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.

 

A great way to break a beef fast

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 I served one of our favorite meals at home last night -- marinated Korean beef barbecue with white rice and side dishes. My 12-year-old son still calls this "cook on the table," a reference to how it is served in restaurants, even though I use a non-stick grill that covers two burners on our stove (photos are generic).

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We started making this meal at home to avoid questions about the quality of the beef served in Korean restaurants in  North Jersey. I used beef I had sliced off of a free-range, grass-fed, whole beef tenderloin from Australia, sold at ShopRite under the Nature's Reserve label. I bought it on sale in December for $4.99 a pound, put the slices in a plastic freezer bag and added bulgogi marinade from H Mart in Little Ferry.

Image by bobafred via Flickr

Yesterday, I returned to the H Mart for red leaf lettuce, scallions, seasoned bean sprouts and hot pepper paste. I prepared four cups of white rice in our rice cooker and set out the lettuce leaves, three kinds of kimchi and the pepper paste. I grilled the beef, scallions and sliced garlic at the same time.
At the table, we dipped a slice of meat in the hot pepper paste and wrapped it a lettuce leaf along with garlic or scallion, rice and kimchi. The goal is to see who can make the biggest package and still fit it into his or her mouth. The beef, which I cooked just past medium, was really tender. It's a delicious and fun meal. Since the first of the year, this was only our second meal of beef.

Two more meatless meals

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Tonight, I plan to serve my wife and son spaghetti with sardines in tomato sauce as a follow-up to last night's meal -- one of Jerry's Neapolitan pizzas with a big salad and Italian red wine.

We're trying to cut down on our consumption of beef, but we're not giving it up altogether. In fact, in the interest of full disclosure, I'm heading to the ShopRite in Rochelle Park today to buy an Australian whole beef tenderloin for filet mignon -- on sale for $4.99 a pound with a store card. The cattle are free range and grass fed, and raised without antibiotics and growth hormones.

I'll trim the fat, slice this beef  thin and store it in freezer bags with Korean bulgogi marinade from H Mart. Then, we'll be able to enjoy Korean barbecue at home without having to fret over the mystery meat most restaurants serve for cooking on the table.

And Sunday night at home, we did enjoy Australian shoulder lamb chops I bought at Pathmark for under $3 a pound. I served them with mashed potatoes and sauteed broccoli.

Fire sale on free-range beef

I rushed out at 8 this morning, without a shower or breakfast, to the ShopRite in Rochelle Park for the sale on free-range, grass-fed beef from Australia for only $2.99 a pound with a Price Plus Card or $4.99 a pound without. This beef is raised without antibiotics or growth hormones and sold under the Nature's Reserve label.

This actually was a fire sale on surf and turf, because live lobsters were going for $4.99 a pound with the Price Plus Card. I picked up three for dinner tonight, all just under 2 pounds each. Sale prices are good until June 20.

The whole beef tenderloin I bought weighs 4.57 pounds and is irregularly shaped, so I'll be able to get some filet mignon steaks from the thick end. I'll cut the rest as thin as possible, place the meat in freezer bags with Korean bulgogi marinade and use it over the next few months to prepare a barbecue meal at home, wrapping the cooked meat in red-leaf lettuce leaves and serving it with rice, kimchi, sliced garlic and an egg souffle.