From the store to the plate with only a few simple steps in between

ISLAND SALAD: Using cooked conch I brought home from H&Y, a Korean supermarket in Ridgefield, my wife produced a colorful and delicious salad, adding minced garlic; chopped onion, sweet and hot peppers, and lime juice. The result reminded me of the spicy Conch Salad I once had in the Bahamas, where they say "conk."

AFTER DINNER: A quick after-dinner salad made with triple-washed Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix, tomatoes from our garden, extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. You can turn this salad into a main course by adding smoked wild salmon and shaved Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese, both available at Costco Wholesale.

COMFORT FOOD: Mashed organic sweet potatoes from Trader Joe's, organic carrots from Costco Wholesale and Kabocha Squash from H Mart in Englewood were boiled with peeled garlic cloves for about an hour, below. Sweet potatoes, mashed or baked, are a great bread substitute that you can eat to your heart's content.

NO NEED FOR BUTTER: Drain, return to the pot and add extra-virgin olive oil and as many seasonings as you have on hand, including curry powder, cinnamon, black pepper, red-pepper flakes, a little sea salt and whatever else you like, then mash. I make enough to provide side dishes for several breakfasts and dinners or as a snack at midday.

GOOD BUY: At Costco Wholesale in Hackensack, 10-pound bags of conventional sweet potatoes cost about 79 cents a pound.

BAKED PLANTAINS: A baked sweet potato, with a little organic salsa, and baked -- not fried -- sweet plantains, all served alongside an egg-white omelet stuffed with smoked wild salmon and reduced-fat Swiss cheese. Most of the ingredients are from the Hackensack Costco.

BOTTLE-AND-CAN PASTA: Organic whole-wheat spirals in marinara sauce with drained and rinsed anchovies, sardines, red wine, extra-virgin olive oil and seasonings, including red-pepper flakes and ground garlic. Instead of grated cheese, I added panko bread crumbs as an accent. I used a 44-ounce jar of pasta sauce, one can of anchovies, three cans of sardines in tomato sauce and a 1-pound package of Luigi Vitelli-brand Organic Whole Wheat Fusilli from ShopRite ($1.25), enough for several meals.

-- VICTOR E. SASSON

When 'Costco' is what's for dinner

From Costco Wholesale: Fresh flounder, organic brown rice with lentils and lime sections.

Earthbound Farm's Organic Spring Mix, canned-fish salad and Sunset beefsteak tomato.

In the canned-fish salad, only the Moroccan sardines, right, didn't come from Costco.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Food from Costco Wholesale forms the basis of most of our home-cooked meals -- quality is high, prices are low and the Hackensack warehouse store is closer to me than any of the supermarkets I patronize.

I usually can find three kinds of fresh, wild-caught fish fillets for $7.99 a pound -- flounder from Canada, haddock from Iceland and cod from the Pacific -- but when I can't, I'll pick up a 3-pound bag of frozen wild salmon or mahi-mahi, one of the meatiest fish around.

In a covered pot, I've cooked a frozen mahi-mahi fillet in bottled Mexican green salsa in under 30 minutes, and this preparation requires only the addition of a little lime juice to the sauce.

Last week, I picked up two 36-ounce bottles of Wholesome Sweeteners' Organic Blue Agave for $9.89. 

When this item first appeared in October 2011, it came in 23.5-ounce bottles for $7.75.

I use it to sweeten plain, low-fat yogurt and espresso, but I overheard a woman tell her friend that she uses it as pancake syrup.

Terrific produce

Sunset-brand Beefsteak Tomatoes are pesticide free, and come in a 5-pound box ($6.79). They give the Jersey Tomato a run for its money.

I have never found a better-tasting salad than Earthbound Farm's Organic Spring Mix or its 50-50 Spring Mix and Spinach, and the price is usually $4.99 or $4.79 for a 1-pound container.

When this salad mix in on sale at ShopRite, a 1-pound container is $5.99. Otherwise, it's $6.99.

Trader Joe's

An acquaintance says the prices at Trader Joe's never change, which may be true, but they are higher than what Costco asks for an equivalent item and the small selection could never replace the warehouse store.

Trader Joe's, on the other hand, carries preservative and antibiotic-free cold cuts, hot dogs and bacon; organic whole-wheat pasta, sliced yogurt cheese and other items I've never seen at Costco.

Price roller coaster

Costco's prices go up and down -- $2.99 for three of those large, seedless cucumbers on April 12, $3.39 on Monday.

Last week, I also found six tins of Season-brand skinless-and-boneless sardines for $5.99 (after an instant $2 coupon), but the cans are smaller than the ones from Al Shark Moroccan sardines with skin and bones ($1 each at Brothers Produce in Paterson).

Liquid eggs

A 10-pound bag of Earthbound Farm's Organic Carrots were $6.99. A dozen 11.1-ounce cartons of Vita Coco pure coconut water were $15.79.

Six 16-ounce cartons of Kirkland Signature Real Eggs (99% pure egg whites) were $9.49 or $1.58 each, and the liquid eggs can be frozen. 

Kirkland Signature is Costco's house brand.

Two Kirkland Signature Organic Brown Eggs topped with a slice of reduced-fat cheese.

Mashed sweet potatoes

For a side dish, mashed sweet potatoes with garlic couldn't be easier.

Wash and then cut the sweet potatoes in two or three pieces, retaining the skin. Smash garlic cloves with the flat side of a chef's knife, peel and trim the hard stem end. 

Boil the sweet potatoes and garlic until  the potatoes are soft -- 20 to 30 minutes.

Drain the pot, and for a large serving, add 3 or 4 ounces of extra-virgin olive oil or Smart Balance spread, a little salt and Costco's Organic No-Salt Seasoning, and mash.
 

Whole Foods: Great fish at a good price

Hake with Hazelnut Sauce (Photo credit: Joanna Petrova)

Editor's note: Today's bill of fare includes a wonderful fish called hake and two easy ways to prepare it, a brief discussion of the phrase "all natural" and a comparison of prices at Whole Foods, Fairway, Costco and ShopRite.

I spend most of my food dollars at Costco Wholesale and ShopRite, but stop regularly at Whole Foods, H Mart and Fairway to take advantage of their sales.

On Monday, Whole Foods Market in Paramus had fresh, wild-caught hake on sale for $7.99 a pound -- about what I pay for haddock, cod and flounder fillets at Costco in Hackensack.


Not too many years ago, hake was a popular fish in Europe that would show up occasionally on Manhattan restaurant menus. In Spain, it is called "merluza."


Last year, I bought hake fillets at Whole Foods for as low as $5.99 a pound -- a bargain considering what a great eating fish this is.


Even at $9.99 a pound, the regular price, this North Atlantic fish would be a good buy because Whole Foods is the only supermarket I know that gets fresh fish 7 days a week from its own processing facility, Pigeon Cove in Gloucester, Mass.

Red hake (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Preparing hake couldn't be simpler. I had my 2.04-pound fillet cut into six pieces, 1 inch to 2 inches thick. Hake is a meaty fish that flakes beautifully.


You can open a can of organic diced tomatoes, add extra-virgin olive oil, dried herbs and red-pepper flakes, plus fresh lime juice and red or white wine. Sprinkle a little salt on the fish, add it to the heated sauce, cover and cook.


Fillets up to 1 inch take about 15 to 20 minutes. Thicker fillets should cook in about 30 minutes. You can serve them with pasta or rice and a salad.


Hake with chili spices


Another way to prepare hake is to coat it in a combination of breadcrumbs and spices from Wick Fowler's 2-Alarm Chili Kit (except the masa flour). I keep a container in the refrigerator and add black sesame seeds and other spices periodically.


If you eat meat, you'll love this chili-spice breading with chicken, beef, pork or lamb.


Again, sprinkle a little salt on the fillets and press them into the spice mixture, coating all sides. On Monday night, I prepared all six pieces this way, roasting them in the oven for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.


With either cooking method, when the fillets start coming apart or flaking, they are close to being ready. 


My wife raved, saying the fish tasted really fresh. The next night, we split one leftover fillet.


Pasta with sardines


We served it with whole-wheat pasta in a sauce of chopped sweet pepper, fresh tomato, garlic and sardines in oil -- plus olive oil, red pepper flakes, anchovies in oil, and a small can of tomato sauce.


On Monday, I also found frozen oxtails in Whole Foods' meat department freezer for $6.99 a pound. compared to $6.29 a pound for conventional oxtails at Fairway Market in Paramus. 


Unlike Fairway, Whole Foods only sells beef from cattle raised on vegetarian feed, without antibiotics or growth hormones.


I charged the Whole Foods hake and oxtails to a registered American Express card, earning a $10 statement credit on the $50-plus order.


Oxtails refund


On the same day I brought the oxtails home, I received a refund check for $18.68 from Cargill Meat Solutions for Rumba-brand oxtails from Costco that we cooked and found to have too much fat and bones.


At Fairway Market on Tuesday, I picked up three sales items: four kinds of Fairway pasta sauce at 2 for $6, regularly $4.49 each; Golden Pineapples at 2 for $4, and 1-pound containers of Sunset-brand Campari tomatoes at 2 for $3.


Fairway pasta sauce comes in 32-ounce bottles, compared to 24 to 25 ounces for most other brands. You can pay up to $8.49 for a bottle of Rao's pasta sauce, but why would you throw the money away?


I usually add a can of anchovies to bottled pasta sauce for robustness, but you don't actually taste those salty little fillets. Red pepper flakes, garlic powder, non-salt seasoning -- all of it can improve a $3 bottle of marinara.


Recycled excuses


Just when I think Fairway might be growing on me, an employee does something stupid, like the clerk who literally threw everything I bought, including the glass bottles with the pasta sauce, into a single reusable bag, even though I put two on the counter.


And, of course, let's not forget New York-based Fairway is the only supermarket that doesn't give you credit for a reusable bag. 


Basically, the owners don't care if they trash New Jersey's environment with their plastic bags, nor do they take back those bags for recycling, as does ShopRite.


Now, Fairway plans to open a second store in Woodland Park, meaning there will be thousands of additional plastic bags on the loose.


'All-Natural' brown eggs


At ShopRite in Englewood, I found a dozen Land O' Lakes All-Natural Extra Large Brown Eggs on sale for $2.50, but cut that to $1.5o with a 50-cent coupon that was doubled at the register. 


These eggs demonstrate the meaninglessness of the phrase "all natural," which has no set of standards, unlike "organic."


The Land O' Lakes carton mentions the chickens' vegetarian feed contains no growth hormones or animal byproducts, but is silent on whether they receive antibiotics in their water. 


Costco v. ShopRite
          
My wife bought a 5-pound bag of carrots at ShopRite for $3.49 -- 50 cents less than usual -- but at Costco, a 10-pound bag of Earthbound Farms organic carrots is $6.99.


She also bought Readington Farms antibiotic-free chicken -- drumsticks, thighs and a whole fryer -- but none of it was on sale. ShopRite routinely discounts Perdue, Tyson and other inferior, drug-filled chicken.


At Costco today, Kirkland Signature frozen, wild-caught Alaskan Sockeye Salmon was $27.99 or about $9.30 a pound. A 10-pound box of sweet potatoes was $6.99. Three pounds of bananas were $1.39 or about 46 cents a pound, lower than any other store.


Two 96-ounce bottles of Apple & Eve Organic Lemonade were $7.69. An attractive, BPA-free set of 16 plastic glasses and tumblers in four colors was $19.99. 


Using and hand-washing plastic glasses and plates (for cold food) helps us cut down on use of the dishwasher.