Organic Spanish rice, Australian beef, blue-fin tuna boycott

Moist, filling and delicious, and a great bread substitute: Organic brown rice with organic chicken stock, organic diced tomatoes, peeled garlic cloves and saffron.

Editor's note: Today, I discuss an easy recipe for organic Spanish rice, share an e-mail from a woman whose family raises beef in Australia, and urge you to boycott the annual blue-fin-tuna cutting demonstration at a Japanese supermarket.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Here is another easy electric rice-cooker recipe that requires you to do little more than measure, pour the ingredients into the appliance and plug it in.

I used three cups of organic brown rice, twice that in liquid (organic chicken stock or water), a can of organic diced tomatoes with their juices, a lot of peeled garlic cloves, a few ounces of extra-virgin olive oil, sea salt and a few threads of Spanish saffron.

Most of the ingredients came from Costco Wholesale.

Doubling the amount of liquid in relation to the rice results in a moist dish with creamy garlic cloves.

A few days later, after enjoying the rice for breakfast and dinner instead of bread, I prepared pretty much the same dish using organic quinoa and organic lentils, in addition to the liquid, diced tomatoes and garlic cloves.

Organic quinoa with organic diced tomatoes, organic lentils and garlic cloves, all from Costco. I served it for breakfast with a wedge of egg-white frittata made with chopped garlic, black olives and sun-dried tomatoes, and topped with Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto.

Grass-fed Nature's Reserve Australian beef pan fried with cabbage, sweet peppers, onions and garlic.

Australian beef in the U.S.

In recent years, I've noticed a subtle shift in the promotion of Australian beef that no longer mentions whether the cattle were raised without animal antibiotics, which some experts say are harmful to humans.

ShopRite Supermarkets, where I buy Nature's Reserve whole beef tenderloins for filet mignon, also has added another line of Australian beef, Clayton's Organic Beef.

Organic beef can't be raised with antibiotics, growth hormones or feed with GMOs.

Here is a note from Diane Carter, who is in the cattle business in Australia:

"Here are a few thoughts and facts about Australian beef.  

"My family have been in the cattle business in Australia for 100+ years. A lot has changed.  I won’t go into all the history but, over the last 5-10 years there has been a resurgence of grass-fed and finished beef.

"While the domestic market accounts for the largest share of Australia’s beef production, overseas markets are extremely important, often taking beef cuts that are not as popular with Australian consumers.  

"The USA is currently the biggest overseas market, having just overtaken Japan.  

"The USA takes large quantities of 'manufacturing' beef (read hamburgers), whereas Japan and South Korea, the next biggest, import a lot of prime cuts as well as steak for stir fry and hot pots.

"China is now emerging as a rapidly growing market for our beef.

"The question of antibiotics is a bit complicated.  

"Nature’s Reserve is not a single source supplier. They buy their meat from a large number of producers.  It is all grass fed and finished but they cannot always get enough supply to meet their demands by insisting on antibiotic-free meat.  

"Their suppliers generally will not be using antibiotics as growth promotants, but will treat individual animals when necessary.  

"You would have to go organic to be sure of being completely antibiotic free. Clayton’s, being organic, can make this claim.  

"As for kosher and halal, their meats would be like all others, i.e., if they are lot fed they will almost certainly have had antibiotics, grass fed may or may not, organic will not.

"I hope this sheds some light on the subject for you and your readers."

Time to boycott Mitsua tuna cutting

The giant blue-fin tuna is one of the most magnificent creatures in the sea, but it has been over-exploited for sushi and shashimi.

A few years ago, Mitsuwa Marketplace, the big Japanese supermarket in Edgewater was selling the prized belly meat for $60 a pound.

This fast-swimming fish is even being farmed to meet the demand from Japan and other countries.

Every year, Mitsuwa stages a two-day tuna cutting demonstration, where a small army of workers reduce previously frozen blue-fin tunas weighing hundreds of pounds into thousands of packages of raw fish.

The heads of the fish are usually put on display.

I have been boycotting the demonstration since 2010, and urge you to do the same this weekend.

Blue-fin tuna may be delicious, but the red flesh also contains an unusually large amount of harmful mercury.

Consumption by children and women of child-bearing age isn't recommended. 

H Mart helps me make a quick dinner

Prepared Korean food with homemade, stir-fried collard greens.

Dinner on Monday night was stewed, wild-caught Alaskan pollock; thin, pan fried slices of whiting, stewed tofu and collard greens -- all from H Mart in Englewood.

The Korean supermarket has a terrific selection of prepared food, fresh fish and an array of fresh greens for stir-frying.

The stewed pollock and tofu are made with red pepper, but the whiting is so bland it needs gochujang, a red-pepper paste in a squeze bottle, and it has a few small but annoying bones.

Pan-fried whiting with gochujang, tofu and store-bought guacamole.

Pan-fried whiting, left, and a variety of Korean pancakes.

H Mart's kimchi selection, but I prefer to buy Arirang Kimchi where it is hand-made a couple of blocks away at 191 W. Englewood Ave. in Engflewood.

On Sunday, my wife picked fresh, wild-caught whole sea bass for $5.99 a pound at the Englewood H Mart at 25 Lafayette Ave. in Englewood.

I seasoned mine, rubbed the skin with olive oil and fresh lime juice and roasted it in the oven for about 20 minutes.

Reduced-fat cheese, lettuce and smoked wild salmon.

On Monday, I picked up bulgogi marinade and two heads of red-leaf lettuce for a Korean barbecue dinner the meat eaters in the family were planning to have.

My wife thinly sliced free-range Nature's Reserve whole beef tenderloin for filet mignon, which she is marinating before cooking it on a stove-top grill. 

The cooked beef slices are dipped in gochujang and wrapped in lettuce, along with rice and kimchi, before they go down the hatch. 

I sometimes grill shrimp as a substitute for the beef. 

You can use lettuce wraps for other dishes, such as canned fish salad with diced celery and apples, Dijon mustard, lime juice and ground cumin.

Or just use lettuce to wrap slices of reduced-fat cheese and smoked wild salmon with whole-grain Dijon mustard. 

H Mart's stewed tofu and pan-friend whiting are $6.99 each, collard greens were 99 cents a pound and stewed tofu usually is $4.99.

Lettuce wraps with canned fish salad.

 

Hackensack's biggest restaurant closes

The doors and windows of Green Grill in Hackensack have been papered over.

The sign on the front doors.

Editor's note: Today's buffet is a round-up of restaurant, food-shopping and takeout news.

Green Grill, the Brazilian-style rodizio restaurant in Hackensack, has served its last all-you-can-eat meal. 

With 440 seats, Green Grill likely was the city's largest restaurant and it served the biggest portions, too. 

In 2005, the restaurant was taken over by new Korean owners.

In 2010, Green Grill cut the price for an all-you-can-eat lunch of sushi, barbecued meat and salad to $9.95.

Green Grill was a tenant in the Home Depot Shopping Center at 450 Hackensack Avenue in Hackensack.

The Pathmark Supermarket in the rear of the shopping center closed in April 2011, and the space remains vacant.

Red Parrot Bistro's Pan Roasted Chicken.

A delicious black za'atar thyme mixture came with flat bread and olive oil.

Red Parrot is silenced

Red Parrot Bistro, a new Englewood spot that served free-range poultry and grass-fed meat, also has closed.

The Palisade Avenue restaurant opened in July.

When we had dinner there in mid-September, only two or three other tables were occupied.

Red Parrot is the latest unsuccessful venture in the storefront at 51 E. Palisade Ave. 

Filet of Sole with Scallion and Ginger at Lotus Cafe in Hackensack.

Hot & Sour Soup.

Lotus Cafe

I had lunch today with two friends at Lotus Cafe, the wonderful Chinese restaurant across the parking lot from the shuttered Green Grill. 

Good food and service, and reasonable prices, give Lotus Cafe the staying power that eludes so many other restaurants.

The Hackensack restaurant has more than 40 lunch specials for $7.50 to $9.50, including rice and soup or eggroll.

On a busy Sunday, the Hackensack ShopRite had only one of two express lines open.

Free-range beef on sale

Free-range, grass-fed beef from Australia is on sale at ShopRite Supermarkets through Saturday.

The Whole Beef Tenderloin for Filet Mignon is $5.99 a pound with a store card, a discount of $3 per pound.

On Sunday, I bought a 5.30-pound tenderloin at the Hackensack ShopRite for the meat-eaters in the family.

Usually the package carries the Nature's Reserve label, but the ones I saw at the Hackensack store said "Product of Australia" and had an Australian inspection stamp.

My wife trims the beef and slices it thinly, then combines it with Korean bulgogi marinade. She prepares one portion and puts the rest of the marinated meat in the freezer.

She cooks the meat on a stove-top grill and serves it with red-leaf lettuce for wrapping, kimchi, rice and a Korean red-pepper paste.

The tenderloin I bought on Saturday is enough for three meals.

A lunch box is 50% off after 4 p.m. at H Mart in Englewood.

Jerry's in Englewood cuts the price of its takeout dinners to $5.99 after 4 p.m.

Takeout-food bargains

The H Mart in Englewood has started cutting the price for prepared items from Jinga, the Korean food maker based in Queens.

After 4 p.m., Jinga kimbap rolls and lunch boxes are 50% off.

On Saturday, I bought a lunch box with baby octopus, brown rice, kimchi and other items for $3.14, normally $6.29.

Then, I drove to Jerry's Gourmet and More and picked up the last three Meals To Go for $5.99 each, normally $7.99 each.

Two were roast chicken and the other was a tilapia fillet with pesto, and all came with pasta, stuffed mushroom or artichoke, and vegetables.

H Mart, 25 Lafayette Ave., Englewood; 201-871-8822. 

Jerry's Gourmet and More, 410 S. Dean St., Englewood; 201-871-7108.


Related articles

• Where $22 buys a tasty six-course meal
• One town's hit-and-miss food scene

Petite Soo Chow closed for third time

Image via Wikipedia
Shanghai-style soup dumplings.

Editor's note: Today, I report on health inspectors closing a popular Chinese restaurant for the third time in less than three years, a sale on grass-fed beef from Australia and Costco Wholesale produce prices.

Cliffside Park has closed a Chinese restaurant called Petite Soo Chow for the third time, citing "insect infestation."


The restaurant, known for its soup dumplings, apparently continues to struggle with keeping its kitchen clean.


No details were available from the Cliffside Park Health Department, where my call was answered by a recorded message this afternoon.


We ate there in 2007 and 2008, but stopped going after we saw the lone male waiter picking his nose in the dining room one too many times. 


The first closure occurred in May 2009 and the second was in August of this year. No restaurant -- including Petite Soo Chow -- deserves customer loyalty after being closed three times by sanitary inspectors.


Grass-fed roast on sale


ShopRite supermarkets are selling Nature's Reserve Boneless Rib Eye Roast  from Australia for $4.99 a pound with a PricePlus card (limit one).


The sale on this free-range, grass-fed beef starts Saturday and runs through Dec. 24.


This morning, I picked up 6-ounce cups of ShopRite Fruit on the Bottom low-fat yogurt for 45 cents each. They are made with sugar, not high-fructose corn syrup.


Costco produce


At Costco Wholesale in Hackensack today, my wife purchased six Andy Boy jumbo romaine hearts from California for $3.99 or about 66 cents each. I couldn't find the weight on the package.


Two pounds of French green beans were $4.99, and 1 pound of organic spinach was $4.29.


A 5-pound bag of organic mixed vegetables cost $6.49. 

Shopper stands up for her rights

Image via Wikipedia

I met a River Edge woman who recounted how she made ShopRite executives honor a low price on Progresso soup during the 40th anniversary Can Can Sale that ended recently.

The supermarket chain was selling 10 19-ounce cans of Progresso soup for $10 -- or $1 each -- but shoppers were required to clip and bring in a coupon, as well as present a store card.

The woman purchased lass than 10 cans and they rang up at $1.19 each. She pointed out the coupon didn't say shoppers must buy 10 to get the deal. Store executives were unmoved.

She said it took a good deal of work, including calls to consumer agency officials, to get the Paramus store to honor the coupon, but eventually, she was able to buy five more cans of the soup for $1 each. Good for her.

Free-range beef on sale

The ShopRite sales flier that came with the paper today is offering free-range, grass-fed beef from Australia for $5.99 a pound with a Price Plus Card ($7.99 a pound without the card).

The whole beef tenderloin for filet mignon usually weighs four to seven pounds and requires trimming. But you can cut into small steaks or thin slices for marinating in Korean sauce, grilling on the stove top and eating wrapped in red-lettuce leaves with garlic, rice and other garnishes.

The Australian beef -- sold under the Nature's Reserve label -- is raised without antibiotics or growth hormones. There is a limit of one package during the sale, which runs from Sunday (Jan. 30) until next Saturday.

Also on sale is Barilla pasta at 77 cents each, with a limit of four. That's less than during the Can Can Sale, when $4 bought you three packages and $10 bought you nine packages.

I was looking for a Fairway Market (Paramus) flier in today's paper, but didn't find one.