Bowl Filled with Super Good Stuff (Tuna "Poke" with Many Marinades Involving Sesame Seeds Edition)

doing new things is really hard, but totally worth it.

Things you’ll need: for sauces and marinades: soy sauce (or tamari), rice vinegar, mirin, (optional rice wine/sake), sesame oil, sesame seeds, Sriracha, and mayo; to marinade or otherwise chop: sushi-grade raw Tuna (or other fish), firm tofu, spinach, Persian cucumbers, edamame, radishes, sushi rice, ginger, green onion, and any other things you intend for topping (avocado, carrots, mangos, and whatnot), plus salt, sugar, and red pepper.

easily gluten-free by using tamari, leave off the fish and it’s vegetarian, swap out the mayo and now it’s vegan too

Chapter 112

Maybe your life has gone a bit topsy turvy in the last (almost) year. Perhaps you have a new job or no job or additional jobs (like homeschool principal) that you never wanted and now must do because of “these times”. Maybe it’s just learning how to do everything you did before, only differently because of “these times”. So many things have changed and when you start trying to enumerate all the vast many items on that list, you find yourself unwrapping your fifth piece of candy, hovering somewhere outside of your body, and possibly crying.

You have adapted and compensated because you must and you have taken it all in stride (mostly) because you must. If you really took the time to individually appreciate or grieve all of your new skills and losses, you might just take up residence on the most comfortable surface, stitch a flag of surrender from the “nice” clothes that you no longer wear, and start watching Days of our Lives from the very beginning (episode 1 of 14,000).

The very fact that you are still present and moving forward is actually remarkable. Feel proud and awed by yourself for a minute.

What you “can” do might feel like a luxury in the face of all that you “must” do, but think about all the cans that you have left to try. As someone who uses the same vegetables, chicken, thyme, olive oil, lemon, and salt as the foundation of almost every daily cooking endeavor, sometimes you feel an intense need to pull yourself out of your comfort zone and make something entirely different because you can.

You have piled all of your pennies and purchased new pantry items for this moment. So, get to marinading.

Ok, almost get to marinading. First, start by preheating a non-stick skillet and gently toast ¼ - ½ cup of sesame seeds, occasionally tossing the pan a bit so that they toast evenly on medium/low. Stick your face in the pan to give it a whiff and obsessively assess the level of toastiness. When you are happy with the aroma/color or they begin to pop a bit, take them off the heat at set them aside to cool. Ok, now get to each element.

In order of time spent on them (least to most), with generalized measurements that are all subject to taste:

Cut radishes into thin slices or sticks. Do the same with carrots, avocado, mango, or whatever.

Boil frozen edamame for 5ish minutes in well-salted water.

Spicy Mayo: whisk together mayo, Sriracha, and a dribble of sesame oil.

2 T Mayo
2 tsp (to taste) Sriracha
¼ tsp sesame oil

Raw Tuna Marinade: mix soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sesame oil with as much ginger, red pepper flake, and green onion as you like. Cut tuna or other sushi-grade fish (against the grain) and toss together for a quick (minutes) marinade before serving.

¼ cup soy
2 tsp each rice vinegar, sesame oil, and ginger
pinch red pepper flake
2-5 green onions
few pinches of sesame seeds to garnish.

Sunomono (cucumber salad): Japanese cucumbers might be hard to find, but those adorable little Persian snack cucumbers are much easier to obtain (English cucumbers will also work). Slice 3-5 Persian cucumbers thin and toss them with a few big pinches of salt. Let that sit (5-10min) while you whisk together a few tablespoons of rice vinegar and a little sugar to taste, a pinch of salt, and a small dribble of soy sauce, plus a little sesame oil. Now that your cucumbers have released some of their water, rinse them off, give them a squeeze, and toss them with the marinade. Top with a few pinches of the toasted sesame seeds and set aside.

3T rice vinegar
1T (to taste) sugar
¼ tsp each salt and soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil

Gomae or Gomaae or Goma ae (spinach salad with sesame dressing): Thaw a bag of frozen spinach (half pound ish). There is no reason to cook it. Just melt all the icy bits and give it a really good squeeze to remove excess moisture. Alternately, quick blanch some whole leaf mature spinach (or baby spinach if that’s all you have) and squeeze just the same. While that melts/blanches, mash up some of those toasted sesame seeds with a mortar and pestle or put them in a strong plastic bag and crush them with a rolling pin. With either method, don’t go full paste, just like half mashed. Mix your sesame seed mash with some soy sauce and sugar to taste, then add a dribble of mirin and rice wine/sake. Dress squeezed spinach with dressing.

3T sesame seeds
1T+ soy sauce
1T (to taste) sugar
½ tsp each mirin and rice wine/sake (or just double mirin)

Crispy Tofu: Cut a brick of firm tofu into the size cubes that you like. Press out excess liquid (place on a few towels, put a cookie sheet on top, put cans or a heavy skillet on the cookie sheet, and ignore it for a while). Toss with equal parts oil (sesame or neutral oil), soy sauce, and corn starch (about 1T each). Bake at 400 for 25-30 minutes, until crispy-ish/browned.

Sushi Rice: Rinse 2 cups of rice many times (3?) until the water is mostly clear. Boil 2 cups of water, add rice, cover and simmer 15 minutes, remove from heat and let stand 10 minutes. Mix with rice vinegar, salt, and sugar (to taste) just before serving (maybe 2T each ish).

Take a little bit of everything, pile it all into a bowl, and sprinkle with any extra toasted sesame seeds. By the time you load the first bite into your mouth, you will have forgotten how long it took or the effort that went into each component.

You are a remarkable human who makes remarkable changes in order to adapt to these remarkable times and you deserve a remarkable bowl filled with many delicious (and remarkably good) things.

---

As always, thank you for subscribing!

If you’d like to support this work, please consider becoming a paid subscriber, sharing, forwarding, or otherwise spreading the word about this project. Leave us a comment or drop us a line at eatwellenough@substack.com.