A bunch of organic cilantro from Whole Foods Market goes a long way

A wedge of a cilantro lover's frittata served over organic brown rice. I folded chopped fresh organic cilantro and grated cheese into a mixture of eight whole eggs and a couple of ounces of low-fat milk, and showered the finished frittata with more cilantro.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

In the dead of winter, fresh herbs bring homemade dishes alive.

Last Saturday, I drove up to the new Whole Foods Market in Closter to see if I could use a coupon for $30 off on a purchase of $150 that expired that day.

As I walked around the store, I picked up a few things, including a generous bunch of organic cilantro ($1.99), one of my favorite herbs.

Cilantro is also known as Chinese parsley, and the dried seed is ground and sold as coriander.

The Closter Whole Foods doesn't sell wine, and I didn't think I could use a dozen cooked Dungeness Crabs, which were on sale for $9.99 a pound at the fish counter.

So, I ended up giving the coupon to a woman with a full shopping cart after the cashier estimated she had purchased more than $150.

We chatted briefly, and the woman said she knocks herself out buying organic food for her family, but her teenage son can't wait to go to a fast-food restaurant.

I've been using the chopped cilantro all week long, and finished it tonight, when I added it to plate of organic quinoa.

Fish from Iceland

I rely on Costco Wholesale in Teterboro for fresh wild-caught fish fillets from Iceland.

But rough winter weather has kept boats in port and disrupted the supply to retailers big and small, including The Fish Dock, a fresh-fish market in downtown Closter owned by Icelanders.

On Tuesday, the flounder I bought at Costco came from Canada, and there was no Icelandic cod or haddock in the refrigerated case.

On Wednesday night, I showered boneless-and-skinless flounder fillets with fresh chopped cilantro after poaching the fish in Roasted Salsa Verde, from Whole Foods Market; fresh lemon juice and crushed Aleppo pepper, below.

I usually use the salsa and lemon juice by themselves, but I had chopped garlic, sweet pepper and onion left over from another recipe, so I sauteed them in olive oil first. After the mixture started boiling in a covered pan, I add the translucent fillets, which turned white and plumped up in about 5 minutes after I covered the pot again, indicating they were ready.

A 16-ounce bottle of 365 Everyday Value Roasted Salsa Verde, which is free of MSG and added sugar you find in other brands, is $2.69 at Whole Foods Market. I used only half the bottle, and refrigerated the rest for adding to omelets or as a sauce over quinoa or brown rice.

On Tuesday, after I purchased 2.2 pounds of the flounder from Costco Wholesale in Teterboro ($7.99 a pound), I coated most of the fillets in Asian Indian spices and prepared a Fish & Vegetable Medley with fresh spinach, tomato slices, chopped black olives, grated cheese and fresh lemon juice, above and below.

I showered the fish and other ingredients with fresh chopped cilantro before putting the pan into a preheated 400-degree oven. The flounder was ready in 15 minutes.

I used about a half-pound of organic spinach from Costco, drizzled with olive oil, in a large rectangular pan lined with parchment paper, then added the fish and other ingredients 

Fresh cilantro accenting a plate of leftover organic quinoa, which I prepared in an electric rice cooker with chicken broth, organic diced tomatoes and chopped fresh garlic.

For the frittata, pour the mixture of eggs, low-fat milk, grated cheese and cilantro into a 10-inch non-stick pan with olive oil over a medium flame. Add slices of plum tomatoes and more grated cheese.

When the crust sets, move the pan into the oven, using a low broiler setting, above.

After about 25 minutes, the frittata was ready. Remove from oven and garnish with fresh cilantro.

At our holiday feast, we throw in the towel a couple of fish short of mark

TODAY'S FIRST FISH: Lobster Bisque from Costco Wholesale in Teterboro with a pinch of Aleppo red pepper.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

After I gave up meat and poultry, the Italian-American Feast of the Seven Fishes has always been my idea of a great celebratory meal.

OK. So I took a little liberty, serving the feast on Christmas Day instead of Christmas Eve.

And both me and my son just didn't have room for the Sixth and Seventh Fish -- organic whole-wheat pasta with sardines and anchovies.

And if purists insist that I shouldn't have had lobster twice, I offer up the egg-white omelet I had for breakfast today -- stuffed with wild Alaskan smoked sockeye salmon and reduced-fat Swiss cheese.

SECOND AND THIRD FISH: Salads of fresh-cooked live lobster and canned wild Alaskan pink salmon, both dressed with fresh lime juice, Dijon mustard and seasonings. 

$8.99 A POUND AT SHOPRITE IN PARAMUS: I boiled three live lobsters weighing a total of 3.95 pounds for 12 minutes, and used the tender claw, knuckle and tail meat to make the lobster salads.

FOURTH FISH: A Maryland-style jumbo lump crab cake, with a spoonful of basil pesto, both from Costco.

TRADER JOE'S STUFFED LOBSTER HALF: We had only one frozen crab cake left so I served my son a frozen item from Trader Joe's in Paramus, a shell stuffed with lobster, crab and langostino.

FIFTH FISH: Live Prince Edward Island Mussels, also from the Paramus ShopRite, cooked quickly in a covered pot with chicken broth, sesame oil, sake, fresh tomatoes, and chopped garlic, sweet pepper, celery and scallion.

SIXTH AND SEVENTH FISH: Our final course in today's Feast of the Seven Fishes was supposed to be leftover organic whole wheat pasta spirals (ShopRite) with Moroccan sardines (Fattal's in Paterson) and fresh spinach, dressed in Trader Joe's Puttanesca Sauce, which is made with anchovy paste. This is a portion I had on Friday night.

Members don't always welcome constant change at Costco Wholesale

On Tuesday, when I went searching for the Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix I have been buying from Costco Wholesale for years, I found another brand, above and below.

The price, $4.79 for a 1-pound package, was the same, but when I made a salad at home, I didn't find the organic radicchio or arugula I've enjoyed in the Earthbound Farm mixture.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I try to eat a salad after dinner every night, and probably go through more than 50 pounds of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix a year.

Costco Wholesale always has the best price -- under $5 -- and a 1-pound package lasts me about a week.

On Tuesday, I walked into a cold room at the Teterboro warehouse in search of Earthbound Farm and found another brand, Wholesome Garden.

I enjoyed the salad I made that night, but missed a couple of ingredients I usually find in the Earthbound Farm mixture.

At the fish case, I searched in vain for the long-line caught cod fillets from Iceland that are one of my favorites.

I planned to poach the skinless-and-boneless wild cod in a Mexican-style salsa from Whole Foods Market, but settled for another wild-caught fish from Iceland, flounder, at only $7.99 a pound.

Going, going, gone

I've learned to roll with the punches at Costco Wholesale, which runs out of, moves, stops selling or substitutes another product for a surprisingly large number of items.

I waited years for Costco to sell lactose-free milk, but all of sudden, the product disappeared from the refrigerated case, never to return.

I loved the 16-ounce cartons of Kirkland Signature 100% Egg Whites, but again, they disappeared for many months before returning this year.

The Egg Beaters the warehouse stocked instead were a lot more expensive than Costco's own product.

And where oh where are the Frankly Fresh Vegetarian Stuffed Grape Leaves -- delicious when heated -- that I found at Costco several years ago?

One change for the better was when Costco started selling only cage-free whole and liquid eggs.

At the Teterboro Costco on Tuesday, only three of the fish fillets were wild caught.

The Teterboro Costco has started baking its own baguettes (2 for $4.99) and other specialty loaves every day, above and below. But the retail store at Balthazar Bakery on South Dean Street in Englewood sells a superior baguette for only $2 each.

Last week, my wife got a refund at Costco for a 5-pound bag of Moroccan Clementines, which we didn't like. On Tuesday, I bought a 5-pound bag of small, sweet clementines from Spain for $5.49. Today at the Super H Mart in Ridgefield, a 5-pound box of Bagu Clementines was $6.99.

My son, a dedicated carnivore, couldn't resist a 6-pound package of Seasoned St. Louis Ribs ($2.49 a pound), 5-plus pounds of Coleman Organic Chicken Drumsticks ($1.99 a pound) and a rack of Kirkland Signature Lamb Chops from Australia ($9.99 a pound).

I enjoy sunny side up Kirkland Signature Organic Eggs served over Kirkland Signature Organic Quinoa. Costco now sells 2 dozen cage-free organic brown eggs for a lower price, $5.99, and the house-brand organic quinoa comes in a larger bag (4.5 pounds instead of 4 pounds) for less than the national brand Costco once sold.

Thick Icelandic flounder fillets from Costco poached in under 10 minutes in a covered pan after I brought to a boil a 16-ounce jar of Roasted Chipotle Salsa from Whole Foods Market, a few ounces of chicken broth and fresh lemon juice.

I ate my flounder over leftover organic quinoa, which I prepared in an electric rice cooker with Kirkland Signature Organic Diced Tomatoes, black-eyed peas and olive oil.

Spicy monkfish with organic mushrooms, spinach, tomatoes and olives

Monkfish coated in Asian-Indian and other spices is ready in 20 minutes when popped into a preheated 400-degree oven with fresh spinach, organic mushrooms, tomato, olives and grated cheese.

Editor's note: Heart-healthy food doesn't have to be boring, as you can see from two easy to assemble dishes -- a quick-cooking Fish & Vegetable Medley, and a sweet-and-savory egg-white frittata.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

My plan to prepare a quick-cooking fish-and-vegetable dish hit a snag last week when my wife went to Costco Wholesale and was told the usual shipment of Icelandic fish hadn't arrived.

That meant the Teterboro warehouse store on Tuesday was offering only farmed tilapia fillets from Colombia, and had no wild-caught cod or haddock.

Plan B was going to the Whole Foods Market in Paramus not far from our home, and seeing if the best fish counter in North Jersey had any fillets on sale for $7.99 or $8.99 a pound -- the usual price for Icelandic fish at Costco.

No luck, but whole monkfish tails, which plump up in the oven and have the texture of lobster, were an easy to swallow $11.99 a pound.

I only needed a pound to make a big dinner for two with fresh spinach, organic mushrooms, fresh Campari Tomatoes and chopped pitted olives.

I coated the fish in Asian-Indian and other spices, which I keep in a container in the refrigerator to bread chicken and beef, as well as seafood.

Then, I assembled the ingredients in a pan lined with parchment paper, drizzling the spinach with extra-virgin olive oil. 

I squeezed fresh lemon juice and sprinkled grated cheese over everything, and put the pan into a preheated 400-degree oven.

Dinner was ready 20 minutes later.

Fresh fish fillets on ice at Whole Foods Market in the Bergen Town Center mall in Paramus.

A Fish & Vegetable Medley I prepared on Dec. 1 began with fresh spinach drizzled with extra-virgin olive oil, above.

I preheated the oven to 400 degrees while I assembled the other ingredients. 

One pound of monkfish fed two people with leftovers.

For a frittata, you'll need to boil skin-on slices of a medium to large sweet potato until they are fork tender. Meanwhile, prepare a mixture of 16 ounces of egg whites and several generous tablespoons of grated cheese, and pour it into a 10-inch non-stick pan with olive oil heated over a medium flame. Drain and distribute sweet potato slices and fresh Campari Tomato slices in the egg mixture on the stove as the crust sets.

When the crust sets, transfer the pan into the oven, where it will brown and finish cooking under the broiler. Add Costco's Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto when the frittata is cooling on the counter. Cut into wedges with a spatula and serve.

Keeping it healthy: Seafood doesn't need butter, bacon or brown sugar

This month, The Costco Connection, a magazine sent to Costco Wholesale members, is recommending a totally unnecessary addition to a luxurious meal of Red King Crab Legs and Dungeness Crab -- a half-cup of butter.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Fresh lime or lemon juice is all I need to enjoy lobster, king crab or plump sea scallops.

In the past few years, I've made a wonderful Red King Crab Leg salad with Dijon mustard, fresh lime juice, cumin and other seasonings.

But retailers like Costco Wholesale and Trader Joe's seem to think premium seafood shouldn't be served without butter, brown sugar or bacon.

Experts say lobster, crab and other shellfish contain levels of cholesterol comparable to land animals.

Where they have the edge is much lower levels of saturated fat, which is found in butter, bacon and other food.

Replacing saturated fats in your diet with sources of polyunsaturated fats -- such as ocean fish with omega-3 fatty acids -- can lower your risk of cardiovascular disease, according to the American Heart Association.

When I emailed a photo of my Red King Crab Salad to Tim Talevich, editorial director of The Costco Connection, he replied the dish looked delicious and the magazine would consider "healthier options" next time.

Trader Joe's Fearless Flyer, which is sent to customers' homes, raves about Scallops Wrapped in Uncured Bacon with Brown Sugar Glaze.

The Costco Connection's Recipe for Shrimp Fettuccine (misspelled in the magazine with one "c") includes two tablespoons of butter.

Trader Joe's Crab Cakes, right, are made with both a Mayo Dressing and Worcestershire Sauce, according to the ingredients label, below. They also are more expensive than the Phillips Seafood Restaurants' 3-ounce crab cakes sold at Costco Wholesale.

A good buy at Trader Joe's in Paramus on Saturday was a large stalk of Brussels Sprouts for $3.99. Ignore the recipe on the tag for roasting the whole stalk with 3/4 cup of maple syrup. Another problem is the recommended wrapping of the stalk in plastic wrap, and heating it in a microwave on high for 4 minutes or 5 minutes. That could lead to the transfer of chemicals to the Brussels Sprouts from the cling wrap.

I found a recipe online for oven roasting the Brussels Sprouts with olive oil, salt and pepper, though I used a lower temperature to avoid burning the outer leaves. I should have followed the recipe and trimmed the hard, fibrous stem after removing the sprouts from the stalk and washing them. I also recommend cutting the larger sprouts in half.

Trader Joe's most flavorful pasta sauce, Puttanesca, contains no added sugar. Ingredients include Italian tomatoes, capers, olives and anchovies.

I boost the flavor of skinless-and-boneless Icelandic Haddock ($8.99 a pound at Costco Wholesale in Teterboro) by coating serving pieces in Asian-Indian Spices from a box of Fish Masala, which you find in an Indian grocery.

I start with fresh spinach drizzled with extra-virgin olive oil, above, then add spice-coated fish, chopped pitted olives, fresh tomato slices and reduced-fat grated cheese, below.

The haddock was ready after about 12 minutes in a preheated 400-degree oven.

On Thanksgiving, I served a Red King Crab Salad with chopped celery, carrot, onion, and sweet pepper dressed in Dijon mustard, fresh lime juice, cumin and other spices.

Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto from Costco is as rich as butter, but made with extra-virgin olive oil and reduced-fat grated cheese. Pesto nicely complemented two Maryland-style jumbo lump crab cakes sold at Costco under the Phillips Seafood Restaurants label.

Tens of thousands are bitten by a pre-Thanksgiving food-shopping bug

About 20 minutes before the 10 a.m. opening today, Costco Wholesale members were crowding into the vestibule and jockeying for position outside the warehouse in the Teterboro Landing Shopping Center off of Route 46 in Teterboro, above and below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

In a mere two and a half hours this morning, I filled the gas tank of my wife's hybrid car at the Costco Wholesale gas station, had a repair made on one of the tires and bought more than $330 worth of food and flowers.

I've been stopping at my favorite food stores since last Friday. Usually, the pre-Thanksgiving crowds have been manageable, and at one or two places they were non-existent.

My major purchase at Costco today was $59.81 for Wild Cooked Red King Crab Legs at $21.99 a pound, about $2 more a pound than last year, according to the Costco employee who weighed and bagged them.

I'll cut the crab meat into large chunks for a cold salad dressed with Dijon mustard, fresh lime juice, cumin and other spices -- a luxurious appetizer for our Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday.

For crunch, I'll add diced celery and sweet peppers.

The rest of our Thanksgiving menu includes: 

Maryland-style jumbo lump crab cakes from Phillips Seafood Restaurants, sold frozen at Costco ($16.99 for six 3-ounce cakes).

We'll also roast turkey drumsticks and thighs from the Goffle Road Poultry Farm in Wyckoff. See:

A trip to the turkey farm

And we'll have a side dish of sweet potatoes mashed with extra-virgin olive oil and a salad of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix, also from Costco (1 pound is $4.79).

During the holidays, ShopRite supermarkets are selling 5-pound boxes of sweet potatoes for only $2.49.

We'll drink Kirkland Signature Prosecco, a sparkling wine from Italy sold at the Wayne Costco; and have fruit and cheese for dessert, including Lake Country Asiago, a hard, reduced-fat cheese from Wisconsin made with part-skimmed cow's milk ($5.69 a pound at Costco).

Mostly favorites

Most of the food I bought today were items we use year-round, including two dozen Kirkland Signature Organic Cage Free Eggs for $5.99 or $1 less than before.

A 22-ounce jar of Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto was $7.79, an 18-ounce package of fresh Blueberries from Peru was $6.99 and a pound of Wild Alaskan Smoked Sockeye Salmon was $14.89.

A dozen 10-ounce bottles of Naked 100% Juice Smoothies, with no added sugar, were $10.59 with an instant coupon; and a 64-ounce bottle of Naked Green Machine was $5.99.

A pound of fresh Organic Spinach was $3.99 and 3 pounds of Organic Bananas were $1.99.

Shopping tip

The Costco warehouse in Teterboro is too large for a shopper who makes a list and goes looking for individual items on it.

Instead, with list in hand, walk methodically up and down each aisle and when you see a item you need, grab it.

I leave produce, milk, eggs (moved to the cold room marked "Dairy") and fresh fish for last, then head for the checkout lanes.

Red King Crab Legs and Claws at Costco's Seafood Road Show.

I stopped buying Costco's farmed Black Tiger Shrimp from Vietnam, above and below, even though they are a good buy at about $10 a pound, compared to wild Gulf Shrimp from Whole Foods Market. Costco provides no information about how the farmed shrimp are raised.

Nor do I buy Costco's wildly popular but low-quality Seasoned Rotisserie Chickens, which are raised on antibiotics. See: Chicken makes good dog food.

Costco's pre-seasoned chickens arrive in boxes. They are fully cooked at the warehouse, although members complain about bloody and under-cooked birds. Ingredients include sodium phosphate, carrageenan, sugar and dextrose.

From Costco's small selection of hard cheeses, I chose Lake Country Asiago from Wisconsin.

Imagine-brand Organic Free Range Chicken Broth has less sodium than the Kirkland Signature Organic Cage Free Chicken Broth sold at Costco (1 cup contains 5% of the daily recommended intake of sodium compared to 18% in the Costco brand). Six liter containers were $11.49. Both brands have an easy to open screw top, below:

It doesn't happen often, but Costco's price for two 40-ounce jars of Victoria Marinara is a lot higher than the sale price I found at the ShopRite in Englewood on Monday, where each jar was $3.49. Victoria Vodka Sauce, which is free of artery clogging cream, also was $3.49 for a 40-ounce jar. 

I got a good deal at Costco on a 3-pound bag of medium-to-dark-roast coffee beans from Guatemala ($5.26 a pound), but grinding them in a coffee mill near the food court took a lot longer than I expected, below. 

All 3 pounds of beans wouldn't fit into one coffee mill, and they were oily so I had to keep pushing them down with a plastic spoon from the food court. I chose a Turkish grind to expose as much of the coffee to hot water during the brewing process at home.

Regular gasoline for my wife's Toyota Prius was $2.04.9 today, and a friendly Costco employee did the pumping. New Jersey recently raised the gas tax by 23 cents a gallon.

There was only one car ahead of me. The Costco gas station and tire store open before the warehouse.

The fish counter at the Super H Mart at 321 Broad Ave. in Ridgefield offers too much choice. This supermarket is the biggest Bergen County store in the Korean chain. On Thursday, I bought whole wild-caught Porgy for $2.99 a pound.

Tonight, my wife prepared the Porgies in a Fish Masala, a mixture of spices sold at Asian-Indian groceries, and made a sauce using organic chicken broth. I ate mine over organic brown rice prepared in an electric cooker with black-eyed peas and organic diced tomatoes.

Last week, I used the Fish Masala spices to coat pieces of fresh wild-caught Haddock fillet from Iceland ($8.99 a pound at Costco), and prepared a medley with organic spinach, pitted olives, organic diced tomatoes, grated cheese, extra-virgin olive oil and fresh lime juice. My side dish was mashed sweet potatoes.

Once you assemble all of the ingredients in a foil-lined pan, the haddock cooks in about 12 minutes in a pre-heated 400-degree oven.

A 5-pound box of Bagu Clementines from Spain were $5.99 at the Super H Mart, compared to $7.99 for the same clementines I bought at the H Mart in Little Ferry on Nov. 6.

Two 5-ounce containers of Olivia's Organic Spring Mix were $3.99.

The Super H Mart has one of the biggest selection of prepared Korean food, including pancakes, below.

A package of Pan-Fried Seafood and Chive Pancakes was $5.99.

The Super H Mart was a pleasure to shop in on Monday afternoon around 2:15.

At the Englewood ShopRite, 40 Nathaniel Place in the Palisades Court shopping center, where I went later Monday afternoon to fill a prescription, three 15.5-ounce cans of Goya Blackeye Peas, marked non-GMO, were $2. I also bought organic and conventional whole-wheat pasta and two 40-ounce jars of Victoria Vodka Sauce ($3.49 each). The store was mobbed.

Around lunchtime on Friday, Jerry's Gourmet & More at 410 S. Dean St. in Englewood was busier than usual. On the way there, I braved the crowd jammed into the small retail store at Balthazar Bakery, 214 S. Dean St., for a pair of $2 baguettes.

Jerry's complete restaurant-quality Meals To Go are $7.99 and $5.99 after 4 p.m. I bought one fish and two chicken dinners.

I gladly paid full price for my Tilapia Marechiaro Dinner with Linguine in White Clam Sauce, Roasted Potatoes, Broccoli with Garlic and Zucchini Stuffed with Vegetable, above and below.

Dinner was complete with a glass of red wine and an organic spring mix salad.

Ignore the overpriced wine and beer at the International Food Warehouse at 370 Essex St. in Lodi. I only bought a couple of items, including a 3-liter tin of Artemis-brand Extra-Virgin Olive Oil from Greece ($20.99).

Sasoon Lavash, a thin, chewy, addictive Armenian bread, comes all the way from Glendale, Calif., but contains only flour, filtered water and salt. I like to make lavash roll-ups with Greek yogurt, a dried-thyme mixture called za'atar and extra-virgin olive oil. 

Also at the International Food Warehouse, a Whole Wheat Lavash from Damascus Bakeries is labeled "natural," but has a long list of ingredients, including sugar and corn starch, below.