August Recipe of the Week: Salmon Poke!
Poke is one of my favorite dishes of all time. I’ve been enjoying this traditional Hawaiian dish since the turn of century, when I first resided in Hawai’i. Poke is now one of the hottest food trends on the mainland. Most commonly poke (pronounced POKE-AY) is made with Ahi (tuna). But you can poke anything—small and large fish (fresh and raw). The word poke, when translated from Hawaiian, simply means to slice or cut.
Salmon is very abundant in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest during summer months. Grizzly bears, bald eagles and resident orcas don’t get to have all the fun with raw summer salmon. We do too! My favorite summer fish to poke is Chinook (king) salmon. Coho (silver) salmon, Sockeye (red) salmon, and arctic char are other great choices.
Do you know your 5 Pacific Salmon species? (See the salmonid factoids below!)
Salmon poke is very simple and super healthy. If you can’t catch your own, the hardest part is locating where to purchase the best sushi-grade, sustainable salmon. Cubing the salmon requires a slight amount of finesse as well. Once cubed, the raw fish gets tossed with a simple dressing. You can serve it on top green salad, rice, or chilled noodles (rice or soba). Pair it with edamame, shaved red cabbage, sliced cucumber, avocado, seaweed, radishes, and ginger.
Note: It’s worth the cost to buy the very best sustainable fish you can find. I recommend downloading Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch guideline app and compare their recommendations to what is available in your local market.
Ingredients:
- 1 pound sushi-grade wild salmon or arctic char fillets, skin removed, chilled
Sauce:
- 10 garlic chives or large chives or 3 scallions, trimmed and sliced into ¼-inch pieces (about ½ cup)
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely minced or grated
- 1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds, black and tan Gomasio preferred
- 3 teaspoons of coconut aminos (or 2 teaspoons soy sauce and 1 tablespoon honey)
- 2 tablespoons sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon if chili flakes or hot chili paste (optional)
- 2 to 3 tablespoons roasted seaweed, chopped (furikake is great choice, or use a pre-made seaweed snack mix. In Hawai’i, limu is the native edible seaweed to poke with. Limu is ono delicious!)
Optional sides:
- Cooked rice, chilled noodles (rice/soba), or green salad
- ½ cup edamame beans, shelled
- 4 radishes, thinly sliced
- 1 cup purple cabbage, thinly sliced
- ½ cup wakame salad
- ½ cup of sliced carrots and/or cucumber
- 1 cup of cubed or slices avocado
- Pickled (or raw) ginger and wasabi
Instructions:
- Cook rice or noodles according to package directions
- Prepare your salad, veggies and toppings and set aside.
- Meanwhile, in a medium sized mixing bowl, combine your sauce ingredients and whisk with a fork until well combined.
- Next, cut your salmon with a sharp knife into bite sized cubes (approx 1 inch or less) and add them to the bowl with your sauce mixture. Mix gently to coat pieces evenly, adding more of any of the sauce ingredients to taste if needed.
- Add the seaweed into the mixture and mix gently.
- Place your rice, noodles or salad in the bottom of the bowl. Top with your salmon mixture and arrange your toppings around the bowl as you like.
- Finish with a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds, serve immediately and ENJOY!
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Fun Salmonid Factoids:
- All Pacific Salmon evolved from ancestors of rainbow trout. The salmonid family includes salmon, trout, char, graylings and freshwater whitefishes.
- Salmon return from the ocean to their natal freshwater stream to spawn (known as an anadromous life cycle). Most salmon spawn (lay and fertilize eggs) only once during their lifetime and die usually within a week of spawning (known as a semelparous life cycle).
Salmon is a keystone species in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. Did you know bears pull so much salmon out of streams into the forest that their marine nitrogen is absorbed into the trees as nutrients? Salmon help trees to grow big and strong. (Watch: Salmon in the Trees! A beautiful story about the interconnectedness of salmon in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest.)- July, August and September are when most salmon are “running” (meaning, returning to their natal stream to spawn).
- Salmon need clean unobstructed rivers and lakes. Young salmon are also very sensitive to temperature. This is all the more reason we need to keep our riparian areas, forests and climate healthy!
- King (Chinook) salmon is the largest salmon, highest in fat, most expensive, and most endangered. Kings often make very long migrations during their 6-7 years out at sea before they return to their natal rivers. Large fast-flowing rivers are where kings prefer to spawn. The largest Chinook ever caught was 126 lbs. in Alaska, 1949!
- Sockeye (red) salmon is Japan’s favorite salmon; it’s a deep red color and not as fatty. Sockeye’s prefer to eat krill and insects (instead of little fish)—so you need use different fish fly to catch them on a fly rod! Sockeye are very fond of spring-fed upwellings in lakes to spawn.
- The Aquaculture Controversy: The interbreeding of aquaculture salmon (usually Atlantic Salmon) and wild Pacific salmon causes the genetic integrity of wild fish to be compromised (genetic contamination). In other words, the wild fish lose traits needed to survive in the wild.
- Alaska’s wild salmon fisheries are considered well managed, the population is healthy and abundant.
- How to remember the 5 types of salmon on the Pacific Coast with your fingers:
- Chum (dog salmon) rhymes with thumb. Chum are called dog salmon because it is the least desirable type – and they were fed to the dogs.
- You can sock someone’s eye out with your pointing index finger. So that’s Sockeye, also known as red.
- Your largest finger, or your king finger, is your middle. It is for King Salmon, also known as Chinook.
- Your ring finger stands for the Silver Salmon, also known as Coho.
- Pinkie = pink, obviously! Pink salmon are also known as humpback or humpies.
