California peaches, Costco rebates, cooking bargain dishes at home

Large California peaches from Costco Wholesale in Hackensack and smaller ones from ShopRite in Paramus, upper right, never ripened after we brought them home.

Grilled fresh Wild Copper River Sockeye Salmon from Alaska with Pesto and a side of Organic Whole Wheat Shells, but no grilled peaches. The skin-on fillets were $14.99 a pound on Tuesday at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack.

The Costco Wholesale cash rebate I received this week is about $245, more than double the $110 I pay for an annual executive membership. This check is in addition to several hundred dollars in rebates from American Express, which issues the Costco credit card.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

We had our hearts set on preparing grilled Fresh Wild Salmon with Pesto and Ripe Peaches, but fruit from drought-stricken California didn't cooperate.

Today, my wife got a full refund of $9.99 for a 5-pound box of large California Peaches she purchased at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack on June 9.

Two of the four smaller California Peaches I bought at ShopRite in Paramus for $1.69 a pound are on my kitchen counter and look like they'll rot before they ripen.

I sprayed oil on a grill pan that covers two burners of my stove, and allowed it to warm up over medium heat before adding the salmon skin side down, above, covered with fresh lime juice and a little sea salt. Total cooking time was 10 minutes, the same amount it took to cook the organic whole wheat shells in boiling, unsalted water.

When the fillets firmed up, I flipped them.

Aleppo pepper, fresh herbs from the garden and Costco's Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto were added at the end.

 

I finished my dinner with a salad of green-leaf lettuce from the garden.

Local and not so local

I'm all in favor of eating local, but my salmon dinner tonight brought together ingredients from Alaska (the fish), California (the red wine I drank), Italy (basil in the prepared pesto and organic whole wheat pasta), Spain (extra-virgin olive oil for my salad), and Syria or Turkey (ground Aleppo red pepper).

For the pasta dressed in Costco's Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto with added pine nuts, I used Whole Foods Market's 365 Everyday Value Organic Whole Wheat Shells from Italy ($1.49), but ignored the listed cooking time of 14-15 minutes.

They were al dente in 10 minutes.

My salad contained green-leaf lettuce from our garden, dressed with extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and I also accented the fish with chopped oregano, mint and parsley we grew.

An egg-white omelet stuffed with smoked wild Alaskan salmon, shredded cheese and pesto.

Costco's 100% egg whites, basil pesto and smoked wild salmon are all sold under the Kirkland Signature label, the house brand, which usually signals premium quality.

Sockeye two ways

On Tuesday, along with a fresh sockeye fillet, my wife picked up a pound of Costco's wonderful smoked wild Alaskan salmon, sliced in two half-pound pouches ($15.99).

Even though it is previously frozen, this fish is silken when eaten out of hand or rolled up with a slice of reduced-fat Swiss cheese, dipped in Dijon mustard if you like or stuffed with salad greens.

I also use it to fill egg-white omelets, adding pesto and fresh herbs from the garden.

Costco cash rebates

The 2% cash rebate check I received this week from Costco Wholesale ($244.99) was the third this year.

Two checks containing several hundred dollars came from American Express' True Earnings credit card for purchases at Costco, restaurants, gas stations and other stores.

My executive membership costs $110 annually.

Fresh whole red snapper were on sale for $4.99 a pound on Sunday at H Mart in Englewood, a discount of $3 a pound. Mustard greens also were on sale for 99 cents a pound.

My wife cut up two wild red snappers weighing a total of more than 5 pounds, and seasoned and pan-fried them before pouring hot vinegar, sweet pepper, onions, garlic and pimento berries or allspice over the fish.

I sauteed two 5-ounce packages of triple-washed Organic Baby Spinach, Bok Choy and Kale on their expiration date with olive oil and sake, then used them as a side dish or to stuff an egg-white omelet, above. The packages were on sale for 99 cents each at the International Food Warehouse in Lodi.

Greens and sweets for breakfast: Leftover mustard greens with chopped fresh garlic, fresh callaloo with sweet peppers, and sauteed arugula, all served with mashed and baked sweet potatoes. A 5-ounce package of pre-washed arugula was on sale last week for 99 cents at the International Food Warehouse.

Fairway Market's wild salmon costs $7 more a pound than Costco's

At Fairway Market in Paramus, fresh wild Copper River salmon fillet was $21.99 a pound on Tuesday, compared to $14.99 a pound at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack for fresh sockeye from the same Alaskan river, below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I stopped at Fairway Market in Paramus on Tuesday to check out two promotions on the purchase of groceries -- the store is offering a $10 off coupon and American Express will give you $15 statement credit on your registered card.

In both cases, you have to spend $75 in a single visit.

I haven't visited Fairway since last October, and I noticed a number of changes:

More fixtures in the produce department and a new wine department make it harder to maneuver your cart through the store.

"Big Sale" signs are everywhere, but as with Fairway's fresh wild Alaskan salmon for $21.99 a pound, you'll find few bargains or even good buys.

After looking around the store on Tuesday, I decided I couldn't spend $75 on groceries to meet the American Express threshhold.

Instead, I purchased three pounds of coffee beans and had them ground Turkish style: 

French Roast ($7.99 a pound); Brazilian Arabica, a dark roast (on sale for $6.99 a pound); and Fairway Supreme Blend (also $7.99 a pound).

I brewed two small pots with the Fairway Blend, a light-to-medium roast, and no one in the family liked the weak brew that resulted.

Today, I returned the Fairway Supreme Blend for a full refund.

I grilled Costco Wholesae's sockeye salmon fillets on a grill pan placed over two burners on my stove, skin side down, then turned them. I added mint and oregano from the garden, Aleppo pepper and fresh lime juice.

Tonight, I had a leftover portion of wild salmon over salad, including green- and red-leaf lettuces from the garden. It was delicious right out of the refrigerator.

A long wait for fresh wild salmon

The fresh wild salmon we enjoyed on Tuesday night was the first we've had from Costco Wholesale in Hackensack since the season ended last October.

The 1.57-pound fillet yielded six serving portions, and they grilled on the stove top in under 10 minutes.

Although I cooked them through, they remained juicy.

There's no shortage of hype in Fairway Market's produce department.

A liter of pricey Fairway Extra Virgin Olive Oil is labeled "imported from Italy," but if you look carefully, you'll discover it is a blend that might include oil from Spain and Greece.

At Fairway, you won't find any bottles of red wine for $5 or under, as you will at Whole Foods Market, also in Paramus.

The $7.99 Fairway Supreme Blend, front, contains beans that are noticeably lighter than darker roasts in barrels next to it. The resulting brew is pretty weak.

No Fairway would be no loss

I could care less if Fairway's store in Paramus remains open.

The small chain, based in Manhattan, delayed the opening of a New Jersey store for many years, fearing it couldn't compete with low-price leader ShopRite.

Then, Fairway chose the least popular shopping center in Paramus, the so-called Fashion Center, for its first store.

Now, Fairway's competition is Costco Wholesale, Whole Foods Market and H Mart, the Korean supermarket chain, and compared to them, it falls short in so many ways.

Black Tiger Shrimp, salty sardines, whole-wheat pasta and more

Farmed Black Tiger Shrimp, above with pasta and below, are imported from Vietnam, sold by Costco Wholesale and labeled "Best Aquaculture Practices Certified."

We shell the deveined shrimp, marinate them in fresh lime juice, a little salt and Organic No-Salt Seasoning, and cook them quickly in olive oil with garlic and sweet pepper, turning them once.

Editor's note: Today, I present an information buffet about Black Tiger Shrimp, sodium in Al Shark-brand Moroccan Sardines, ShopRite Whole Wheat Pasta, home-grown salad; and visits to the Tick Tock Diner and Trader Joe's, both in Clifton.

By Victor E. Sasson

Editor

Farmed-raised Black Tiger Shrimp from Vietnam are one of the most popular seafood items sold at Costco Wholesale, but there is conflicting information on just how safe they are to eat.

If you buy 4 pounds of the previously frozen shrimp, they come in a heavy plastic bag with labels that assure consumers they made "the responsible seafood choice."

The bag also carries the seal of the Best Aquaculture Practices Program, which is an industry group based in St. Louis, and a Web site: 

www.responsibleseafood.org

Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch lists Black Tiger Shrimp from Ca Mau Province of Southern Vietnam and other areas of Southeast Asia as a "Best Choice."

But below the chart, this warning appears:

"Most imported farmed shrimp should be avoided due to habitat damage, the risk of pollution and the introduction of non-native species to the surrounding environment."

"An exception is shrimp from farms using fully recirculating ponds in Thailand, which reduce the risk of escapes and disease." 

Costco's Black Tigers

Costco sells deveined Black Tiger Shrimp imported by the Illinois-based Mazzetta Company, which says its SEAMAZZ "shrimp products are farm-raised under the strictest conditions and quick frozen at the peak of freshness."

The SEAMAZZ bag I got from Costco is labeled "Product of Vietnam Farm Raised," "Black Tiger EZ Peel" and "13-15" to the pound. Ingredients listed are "shrimp and salt."

Al Shark-brand Moroccan sardines come in tomato sauce, left, or spicy oil.

Salty sardines

Heart-healthy sardines -- with and without skin and bones -- are great over salads, warmed up and eaten over rice, or chopped up in pasta sauce.

For years, I've been buying Al Shark-brand Moroccan Sardines for 99 cents a can at Fattal's Bakery and Brothers Produce, both in Paterson.

The mighty little fish come in tomato sauce or lightly smoked in spicy vegetable oil, and I buy both.

This year, I've been draining the sardines in spicy oil and actually rinsing them before I put them in bottled pasta sauce.

That's because I finally looked at the label and saw 1 can contains 603 mg of sodium or 25% of the recommended daily intake.

On Monday, I went to Fattal's to replenish my supply and took a look at the label on Al Shark sardines in tomato sauce.

I was pleasantly surprised to see they contain nearly a third less sodium than the ones in spicy oil: 220 mg or 9% of the daily recommended intake.

I bought 11 cans with tomato sauce, 3 with spicy oil and 1 pound of crushed red Aleppo pepper ($6.99 a pound) for seasoning eggs, fish, hummus and other dishes.

The boxes of 100% Whole Wheat Pasta at ShopRite are not what they seem.

Shrinking pasta

Since I switched from regular pasta to whole wheat a couple of years ago, I really haven't looked at ShopRite's offerings.

In the past, I've only seen "whole grain" pastas that were more expensive than 100% whole wheat and came in boxes of around 13 ounces.

On Monday, I stopped at the Hackensack store and for the first time saw ShopRite 100% Whole Wheat Spaghetti, Thin Spaghetti and other shapes for $1.49 a box -- only 10 cents more than Trader Joe's whole wheat pasta.

But there's a catch: When I looked at the ShopRite boxes, I saw they contain only 12 ounces, and the price isn't being cut during the Summer Can Can Sale.

At Trader Joe's, the whole wheat pasta is organic and comes in a 16-ounce package for only $1.39.

What I did find on sale at ShopRite were 4 BPA-free plastic Ziploc containers for leftovers (9.5-cup capacity) at $1 each after the Can Can Sale discount and a $1 instant coupon on the package.

And I continue to stock up on 1-liter bottles of Adirondack Seltzer at 4 for $2, a better buy than the Adirondack Seltzer 12-pack (cans) that is also on sale.
 

A salad of green-leaf and red-leaf lettuce from our garden, dressed with extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

A cucumber flower like the one we were served this month at Vanhorne Restaurant in Montreal. We're still waiting for the cucumbers.

Herbs and lettuce from our garden.

I stopped at the Tick Tock Diner in Clifton on Monday for soup, but the waitress said Yankee Bean, the soup of the day, was made with beef broth, and that split pea is served only on Thursdays.

Is the Route 3 diner the only one in the state that sells its own T-shirts?

The clock was running about 30 minutes slow.

I eat a lot of seafood, but I'm not familiar with a fish called "sol," which was on the Tick Tock lunch menu on Monday.

If you consistently make the wrong choices at the Tick Tock, you could end up in the cemetery across Allwood Road long before your time.

The clock is ticking

The consolation prize for not being able to find a vegetarian soup at the Tick Tock Diner was a visit to a new-to-me Trader Joe's next door.

I picked up:

A 3-pound bag of organic sweet potatoes for $3.69; 2 28-ounce cans of Trader Joe's Marinara with Extra Virgin Olive Oil at $1.99 each; 2 pounds of Trader Joe's Organic Whole Wheat Pasta (Fusilli and Spaghetti) at $1.39 each; and a bottle of fruit and vegetable wash for $3.99.

Rib-sticking breakfast: Mashed Trader Joe's organic sweet potatoes and Costco Wholesale's purple fingerling potatoes with extra-virgin olive oil, upper right, served with a fried organic brown egg (I broke the yoke), stewed tofu and Costco's Tasty Bite Channa Masala, prepared chick peas in Asian Indian spices.