I continue to work in my home kitchen as we continue to shelter in place for another month in California!
It reminds me of my grandmother’s type of retirement. When she retired she hardly left the house. Her routine was sleep, wake up, couch time, kitchen time and then back to bed. Maybe a quick run to the grocery store and working in the garden in between the couch and kitchen time.
Booooooooo to that! Kill me! That’s not the retired life I know or ever want to know, outside of being forced to stay home.
And, as I found out, I still don’t get any of the long listed chores or work done that is needed on the house! It really wasn’t about not having the time because work got in the way. As is turns out, I’m just lazy when it comes to fixing things at the house! I don’t like chores and I don’t like working on important house stuff!
Nope, I’d rather be out and about doing things like socializing, hanging out with friends or visiting new places across the globe; eating at restaurants, drinking whiskey at bars and meeting new people…that’s my kind of retirement. Golfing is too slow and fishing in quiet isolated streams just sucks the life out of my soul. I can’t sit still very long.
Instead, I find myself in the home kitchen creating dishes for my blog!
Simple Poke Recipe
Poke starts with a nice cut of tuna. The tuna pictured here is called the Big Eye. It’s a high end piece of Ahi. I ordered it on-line through Luxe Gourmets company. It costs $90 a pound. The cut in this picture is one pound. It’s only second to Blue Fin Tuna as far as quality of fish.
The most common tuna for Poke is the Yellow Fin tuna also known as Ahi. That’s the one you find in your local fish markets and grocery stores…for a far less price.
You will notice the tuna has skin on it and a dark colored area. I am going to cut that away. You don’t want the tough skin and the dark area doesn’t look or taste good.
That’s what it looks after all the bad areas have been cut away.
Next I fillet the tuna in half with a sushi grade professional knife. You can use a sharp chef knife. I cut the tuna into 1″ thick strips.
Then I cut the tuna into 1″ squares.
Put your cut tuna into a mixing bowl.
You will mix all the ingredients together with the tuna. Green onions (3 small stalks) 1/2 of a small shallot, 4 or 5 macadamia nuts chopped, sesame seeds, pepper flakes, 2 Tbs of sesame oil and 3 Tbs of soy sauce. The seeds, nuts and pepper flakes are all optional. I also cut the white area of the green onion. I use that as a finishing touch to the dish.
Once everyone is in the bowl…start mixing. You can use your hands and toss the mixture until mixed together or use a spoon.
Wrap the bowl with cellophane and let is rest in the frig for an hour.
As a finishing touch to my Poke I like using Ikura, mainly for color, and caviar. Ikura is salmon roe and this particular caviar is Royal Ossetra from the Sturgeon fish. It costs about $80 to $90 per oz. I bought 1 oz of the caviar on-line from Imperia Caviar. The two eggs are optional for this dish.
As mentioned before, the white part of my green onions, are also added to the finished plate.
You can put Poke on just about anything. Commonly, it is eaten on a bed of rice in a bowl. You can put it on top of a salad, eat it with out anything underneath it. You can put it on your favorite cracker or, do like I did, on top of avocado.
Steak Donburi with Egg
Personally, this cut of meat is a must have for myself! It’s a 10 oz thin sliced sirloin strip cut of Hokkaido A5 Japanese Wagyu Beef. A5 is the top grade. This amazing steak costs $135 for one 10 oz steak. I bought this steak on-line from the Wagyu Shop.
The quality of this steak is the best of the best. The marbling and fat content makes this steak a melt in your mouth experience you won’t soon forget.
For the purpose of this dish, you can use any grade sirloin strip steak from your local grocer or meat market.
I cut the steak in half and added salt and pepper to both sides. In a frying pan or on your grill, sear each side for about 1 and 1/2 minutes. If you want your steak cooked a little more you can. I like mine rare to raw when using a high end steak like Wagyu.
After searing the steak, let it rest for about 10 minutes. If you cut into the steak too early, all the juices will ooze out, leaving you with a leathery dry piece of tasteless meat.
While your steak is resting prepare your rice bowl. I used sushi rice this time. However, you can use regular rice or brown rice for this dish.
If you go back and read my “how to roll sushi” article it will tell you how to make sushi rice.
After your steak has rested and you sliced it…you can lay it down on top of your rice. You can lay out the slices in any formation you want. I did it this way because I’m going to add an egg to it.
Finishing touches to the dish: I like my egg yolk raw. I learned to eat raw eggs when my mom would make sukiyaki for dinner. We always dipped the beef strips into a well beaten raw egg.
You don’t have to do it that way. You can add a poached egg, soft boiled egg, a sunny side up egg or an over easy egg. Or leave the egg out all together.
I add one stalk of green onions cut into small pieces and a sprinkle of sesame seeds (all optional). I also add a drizzle of sweet teriyaki sauce.
Thanks for taking a moment to read my blog. Stay healthy and stay safe. See you next time!
Another well written article.
Thanks Kevin!