Copper River salmon and Costco: Perfect together

On my weekly visit to Costco in Hackensack today, I found fresh wild sockeye salmon from the Copper River in Alaska for an unbeatable price, $9.99 a pound. I read that a seafood restaurant in Bergen County is charging $36 for a portion of this glorious fish.

My wife was wowed by the color -- a deep pink-orange that makes artificially colored farmed salmon seem even paler than it is. And all of us were bowled over by the taste. I cooked mine for barely nine minutes in a 350-degree oven and the rare fish just melted in my mouth. The portions for my wife and son were baked for about 12-13 minutes and they were moist and delicious.

I bought a 2.3 pound fillet and cut it into eight portions. I did three with a herbed seafood  rub (Costco) and the rest with salt, Aleppo red pepper and chopped parsley from the garden. The five portions left will go into my daily breakfast fish sandwich -- with homemade low-fat yogurt cheese, organic spring mix, tomato with za'atar and a slice or two of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. Now that's good eating.

Last year, Costco kept the fresh wild salmon coming right into September, so I plan to prepare it through the summer.