Japanese gunkan sushi is traditionally a ball of rice with seaweed wrapped around it. This forms a small bowl that is topped with fish roe. I used that design as inspiration to create a similar vessel to hold this poke.
My interpretation was to use cucumber instead of seaweed and top it with poke instead of with roe. The freshness of cucumber pairs well with the flavors of the poke. The cucumber also adds a nice and crisp crunch!
If you don’t have a mandolin to create the cucumber strips, you can use a vegetable peeler instead. A vegetable peeler won’t provide the same consistency a mandolin would though, so make sure you take your time to get the right thickness. The cucumber needs to be thin enough to be malleable, but also thick enough to stand on its own.
Be sure to really pack the rice into the bottom. Otherwise, the rice will just fall out the bottom when trying to pick it up. Also, grab from the bottom when eating these!
Keep your poke in your cucumber, not the floor,
Your favorite alternative chefs, K & T
Poke Wrapped in Cucumber
Ingredients
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1
batch of
sushi rice - ½ lb izumi dai/tilapia cubed
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tsp vinegar
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 slicing cucumber
- Furikake
Instructions
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Combine tilapia, fish sauce, vinegar, and sesame oil in a small bowl. Toss until well coated. Set aside for later use
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Slice off both ends of the cucumber and slice in half lengthwise, then use a mandoline to create cucumber strips that are 1/16 of an inch thick.
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Make a ½ inch vertical slit on the top left corner of your strip ½ inch from the edge. Do the same on the bottom right of the cucumber strip. You should now be able to wrap the cucumber and slide the slits into each other to lock the cucumber in a ring.
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Roll about a tablespoon of rice into a ball and press it into the bottom of your cucumber roll.
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Spoon the tilapia mixture into each cucumber roll.
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Top with tilapia with furikake.