Recipe in Costco magazine is needlessly complicated

A five-cheese-and-garlic frittata starts out on the stove and finishes cooking under a low broiler setting. There is no need to turn this 10-inch stuffed Italian omelet or the Spanish potato omelet described in a recipe in the April 2014 issue of Costco Connection magazine.

Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto from Costco Wholesale is spooned on top of the frittata once it is out of the oven.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Reading instructions in the Costco Connection magazine on how to turn a Tortilla de Patata (Potato Omelet) is like watching a high-wire act:

You fight the urge to close your eyes to avoid seeing an accident.

The Potato Omelet recipe in the lifestyle magazine for Costco Wholesale members is too complicated, and likely discourages a lot of home cooks from trying it (Page 49).

I've been making frittatas, the Italian version of this omelet, with sliced sweet potatoes and other ingredients, and have never turned them.

Don't try at home

In the Costco recipe, Christina Mendez provides the following instructions:

"When the edges are cooked and the center is still moist, place a plate over the pan and invert it, so the raw side of the tortilla flips face down onto the plate.

"Carefully return the tortilla to the pan by sliding it off the plate and continue cooking for another minute."

That's a cooking disaster waiting to happen.

With my frittatas, I don't bother trying to turn them. I just put them in the oven or under the broiler to brown and finish cooking.

Boil and save oil

Another shortcut for the Spanish omelet recipe is to boil water to cook the recommended 8 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, which you have to peel and cube.

I'd leave the peel on, and wouldn't follow the recipe's instructions "to cover" the potatoes, onion and Anaheim pepper in expensive Spanish extra-virgin olive oil, and cook them in a covered pan.

The recipe calls for more than 2 cups of oil. That's just wasteful.

I usually put sweet potato slices for my frittatas in cold water; leave the cover slightly ajar to vent steam and bring the water to a low boil. 

They are usually fork tender in about 30 minutes.

Or get one to go

Of course, if you don't want to go to the bother of preparing a Spanish potato omelet at home, head on over to La Pola, a Cuban sandwich shop in West New York.

Sandwich master Belarmino Rico, who emigrated to Cuba from Spain, makes an excellent version of the omelet, also called Tortilla Espanola.

Try one of his authentic sandwiches with a cup of cafe con leche, and get the tortilla to go.

La Pola, 5400 Palisade Ave., West New York; 201-867-6028. Cash only. Call for hours.

A reheated wedge of frittata made with five cheeses, including the two found in Costco's prepared pesto, and lots of garlic.

For garlic mashed sweet potatoes, I boil peeled garlic and unpeeled potatoes, both from Costco; drain them in a colander and return them to the pot, where I add extra-virgin olive oil, a little salt and other seasonings, including cinnamon and curry powder. Potatoes for a frittata or omelet also can be boiled.

A couple of shortcuts woul make a Tortilla de Patata much easier to prepare at home. This recipe appears in the April 2014 issue of Costco Connection magazine.

Food memories are some of the strongest

At La Pola, Joe Rico makes Cuban sandwiches and finishes them in a heated press. For me, he made a sandwich with the smoked wild salmon I brought him, below. The other ingredients were sliced pickle, Swiss cheese, mustard and garlic sauce.

The press (la plancha) flattens the Cuban water bread and makes the crust crispy.

Editor's note: Today, I discuss strong food memories, the lack of an express line at Costco Wholesale, the Can Can Sale at ShopRite, pasta and eggs, and bread made with and without butter.

My friend Luis, who is in his 80s, was born in Cuba.

After a few spoonfuls of soup and conversation with other Cubans at La Pola in West New York, he recalled helping neighbors on the island hand turn a spit to roast a whole pig for Christmas many decades ago.

But as we left the Cuban sandwich shop this past Thursday, he couldn't remember where he had parked his car.

A nearby market promises the fish it sells were "sleeping in the sea" last night.

For Luis, it took only a little Caldo Gallego to bring back memories of Cuba. La Pola is a center of Cuban food culture, where machine-gun Spanish echoes off the tile walls.

As much else fades into the foggy past, Luis' memories of wood-fired roast pork and other Cuban dishes remain vivid.

One of his first jobs in the United States was as a short-order cook in a Route 4 diner in Paramus. 

Today, at home, he cooks picadillo, tostones and other Cuban food with the assurance of a kitchen veteran.

On Thursday, Luis struck up a conversation with the man at the next table who had ordered La Pola's palomilla steak special with french fries.

The Hoboken man said he was born in Cuba in 1925, and had worked in a shoe factory, making orthopedic and other types of footwear.

Luis' father owned a shoe factory, but it wasn't the one the man worked in.

He showed us a large, heavy Cuban 1 peso coin from 1934 that he uses as a key fob, and said it is plated in silver. 

Meyer Lemons, above, and wild-caught Pacific cod fillets, below right, were two of the three items I picked up at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack last Tuesday.

No mercy at Costco

As I returned to my car with fresh fish, bananas and Meyer Lemons I had just purchased at Costco Wholesale, I saw a woman walking in my direction with sleeping pillows and a large plastic bottle of honey.

She walked to the SUV parked next to my car, laughed and said no other shopper would let her check out first. 

I know the feeling. 

There are no express lines at my Hackensack warehouse store, and shoppers run the gamut from people who stop in for two or three items to members who are stocking small delis and convenience stores.

I had only three items, but still had to wait behind members with overflowing carts who had bought everything in sight. 

A 4-pound container of Meyer Lemons for $7.39 worked out to about $1.85 a pound.

The unusual fruit is a cross between a lemon and a mandarin orange, and a thin skin makes them easy to squeeze. But they contain a lot of pits.

My wife used most of them to make homemade lemonade. 

I served the cod with Trader Joe's Whole Wheat Spaghetti with sardines, above, and spinach from Costco I blanched in hot water and sauteed briefly in a wok, below.

 

No meal is complete without a bowl of pre-washed Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix, dressed simply with extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

I squeezed one Meyer Lemon over the fresh cod fillets before coating the fish in a spice mixture and roasting the fillets in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes. 

The wild-caught cod was $6.99 a pound, only $1 more than farmed tilapia from Central America.

I squeezed another Meyer Lemon into a glass with ice before pouring in Adirondack Seltzer, my favorite dinner beverage after wine.
 

The ShopRite in Hackensack has an olive bar priced at $6.99 a pound, above, or $3 more per pound than the Italian olives from Jerry's Gourmet & More in Englewood, below.

This dance is no bargain

I took a second swipe on Saturday at the 2013 Can Can Sale! -- this time at the ShopRite in Hackensack --  but the only exclamations I heard were from shoppers complaining about smaller discounts than in the past.

A dozen or more 50-cent and $1-off coupons from the newspaper helped, when multiplied, to cut prices on two items to at or below what they were at last year's Can Can promotion.

I bought Dial for Men body wash at $2.49 each, a can of Progresso Light beef soup for 85 cents and a 19-ounce spray can of Lysol Disinfectant for $2.25.

Can Can items included 5 20-ounce Ziploc plastic storage containers -- now BPA free -- for $2.49 or $1.30 0ff. 

I had eggs with Aleppo pepper over leftover spaghetti and sardines for breakfast, and again for dinner, below, with grated cheese and a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil.

 


Pasta and eggs 

The perfect companion for Trader Joe's Whole Wheat Spaghetti are one or two Costco organic brown eggs fried sunny side up.

The taste of the yolk broken over the pasta is incomparable. Now, this is comfort food. 
 

 

At Balthazar Bakery in Englewood, a baker, right, uses his hands to measure and weigh butter for croissants. He is said to have the softest hands at the bakery.

More baguettes

I returned to Balthazar Bakery in Englewood on Wednesday to pick up two more baguettes ($2 each), and saw a baker working with a huge mound of butter that would go into those flaky croissants.

It didn't tempt me. I long ago banned butter from my diet, and bread from breakfast, lunch and dinner.

When I got home, I cut off the heel of one of the crusty baguettes, which contain no butter, and ate it, enjoying the wonderful crunch and distinctive taste.

I sliced the rest into sandwich-size portions, and put them in the freezer for other members of the family.

One street's rich ethnic stew

Image by juancardenes@verizon.net via Flickr

Bergenline Avenue is lined with a rich variety of ethnic restaurants and markets.

I drove to West New York today to drop off photos I took of Belarmino Rico and his sons at La Pola, where I picked up a traditional Cuban Christmas dinner the day before the holiday.

Rico, a native of Spain who describes himself as "King of the Cuban Sandwich," served soup to me and my wife to ward off the day's chill. My wife had chicken soup and I enjoyed caldo Gallego, the Galician white-bean soup made with potato, collard green, chorizo and ham (I ate around the meat).

First, we visited the West New York Post Office on Bergenline Avenue to see a circa 1930s mural showing eight or nine people enjoying a beautiful day from atop the Palisades, with the Empire State Building and the rest of the Manhattan skyline in the distance.

Then, we walked and drove along Bergenline, which has an incredible variety of ethnic restaurants and markets. At a Latino supermarket, we picked up the root vegetable called yuca, which we'll boil and eat with La Pola's garlic sauce, the one that moistens every Cuban sandwich sold there.

In the space of about 15 blocks in West New York and Guttenberg, we saw Peruvian restaurants and a Cuban seafood place, an Italian trattoria, a Japanese restaurant; Las Palmas, another Cuban restaurant with addictive chicharrones or pork rinds; Pollo Campero, a popular fast-food, fried-chicken restaurant that originated in Guatemala; and Jerusalem Bakery.

We're planning a return visit soon to sample the restaurants we haven't tried yet.  

La Pola, 5400 Palisade Ave., West New York; 201-867-6028.
Las Palmas, 6153 Bergenline Ave., West New York; 201-861-1400.
Pollo Campero, 6425 Bergenline Ave., West New York, 201-662-6190.
Jerusalem Bakery, 6901 Bergenline Ave., Guttenberg; 201-868-2253.

Costco v. ShopRite

My wife picked up four 2-pound packages of salted pollack, the fish we have been using instead of pricier cod for her Jamaican breakfast of ackee and salt fish, in which the bland fruit serves as the  perfect foil for a strong, flaky fish and hot peppers.

Costo's price is $6.39 a package, or about $3.20 a pound, compared to $4.99 a pound for salted pollack at ShopRite. Salted cod at ShopRite is $9.99 a pound. 

More Can Can Sale

I continue to shop the 40th anniversary Can Can Sale at ShopRite, but it is losing its allure now that I've stocked up on Adirondack seltzer, Progresso soup, Air Wick air freshener and White Rain shampoo.

Many things I usually buy are not on sale, including canned Alaskan red salmon and imported olive oil, sparking 100% juice and other items from Italy and Spain sold under the ShopRite name.

At the Palisades Park ShopRite on Wednesday, I bought a package of ShopRite lemon-flavored lady fingers from Italy that go great with espresso for $2.99 (six dozen).

Loose garlic was $3.99 a pound and a net bag of garlic from China was $2.99, but weighed only about 6 ounces. I bought elephant garlic for $3.49. Marked 3 ounces, it weighed twice that.


The best buy I found on extra-virgin olive oil was a three-liter tin from Greece for $15.99 (Kalamata brand). 

Three-culture breakfast

I've been trying to eat filling breakfasts since I cut down drastically on bread, which I once enjoyed three or four times a day.

On Tuesday, I plated leftover ackee and salt fish, stewed tofu in red pepper sauce from H Mart, and homemade fava-bean salad and warmed them in the microwave. Then, I fried an organic brown egg in extra-virgin olive oil, sunny side up, and slid it on top of that trio. It was  just wonderful -- even without bread.

Hunting and gathering for Christmas

Belarmino Rico, left, master of the Cuban sandwich, and son Joseph at La Pola, their shop in West New York. The elder Rico is widely known as "King of the Cuban Sandwich."

The plan was to hit the gym at 9 a.m. and be among the first customers at Costco in Hackensack for its 10 a.m. opening today, but the store opened an hour early and the parking lot was half full when I got there, with traffic backed up in the turn lane and beyond at Kansas and South River streets.

My first stop was to get my Costco-bought eyeglasses adjusted and my second was the Seafood Road Show. 

There were about a half-dozen customers ahead of me, and I discussed the large lobster tails from Colombia with the man behind me, because they are the only seafood sold at Costco treated with a preservative, sodium bisulfite. I have never bought them because of the preservative.

Wikipedia says sodium bisulfite is used in wine and on leafy greens.

"In the case of wine making, sodium bisulfite releases sulfur dioxide gas when added to water or products containing water. The sulfur dioxide kills yeasts, fungi, and bacteria in the grape juice before fermentation.
 
"Sodium bisulfite is also added to leafy green vegetables in salad bars and elsewhere, to preserve apparent freshness, under names like LeafGreen. The concentration is sometimes high enough to cause severe allergic reactions.

 "In the 1980s, sodium bisulfite was banned from use on raw fruits and vegetables in the United States following the deaths of 13 people who unknowingly consumed produce treated with excessive amounts of the substance. "

I did buy three red king crab legs ($19.99 a pound), seven sea scallops ($12.99 a pound) and a pound and a half of U-15 farmed prawns ($9.99 a pound). 

I picked up a box of clementines from Spain for $4.99, a dollar less than when they appeared initially; five pounds of lemons, $6.79; and two pounds of Sunset-brand, herbicide-free Roma tomatoes, $4.99.

Cuban interlude

Around noon, we made our annual trek to La Pola, a Cuban sandwich shop in West New York, where the proprietor, his wife, sons Tony and Joseph, and employees greet a steady stream of customers who had placed orders for whole roasted pigs, pork shoulders, hams and ribs -- plus traditional side dishes -- for their Christmas dinners.

The atmosphere is always warm and welcoming. Belarmino Rico, who moved from his native La Pola in Spain to Havana, Cuba, is known far and wide as "King of the Cuban Sandwich."

His son Joseph feeds the heated press, or plancha, with sandwiches as the elder Rico and his helpers package pork and side dishes for customers.

We took home a small section of pork ribs; congris or white rice cooked with black beans; yuca, a garlic sauce for the meat and addictive, store-made plantain chips that have far less salt than commercial ones. Last year, we enjoyed a tortilla espanola, a Spanish potato omelet.

My wife and son ordered Cuban sandwiches -- roast pork, ham, Swiss cheese, pickles, mustard and garlic sauce. The heated press had melted the cheese and crisped the foot-long pan de agua or water bread.

For Christmas dinner on Saturday, I'll serve them appetizers of crab and prawns, then Cuban-style ribs with side dishes. My dinner will be all Costco seafood: crab leg, prawns and sea scallops.

La Pola, Palisade Avenue and 54th Street, West New York; 201-867-6028.