Where fish lovers eat breakfast, Argentine Red Shrimp a la plancha

When I ordered Two Eggs Any Style with Whiting at Golden Grill in Teaneck, I received two platters, a large portion of broiled fish in a tasty gravy, above, and two eggs over easy with home fries, below.

Cholula Hot Sauce from a bottle on the table gave on my eggs a Mexican accent.

Editor's note: Sunday began with a bountiful breakfast of eggs and fresh fish, and ended with a dinner of jumbo Argentine Red Shrimp grilled on the stove top at home.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

North Jersey is crowded with bigger and fancier places to have breakfast, but none equal Golden Grill in Teaneck.

That's especially the case, if you love fish and believe there's nothing lovelier than a delicious fillet with your eggs and home fries.

On Sunday morning, I took my wife and our guest from out-of-town for a filling breakfast in the modest storefront on Queen Anne Road.

This West Englewood section of Teaneck attracts food lovers with everything from the bustling Golden Grill to a French patisserie to several kosher places, including a bagelry and a coffee house.

More than fish

Besides whiting, you can order a homemade fish cake, sardines, chicken livers or other items with your platter of eggs or breakfast sandwich at Golden Grill.

Breakfasts are served with toast, terrific home fries or grits or both, and a small glass of juice.

When you order whiting, it will come fried unless you ask for it broiled, as I always do.

My breakfast of two eggs over easy, home fries, whiting fillets and juice was $7 (hold the toast). Tea was $1.40.

My eggs, whiting and home fries have been served on a large oval platter, but I got a bonus on Sunday -- two round plates, one with more fish than usual.

Golden Grill is known for generous portions at modest prices. Service is casual.

Breakfasts, such as this Spanish Omelet with hot sauce, usually are served on large oval platters ($8.95).

A vegetable omelet with added spinach and sausage ($9.95).

Most of the seating at Golden Grill is in booths.

Add a little heat to your breakfast with Cholula Hot Sauce from Mexico.

A portion of the menu.

Details

Golden Grill, 1379 Queen Anne Road, Teaneck; 201-837-1078. 

Open 7 days for breakfast and lunch until 3:30 p.m. Free street parking.

Previously frozen Argentine Red Shrimp, thawed and rubbed with fresh lime juice, extra-virgin olive oil and minced garlic, cooking on a stove-top grill. They were done after about 7 minutes on each side.

The grilled shrimp were delicious, shell and all. Inside, they couldn't have been more tender.

Long journey to my plate

Nearly 40 years after my first trip to Barcelona, I can still hear the gravelly voice of a cook in a casual lunch place open to the street shouting, "Gambas a la plancha."

Shrimp on the grill, whose aroma you could smell as you walked by, were always a treat when traveling in Spain.

They were usually cooked in the shell, and you could peel them or eat everything, including the juice from head.

On Sunday night, I thawed and grilled a dozen of the Argentine Red Shrimp I bought at Fish First Inc., which runs the seafood counter inside the International Food Warehouse on Essex Street in Lodi.

I was afraid the frozen jumbo shrimp would be tough after grilling them on the stove top, but they were as tender as could be.

I sprinkled them with sea salt as they coked after marinating them in fresh lime juice, extra-virgin olive oil and minced garlic.

Next time, I'll use granulated garlic to avoid the minced fresh garlic from burning on the grill pan, which straddled two burners turned to medium-high heat.

You can enjoy perfectly grilled, juicy wild salmon in only 6 minutes

Fresh wild sockeye salmon from Costco Wholesale spends only 6 minutes on a preheated stove-top grill. Here, I served it with Costco pesto and organic salsa, as well as chopped mint and other herbs from our garden.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

We cook fresh wild salmon at home nearly every week during the season, which runs from June to October at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack.

A friend who just returned from a vacation in Alaska reported rivers are thick with salmon struggling to swim upstream and lay their eggs.

The price of fresh wild sockeye fillets has fallen steadily since June, and I've learned a thing or two about cooking this wonderful fish on a preheated stove-top grill.

For one thing, I was cooking the fillets too long -- 8 minutes to 10 minutes.

I reduced the cooking time to 6 minutes, and they came out juicier.

The longer cooking time is appropriate for wild king salmon fillets, which are thicker than sockeye.

Wild sockeye fillets are thinner and smaller than both king and Costco's artificially colored farmed Atlantic salmon, which are probably raised on antibiotics.

I usually get six serving pieces from about 2 pounds of wild salmon, and add sea salt and fresh lime juice before arranging the pieces skin-side down on the large, rectangular preheated grill.

The All-Clad Grill is 20 inches long and 13 inches wide, and the fish cooks best at both ends -- over the burners.

Quick dinners

Besides quick-cooking wild fish, my strategy for putting a meal on the table in less than 10 minutes includes making such side dishes as quinoa, brown rice, pasta and baked or mashed sweet potatoes in large quantities.

Then, you can plate and reheat some, add your wild salmon, enjoy dinner and finish with a big salad of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix, also from Costco. 

In the morning, two organic eggs, sunny side up, are wonderful over sweet potatoes mashed with extra-virgin olive oil, especially when you break the yolks over them.

The All-Clad Grill I use straddles two burners of my stove. I preheat it, use spray oil and turn the heat on both burners to medium-high before adding the fish, skin-side down. After 3 minutes, I turn the pieces, and then again onto the skin for the last minute. If you're serving the salmon with ripe peach halves, grill them first, because they need much more time.

A package of 2 pounds of Fresh Wild Sockeye Salmon yields about six serving pieces.

An electric cooker full of organic brown rice, organic diced tomatoes, low-sodium red beans and chopped fresh garlic, prepared with extra-virgin olive oil. The leftovers allow you to put dinner or breakfast on the table in minutes.

Stovetop-grilled wild salmon with pesto, lime and fresh herbs

Fresh wild sockeye salmon from Costco Wholesale grills on the stove top skin side down in about 10 minutes. After I took the fish off the heat, I added Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto and chopped fresh herbs -- mint, oregano and basil. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The price of fresh wild salmon continues to fall at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack, making this wonderful fish even easier to enjoy.

I bought a 1.62-pound fillet of sockeye salmon for $9.99 a pound, enough for six serving pieces and plenty of leftovers.

On Wednesday night, I used a large All-Clad stove-top grill pan that covers two burners of my gas stove, spraying on canola oil and turning the heat to medium high to preheat it.

After a few minutes, I put three serving pieces on the grill over each burner -- skin side down. They sizzled.

The other side had been seasoned with Himalayan Pink Salt from Costco.

While the fish is cooking, I squeeze fresh lime juice over the serving pieces, which were lightly salted before they went on the grill. You won't find this vibrant color in artificially colored farmed salmon nor will it have the robust flavor of wild-caught fish. You can see the veins of heart-healthy fat.

I flip the serving pieces over to cook on the other side for a few minutes. They come out juicy, good enough to eat cold the next day over a salad.

Pesto, Aleppo pepper and herbs

After I took the fish off the heat, I season the skin side with optional Aleppo pepper, spooned on a little Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto from Costco and added chopped fresh herbs.

I ate two of the six pieces, and followed them with leafy Chinese broccoli I blanched in boiling water for a few minutes, and seasoned with a little salt, garlic powder and sesame oil.

This fresh, wild, delicious and more affordable sockeye salmon has become a weekly treat, and there are a few months left to the season.

Bravo.

It's a great time to eat your veggies

Image via Wikipedia

My outdoor, charcoal grill has been gathering dust since I stopped eating meat more than 18 months ago, but I haven't missed a beat by grilling vegetables on an indoor, stove-top grill to go with pasta and seafood meals.


I'm also using a small food processor to puree vegetables, including cucumbers from my garden, into a cold soup.


This afternoon, I grilled a few onions and a nice bunch of Asian greens on the grill with extra-virgin olive oil, salt and some red-pepper flakes, and stored them in the refrigerator for dinner.


They joined grilled Japanese eggplant, small sweet-potato slices, squash, plumb tomato and thin-sliced organic carrot.


My All-Clad grill covers two burners on my stove and its ridges leave nice grill marks on the vegetables. It's also perfect for prawns or shrimp. I use cooking spray and turn both gas flames to "Medium" or "Medium Low."


In the past, I've used the grill to cook thin slices of marinated, free-range  beef from Australia; garlic cloves and onion for Korean barbecue meals at home. 


Image via Wikipedia
The greens I grilled today have thick stalks and leafy, slightly bitter leaves -- similar to Chinese broccoli. They turned bright green, and I removed them after about 10 minutes.


Grilled eggplant and sliced potatoes turn creamy inside their skins, and the stalks of the greens keep their crunch.


For a cold soup today, I cut up skinned cucumber, two small tomatoes, watermelon and some onion, processed them and poured the liquid into a small bowl.


Recalling a TV cooking segment I had seen at the gym, I added a little extra-virgin olive oil, wine vinegar and salt, stirred it up, and garnished it with more chopped cucumber.


After I had the soup, I plated grilled squash and potato slices and heated them up in the microwave while I prepared a simple egg-white omelet, drinking iced tea flavored with lemon and garden mint.


Tonight, I'll plate more grilled vegetables to accompany leftover whole-wheat pasta in a red sauce filled with salted fish and cabbage. (See A robust pasta sauce without meat, Aug. 3, 2011.)