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.

Spice-coated Cod & Vegetable Medley, Korean-style quinoa and more

Fresh wild-caught Icelandic cod -- coated in a homemade Super Spice Mixture -- fresh spinach, cherry tomatoes and pitted olives is ready to eat after about 15 minutes in a preheated 400-degree oven, below. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Continuing thanks to The Fish Dock in Closter for supplying the key to preparing a healthy and delicious dinner in under 30 minutes.

On my first visit to the Icelandic fish store, I purchased a pound of ready-to-cook Fish & Vegetable Medley, popped the store-supplied pan into the oven and sat down to dinner in about 15 minutes.

Since then, I've been assembling my own medleys, using fresh, wild-caught Icelandic cod and haddock from Costco Wholesale in Teterboro.

Last week, my wife brought home more than 2 pounds of fresh, long-line caught, skinless-and-boneless cod fillets ($7.99 a pound).

I assembled a medley with fresh spinach, cherry tomatoes and black olives I had on hand, plus extra-virgin olive oil and grated cheese.

First, I cut up the cod into serving pieces, and coated them in a mixture from a large container I keep in the refrigerator that combines every spice I have in the house, including curry powder, no-salt seasoning, red-pepper flakes and garlic powder.

The spinach goes into a large foil-lined pan first, then a generous drizzle of olive oil and a little sea salt, then the tomatoes and olives, then the spice-coated cod, then the grated cheese.

The cod was thicker than in the past so I kept the pan in a preheated 400-degree oven for about 16 minutes to 18 minutes.

Korean-style shredded vegetables, available at H Mart, turn organic quinoa into a filling meatless meal. Quinoa, a great bread substitute, has fewer carbs than rice or pasta.

I purchased the Bibimbap Vegetables last Friday at H Mart, 25 Lafayette Ave. in Englewood, and added them to quinoa I had prepared in a rice cooker with organic black beans, organic diced tomatoes and peeled garlic cloves.

Bibimpap is true Korean comfort food -- steamed rice, shredded vegetables, ground beef (or you can ask for it without meat) and a raw or cooked egg prepared in a stone bowl, with a spicy red-pepper paste called gochujang on the side. You mix the ingredients with a spoon, add gochujang and dig in.

Delverde Tagliatelle with Spinach cooks up al dente in about 5 minutes. Here, I dressed the pasta in Trader Joe's Puttanesca Sauce, one of the few bottled sauces with anchovies; three cans of sardines, mashed with a fork; fresh spinach, red wine and extra-virgin olive oil. 

Organic Whole Wheat Shells from Whole Foods Market in Paramus ($1.49) dressed with Victoria Marinara and three cans of sardines, mashed with a fork.

Fresh whole wild-caught red snappers were $6.99 a pound last Sunday at the H Mart, 260 Bergen Turnpike in Little Ferry, below. Here, a whole fish stuffed with callaloo, a leafy green,  took about 30 minutes to cook when wrapped in foil.

After an absence of several weeks, free seafood samples returned to the Little Ferry H Mart. Two of the best are fish eggs over broiled New Zealand mussels, and broiled eel.