Ake (raw liver) Poke
My blogger friend Jon in Albany gave me some incredibly fresh beef liver so I had to try this raw liver poke. The flavor is surprisingly mainstream and un-livery, with the taste and texture of any good poke. Serves 6-8 Hawaiians or maybe 100 haoles.
Ingredients:
1 lb very fresh beef, calves or pork liver, cut into ½ inch dice with all connective tissue trimmed out
1 T toasted sesame oil
2 t Hawaiian pink salt or coarse sea salt
1 t grated ginger
¼ c (after soaking) reconstituted ogo seaweed*
¼ c scallion rings, including some of the green, plus more for garnish
¼ c red chili flakes or to taste
scallion rings and toasted sesame seeds, for garnish
Method: mix all ingredients except garnish, and refrigerate half an hour hour or more to let flavors develop. Fine the second day, after that the liver flavor becomes a bit too pronounced.
*Ogo is a lacy red seaweed that seems to be traditional with this dish. I got mine by buying a bag of mixed seaweed salad and picking out the ogo. Green or black lacy seaweed would probably work just as well.
