Ginger-Ponzu Salmon Poke

"It's not Thanksgiving without poke!" the classics scholar–turned–chef Kiki Aranita says.

Most years, she travels to Hawai'i for family potlucks that are attended by about 60 people. Everyone is assigned a task, and Aranita, soon after flying in from the mainland, is usually on food-pickup duty to obtain her family's favorite poke varieties: shoyu ahi, spicy ahi with a mayo base, and octopus.

Poke is a new thing to many, but Native Hawaiians were preparing it long before Captain James Cook arrived in the 1700s. The Aranitas serve the dish alongside gau gee (fried wontons) and Kiki's aunt Dianne's spinach dip and crispy lavash. Then there's turkey, cranberry sauce, grilled whole fish, poi, fried rice, saimin noodles, potato-macaroni salad, California rolls, inari sushi, Spam musubi, and pie. The menu blends the clan's Filipino, Japanese, and Hawaiian roots.

"The food of Hawai'i is like the food of the 1950s U.S. but filtered through a tropical lens," Aranita says. "These things feel very American to me."

When Aranita attends Friendsgiving potlucks on the mainland, she makes poke, a signature dish at Poi Dog, her former Philadelphia restaurant. Poke means "to dice" or "to cut" in Hawaiian, but many assume that poke is only made with ahi tuna, she says. There are steak, tofu, and breadfruit renditions, too.

In Aranita's remarkable salmon poke, Korean perilla oil (available at Korean markets and online at gothamgrove.com) adds an elegant lusciousness that doesn't overwhelm the salmon; if available, the seeds add delicate nuttiness. Regular ponzu works fine, but her Poi Dog Maui Lavender Ponzu ( (available online at poidogphilly.com) brightens with delicate, smoky tang. Alaea sea salt is available online at thespicehouse.com.You can serve the poke atop short-grain white rice as a poke bowl, or nosh on the seasoned fish as a pupu with fried wonton skin chips or wrapped in pieces of gim (roasted seaweed snacks). Ask your fishmonger about sushi-grade salmon suitable for poke. Leftovers of Aranita's elegant salmon poke may be quickly seared in neutral oil (such as vegetable oil, grapeseed oil, or sunflower oil) and then served with fried eggs and rice, she says. So make a giant batch, and send extras home with guests. They'll thank you for your generous aloha spirit. — Andrea Nguyen