The upside of going meatless

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Since starting our meatless regimen on Sunday, I've enjoyed a lot of cheese -- glorious cheese.

Cheese is one of those fatty foods I have been careful about. Although I have never met a cheese I didn't like, being lactose-intolerant has never made it an easy choice.

Usually, I had only Parmigiano-Reggiano (photo) in the fridge, because it is made with skim milk, and a sliced yogurt cheese with jalapenos I buy at Trader Joe's. Lately, I've expanded to a thin-sliced, lactose-free Swiss cheese from Costco.

Two farms in North Jersey, Bobolink Dairy in Vernon and Valley Shepherd Creamery in Long Valley, have wonderful, artisanal cheeses I have enjoyed occasionally, and I've lost count of the "lunches" I've made of the free cheese samples at Jerry's in Englewood.


Looking for a meatless lunch today at The Famished Frog in Morristown, I chose the vegetable panini, and it was filled with a gooey cheese, probably mozzarella, along with a meaty mushroom and other veggies. It was a little bland until I added Dijon mustard.

Our meatless meal tonight was Canadian flounder fillets, which cooked in under 10 minutes in a covered pan with Mexican green salsa, and gourmet fingerling potatoes, boiled and then sauteed in oil with onion and sweet pepper.

Contradictons at Costco

A salmon farm in Finland.

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For about six months every year, Costco sells wild salmon and artificially colored farm salmon side by side. You'll also notice this in the chicken and meat sections -- organic poultry and organic or grass-fed meat mixed in with a much larger selection of their conventionally raised counterparts.

Yestersday, on my weekly visit to the Hackensack warehouse store, I saw a woman put a large tray of farmed salmon in her cart, and I asked her if she knew it is artificially colored. She thought the farmed salmon at Costco might be different, but it isn't. I told her she could find wild Alaskan sockeye salmon fillets in the freezer case and I have found that steaming them yields a fish that would fool many people into thinking it is fresh.

She also had one of the store's rotisserie chickens, which also are raised conventionally. The one time I asked the employee tending the rotisserie, he couldn't tell me anything about the chickens, inlcuding the brand. My frugal friend Jay, who has tried almost every rotisserie chicken in North Jersey, says the antibiotic-free, vegetarian-fed bird from Whole Foods Market in Paramus gets the crown.

Yesterday, I saw Coleman-brand organic skinless and boneless thighs at Costco, but they were in pouches -- not one of those foam trays -- and when I picked them up, the feel of the formless meat was unpleasant and I didn't buy any.

The contradictions continue throughout the store. At Christmas,  I was all set to buy the first Costco ham raised without antibiotics or growth hormones, but when I looked at the label, it listed harmful preservatives used in curing. I would have bought an uncured ham. Most of the cold cuts offered also have sodium nitrates or nitrites as preservatives, though I have noticed expensive imported prosciutto without them.

Though they are pricier, wild fish and organic poultry taste better.This morning, I used part of a frozen wild salmon fillet I had steamed for dinner last night in my breakfast sandwich, stacking it with Costco's smoked wild salmon, herbicide-free tomato slices and organic lettuce. I also used Dijon mustard, though pesto or hummus would have tasted good, too, as would have a slice of Swiss or shavings of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. (Sockeye salmon is shown).

A sockeye salmon.

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With the sandwich, I had some lemony, Hannah-brand taboule salad from Costco ($4.99 for 21 ounces), a relatively new item, and Arirang kimchi, an MSG-free brand made and sold in Englewood. Costco recently put out jars of kimchi, but unfortunately, they are made with monosodium glutamate, and it's not worth the couple of dollars I would save.

Spread that pesto nice and thick

Wild salmon and whole-wheat pasta go better with pesto.

This has been an uneven summer for Jersey produce: the tomatoes have been either earthy or woolly; the four ears of corn I have tried so far weren't sweet at all; and I didn't see much in the way of basil until I came across a big bunch this week at the ShopRite in Rochelle Park.

I needed the basil for one of the 101 salads from The Times (see previous posts), but there was so much left, I decided to make my first batch of blender pesto this summer (see recipe below). 

For breakfast, I spread the pesto on my toasted 100% whole grain bread from Costco, stuck some fresh basil leaves and cilantro to it, laid on a nice portion of smoked wild salmon, also from Costco, added shavings of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and topped that with sliced tomato and za'atar thyme mixture. 

The garlicky pesto really elevates that sandwich.

Blender pesto
  (courtesy of Marcella Hazan)

Place ingredients in the blender in this order:

2 heaping tablespoons of pine nuts (pignoli)

2 large cloves of garlic smashed and peeled, or more to taste

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups basil leaves and stems packed (don't skimp on the basil)

3/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil

Start the blender with the top off and push down the basil with a rubber spatula. Stop the blender and push down the leaves on top under the liquid below. Continue blending and pushing until the blades suck down and liquify everything into a thick, flowing mixture. Empty into a bowl. At this point, you can freeze the pesto in a plastic container for later use. When thawed, add:

3/4 to 1 cup of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, or more to taste, and blend in with a fork or spoon.

You can use another cheese, such as pecorino romano. Pesto does not require heating. Use as a sandwich spread, put a big spoonful on top of cooked fish or meat, or add to 1 pound of pasta, preferably penne, medium shells or other small pasta, cooked al dente. You can garnish the pasta with more pine nuts and sun-dried tomatoes or not.

Pesto originated in Genoa, Italy, where they add sliced, boiled potatoes to their pasta pesto. I was introduced to it in the early 1970s and I have never tired of it. My first taste each summer, and every taste, is a delight. 

In case you are wondering ...

I received several e-mails with comments from nog66 and wanted to publish them on this blog. But I think I hit the wrong button and they weren't published, so I'm going to address some of his/her comments here.

I can buy some of the quantities I do at Costco because those foods are part of my daily diet. I have no trouble finishing a pound or more of wild smoked salmon in a week or so. I simply have a wild salmon sandwich every morning. The sandwich usually has a slice or two of Parmigiano-Reggiano in it and some organic salad greens. I can't wait for the fresh wild salmon to arrive at Costco. The pieces are usually two pounds or more and yield six or seven nice fillets. I'll also eat that every day until it's gone.

I buy a pound of the Earthbound Farms salad mix every week and eat a salad every night with dinner. I cut the wedge of Parmigiano into three and put each into plastic wrap (as the label recommends). The cheese is always moist and crumbly, even if it takes me a month to finish it.

To be sure, I have bought food at Costco that spoiled before my family of three finished it or was simply awful. I tried the four pounds of cut fruit recently and most of it was either over-ripe or hard and not ripe. And, yes, I do have nearly a dozen reusable grocery bags, but I often forget them in the car.

As for Paterson's Middle Eastern food bazaar, I have been shopping there for nearly 30 years and have my favorites, including Fattal's for bread, canned goods, sweet or savory pastries and spices, and Assayad, a Syrian restaurant on the Clifton side of Crooks Avenue, the border between Clifton and Paterson. I don't think I'll try the Halal Chinese place that has opened at Crooks and Getty avenues. (My previous favorite restaurant, Vine Valley Lebanese Restaurant, is long closed and a great Turkish place, Kafe Teria, closed recently.) Yes, I have been to the farmers' market near the tracks and the big Turkish bakery and just about every other pastry shop and restaurant. The problem I have found over the years is restaurant sanitation, which does not seem to be a priority in many places. (This post was revised.)