For a while now, I’ve been hearing folks talk about poke (pok-ee). I had absolutely no idea what that means, and googling this particular food is not easy. Needless to say, when one of my interns said her poke is the best, and offered to share the recipe, I jumped at the opportunity. She even offered to bring some in, which she hasn’t yet done, but I expect she’ll do just that when we’re all least expecting it. Now, recipe in hand, I have a much better idea of what poke actually is. Basically, it’s raw ahi tuna in lime juice and other stuff that you serve with sticky rice, and it’s pretty damn good. Better than that though, it’s dead easy to make. When I say easy, I mean like the hardest part is cooking the rice to go with it. Since rice is my #2 specialty behind plain noodles, I totally have this one in hand. So, without further ado, here’s Zay’s most excellent spicy poke:

What you need:

• Two tuna steaks (about a pound) – make sure these look good. you are going to be eating them raw.
• 3 Tbsp soy sauce
• 3 Tbsp Sesame oil
• 2 Tbsp Sriracha
• Lime Juice – I’m not sure how much, but you should use a fair amount.
• 1/2 Sweet yellow onion
• 3-4 Green onions
• 1/2 Avocado

Directions:

To start, cube your tuna. If you do this while they’re still a bit frozen, it’ll be much easier. Dice your onions and avocado. Put everything into an air-tight container and mix well. Set it into the fridge for one to two hours, then serve on sticky rice. If you want, you can make spicy may to serve with it (50/50 mayo and Sriracha)

The truth of the matter is that I virtually never do things as prescribed and heavily substitute, in part because I will have forgotten ingredients and in part because I want to do it my own damn way (sorry Zay!) So here is how I did it this afternoon.

• One Tuna Steak (I got a case of the cheap-skate at the grocery store)
• 3 Tbsp soy sauce
• 3 Tbsp Hot Chili Sesame oil
• 3 Tbsp Lemon/Lime juice mix
• 2 small yellow onions
• 3-4 Green onions
• 1/2 Avocado

My recipe was good, and had just the right amount of heat for me. That said, I highly recommend following the directions to use half a sweet yellow onion. It was good, but I can see that this wasn’t as good as it might have been. Either way, it was totally worth doing again!