Ok everyone, for the first Jolly Sailor Cook-a-long (great idea Tess and thanks for asking me Sue!) we’re going to be cooking steak poke bowls.

Poke (pronounced POH-keh for those not in the known) is essentially Hawaii’s version of easy sushi. It means “to slice or cut” in Hawaiian and refers to chunks of raw, marinated fish — usually tuna — which is then tossed over rice and topped with vegetables and umami-packed sauces

Seeing as raw fish isn’t everyone’s cup of tea we’re swapping it out for a big bit of meat (because gains). The idea behind poke bowls is they are relatively healthy, you can pack them full of goodness, and layer them up with a ton of flavour.

Feel free to swap out the salad and veg for things you prefer if you like - there’s no right or wrong answer here. And it looks like a lot of ingredients for the dressing but this is where all the flavour comes from and they all get whizzed or chopped up together so it’s not as bad as it looks.

If you’re vegetarian or don’t fancy steak feel free to swap out the steak for something you prefer - hard boiled eggs, tofu, chicken, fish, etc will all work.

I’m not a pro and have never done this before so bear with me! Here’s the link you need - https://meet.google.com/usy-nfzm-ash - it should work fine for everyone but any issues just let me know. If you log in for 5.45pm on Saturday it should take us about 45mins to cook. 

Wine drinking is encouraged if you’re not doing Dry January!

Here’s what you need

Sushi rice (you can use normal rice if you can’t get hold of sushi rice but it won’t be the same!)

Steak (choose your favourite cut, we’re going with rib-eye but any will do)

Butter

Carrots

Sugar Snap Peas

Mushrooms

Edamame Beans

Baby Spinach

Crispy Onions

For the dressing

Ginger

Garlic

Soy Sauce

Rice Wine Vinegar 

Fresh Lime

Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce (This stuff is great and is in most supermarkets)

Sesame Oil

Coriander

Fresh chilli or hot sauce (if you like a bit of heat)

Useful things to have

Sharp knife

Sieve

Blender (small hand blender is ideal)

Large saucepan with a lid

Frying pan

Grater

Method

1. Rinse 250g (for three people) of sushi rice

2. Cover rice with cold water, put to one side

3. Sauce: thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled; handful of coriander; clove of garlic; juice of one lime; good glug (quarter of a bottle) of soy sauce; roughly half that amount of rice wine vinegar; slightly more than soy sauce of sweet chilli sauce; chilli / chilli paste / chilli sauce to taste.

4. Blend all of the above in hand held or mini mixer. Put to one side.

5. Drain rice. Add 330ml of water. Put on a medium heat, lid on, for 10 minutes. Do not add salt, don’t need to stir etc. 

6. Veg! Peel and grate a carrot. Place in a bowl.

7. Finely slice a handful of sugar snap peas. Add to carrot. 

8. Finely chop a small amount of coriander, 2 tbl sp soy sauce, 1 tbl sp vinegar. Stir. 

9. Mushrooms - finely slice.

10. Before cooking, check rice - when all water is evaporated turn off heat, leave lid on and put to one side. Get steak out of the fridge if you haven’t already. 

11. Knob of butter in medium heat frying pan. Add mushrooms, cook down. Add (to taste) black pepper, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar.  Cook, stirring occasionally until cooked down. Place in a bowl, put to one side. Add a little bit more soy sauce and rice wine vinegar.

12. Put the kettle on to boil.

13. Place a cup of edamame beans in a mug or Pyrex jug and cover in boiling water.

14. Plenty of salt and pepper on your steak.

15. Big knob of butter in smoking hot pan. Add steak. Leave on one side for two to three minutes. Turn, cook to taste. Leave to rest (generally for as long as you’ve cooked it for)

16. Construction: get a bowl. Add a large spoonful or two of rice. Grab your sauce, drizzle over a spoonful or two. 

17. Handful of spinach over the rice, drizzle of sauce.

18. Add mushrooms, carrot and sugar snap peas and edamame beans. 

19. Slice the steak finely. 

20. Whack steak into bowl. Put sauce on top. Crispy onions sprinkled over.