After years of eating poke on the mainland, I visited Oahu and tried traditional Hawaiian poke sauce from many popular spots like Tamura’s and The Hibachi. Hawaiian-style poke that included different takes of classic poke dressing (shoyu-based) was even more flavorful than the mainland style because they marinated the fish for extended periods. I love seafood, and poke bowls (especially salmon poke bowls) are my favorite way to eat fish. Poke bowls are easy to make at home because you don’t need to heat or cook anything. All you have to do is cut your fish of choice, assemble the dressing, and mix! Making it at home lets you customize the flavors, like adding more sesame oil for a nuttier flavor or marinating the fish to infuse the poke sauce flavor fully.
What’s in traditional Hawaiian poke?
Poke is a traditional Hawaiian food, meaning “to cut into pieces” or “slice.” To use all the pieces of the raw tuna, fishermen scraped the leftover meat from tuna bones and mixed it in a sauce of:
Hawaiian sea salt sesame oil soy sauce seaweed roasted inamona nuts
These days, you can find poke all over the world, but Hawaiian poke often differs from mainland style because it’s marinated in a poke sauce before serving. On the mainland, you often get to choose your marinade and fixings RIGHT before it’s served, so fish isn’t infused with as much flavor. My top two spots to buy poke near me in Orange County, CA are North Shore Poke (mainland poke style) and 808 Local Hawaiian Grill (traditional Hawaiian poke style).
What is poke sauce made of?
Many different varieties of poke seasoning and sauces are available on the mainland and in Hawaii. Two main sauces are based on shoyu (soy sauce) and mayonnaise.
Base sauces
Shoyu: soy sauce and sesame oil. This is commonly used with ahi tuna. Mayo: this creamy base is often mixed with Sriracha for a spicy flavor and paired with raw salmon cubes. Sometimes, there’s a hint of sesame oil, too.
Aromatics & veggies
After sauces, the majority of the volume added to the sauce will be aromatics and veggies that provide a strong aroma and a large amount of texture. These are things like:
thinly sliced onion minced garlic fresh ginger roe minced daikon thinly sliced cucumber
Finishers
In addition to these poke sauces and aromatics, you can also add finishing toppings for more flavor and extra texture:
avocado cubes furikake fried garlic fried onion kukui nuts roasted sesame seeds seaweed salad
If you want heat, you can also add spicy seasonings like:
chili peppers sriracha chili oil hot sauce
For more citrus flavor, you can add splashes of yuzu juice (or lemon) or ponzu.
Tips for making poke bowls
Making poke sauce and poke bowls at home is super easy, follow my tips below:
Use fresh and quality ingredients, especially raw fish. I like to purchase my raw fish from Catalina Offshore (affiliate link) or Mitsuwa because they are reputable companies with fresh fish available. Cut the fish in the same size so they marinade evenly. Let the fish marinate in the fridge for at least 20 minutes to get more flavor. Make fresh rice with poke–you can eat it by itself, but I love eating it with rice. You can make short-grain rice using a rice cooker, microwave, on the stove, or even using an Instant Pot. Alternatively, you can also eat them with chips or fried wontons.
Note that “sushi grade” is not an official certification; however, I still abide by this label when purchasing from any company. “Sushi grade” often means that the fish has been processed, frozen cold, and long enough to kill off parasites. Do not use fresh, caught fish for raw consumption because there is a higher risk of parasites.
How to pick which sauce to use
Poke can be other types of fish than ahi tuna. Some favorites include raw salmon, oysters, octopus, scallops, and yellowtail. When eating mainland poke, pairing fish type and poke sauce is often based on personal preference. Since Hawaiian poke is premade, they’ve made this decision for you. To be frank, there aren’t really any rules to pairing fish with poke sauces. Here are some common fish and sauce pairings I’ve seen:
Shoyu with oyster sauce and ahi Spicy mayo with salmon Spicy shoyu with ahi or tako (octopus)
How much poke sauce to make
The recipe below is enough sauce for 8 oz. of fish. So depending on how much fish you’re preparing, you can scale up accordingly. I make about two tablespoons worth of poke sauce for eight ounces of ahi tuna (about two servings). Poke doesn’t really keep well in the fridge for longer than a few days, so really I just try to eat poke within the same day and don’t try to save any in the fridge.
