started eating raw fish.

FRESH SALMON POKE BOWLS

Yields: Three sizeable poke bowls
Prep: 2 minutes
Cook: 0 minutes

poke

1½ lb sushi-grade fish
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp rice wine vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
Sesame seeds (optional)
Rice
Furikake seasoning

Skin the fish (I had quite a difficult time with this part) and cube it.

Mix the 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp sesame oil, and 1 tsp rice wine vinegar together in a large bowl. Toss in the cubed fish and mix, until fish is evenly coated.

Serve over rice, garnish with avocado, furikake seasoning, and/or seaweed. And that's it! The easiest meal ever, foolproof for people who can't cook, and honestly a very good-looking dish. Will be making this more often for sure.

It was as tasty as it was pretty, too. We finished our bowls in about ten seconds flat.