I used to cut a lot of recipes out of newspapers. I know, I know. Nobody under the age of 50 does that anymore. And to be fair, I don’t do it anymore either. I’ve actually never had a subscription in my name to an actual, physical newspaper. I think the last one I clipped was for Szechuan peppercorn roast turkey for Thanksgiving back in October, 2010. Or maybe it was for duck confit with home-rendered duck fat à la Rob Feenie for a trip to Toronto, also 2010, back before that city thought that liquid gold in which to roast meat or potatoes was anything other than a word that came twice before ‘goose’ in a nursery rhyme. How times have changed.
Now, besides cooking everything in duck fat, a big trend is poke bowls. Those Hawaiian-inspired bowls of sushi rice topped with marinated fish and nicely presented sliced, marinated, blanched or raw vegetables and other Asian-inspired toppings can cost up to $20 a pop for a version with sashimi grade tuna (sustainable or not), Atlantic salmon (not) or shrimp (generally not, unless made with Nordic shrimp, as in my recipe). There are vegetarian versions with avocado and edamame as stars instead of supporting actors, which are generally tasty but also overpriced. What really sells the dish, though (in my opinion), is the salty, generally creamy, thick dressing that you pour over top of the bowl and either stir the whole thing together (with chopsticks) or dip.
Personally, I find that if you pour whole sauce over top, the result is too greasy, because a little sesame oil is good, but a lot of sesame oil is not necessarily better. And as delicious as kewpie mayo can be (that’s commercial Japanese mayo made with MSG), I’d rather skip the head fog and gross stomach feeling that I get from it.
So that’s what attracted me to this recipe, cut from the Newfoundland Herald by a friend of my mother’s who knows I’m sort of into food. A blueberry poke bowl? I thought. It makes sense in Newfoundland, a place very proud of its wild berries. The small, low-bush fruit are more tart than their cultivated, fat cousins, which is perfect in the sauce, because the tartness balances the salty soy sauce (gluten free in my case), the whisp of sesame oil for nuttiness and the sweet-and-spicy chili sauce (not too much – remember, this is Newfoundland, home of meat and potatoes).
But my question is: Who in Newfoundland is actually going to make this? I suppose a handful of the couple hundred people who’ve ever been to Sun Sushi, the original sushi place (and still one of the only ones) in the city. But can you even get sashimi-quality tuna in St. John’s grocery stores? I think now you can, though there’s still a cultural stigma towards un-cooked fish.
Not so in Montreal, where eating tartare is bourgeois acceptance. Unfortunately, the wild berries cost an arm and a leg here, so I used the cultivated sweeties with a little extra rice vinegar. I also found it a bit funny that the recipe didn’t call for seasoned rice (salt and sugar like in sushi rice), but instead left the replacement quinoa completely unseasoned, more like a rice bowl than a poke bowl. I could have seasoned it myself, but I figured the sauce would be salty and sweet enough, which it almost was. If you want to season yours, add 2 tbsp unseasoned rice vinegar, 1 tsp sugar and 1/2 tsp salt to the warm, cooked quinoa (these instructions are also in the recipe below).
And because it was Montreal, and a poke bowl is really a free-for-all ingredient-wise, I added some cooked Nordic shrimp – soft and juicy and sweet and salty because it’s the season – plus some grilled chicken. Salt and pepper to season the meat and that’s it. After that, I threw in edamame, steamed yellow beans and some greenhouse tomatoes I’d been given from Lufa Farms. They don’t quite taste like late summer field tomatoes, but they weren’t bad. They were much fresher than Mexican March field tomatoes anyway. My point is, use whatever vegetables, fish, seafood or meat you want: bean sprouts, julienned carrots, zucchini, beets, cucumbers, broccoli, purple cabbage, green onions, grilled beef, sashimi-quality anything, or cooked fish like turbot or tranche (my newest Quebec local fish discovery, with a thick, oily layer under the skin that helps keep the fish moist; barbotte’s not bad either, though much smaller, like an orange-fleshed hake).
And make sure you adjust the flavour of the sauce to taste before serving, because that’s the difference between wanting to make this again and, well, going back to meat and potatoes. Which would be sad, really. Two steps forward, one step back.
Let’s be a little more ambitious and throw in some giant leaps. Preferably involving blueberries.
Blueberry Poke Bowl
Serves 4
6 cups frozen or fresh wild blueberries
2 tsp raw black or white sesame seeds
1 cup quinoa
2 tsp chili paste (Sriracha works, but homemade is better)
2 tsp gluten free soy sauce
4 tsp sesame oil
6-8 tsp unseasoned rice vinegar
10 oz. frozen edamame (or as much as you want)
3-4 cooked boneless, skinless chicken thighs*
1 lb steamed or gently boiled Nordic shrimp**
2 cups steamed yellow or green beans
4 cups organic spinach
2 organic tomatoes, sliced
1/2 avocado, sliced
Defrost the blueberries if using frozen.
Soak the quinoa for 20 minutes, then drain and bring to a boil in a large pot with 2 cups of water. Reduce heat to low for 15 minutes. Remove from heat but don’t remove the lid. This lets the quinoa steam and unstick. If you want to season the quinoa like sushi rice, after 10 minutes or so, add 2 tbsp rice vinegar, 1 tsp sugar and 1/2 tsp salt in a small bowl and pour evenly over the quinoa. Stir to combine.
Meanwhile, toast the sesame seeds in a small frying pan for 5-7 minutes or until golden (if white) and aromatic (if white or black), shaking the pan regularly to keep the seeds from burning. Remove immediately to a small bowl or plate or they’ll keep cooking.
Purée the defrosted berries with the chili paste, soy sauce, sesame oil, toasted sesame seeds and rice vinegar in a blender until smooth.
Bake the chicken. Steam the yellow beans for a couple minutes. Then do the same with the edamame. Finally, steam the shrimp. They should be last so that they stay warm for serving.
To serve, scoop a quarter of the quinoa into each of four bowls. Place the spinach, tomatoes, avocado, steamed vegetables, chicken and shrimp on top, with the meat or fish in the middle. Top with some extra blueberries and toasted sesame seeds if you want. Serve the dressing on the side for everyone to pour onto the bowl as desired.
*Season the thighs with a 1/2 tsp of olive oil, a sprinkle of salt and a grind of fresh peppercorns if you like, then bake them for 20 minutes in a 350˚F oven.
**If you buy fresh Nordic shrimp, cook them for just 1-2 minutes until no longer translucent; if you can find them in their shells, buy those because it’s harder to overcook them – the shells act as insulation. It’s more work to shell them after cooking, but worth it for the final result.
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