Don't wait for holiday to make meals a riot of flavor and color

For dinner on Sunday, we had wild-caught shrimp from Mexico -- $16.99 a pound at H Mart in Englewood -- over a moist side dish of organic quinoa prepared in an electric cooker with organic chicken stock, organic diced tomatoes, organic lentils and peeled whole California garlic cloves, all from Costco Wholesale. The shrimp were marinated in chopped garlic and fresh lime juice.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I can't get into Thanksgiving this year. Too much traffic. Too many people in the food stores.

This morning, I made my final holiday shopping trip -- to Whole Foods Market in Paramus for two small naturally raised hams for the meat eaters in the family ($7.99 a pound).

We also have four turkey legs from Goffle Road Poultry Farm in Wyckoff stored in the freezer, and my wife also plans to serve curry goat and rice with pigeon peas.

I'm planning to have a whole red snapper prepared by a family friend, a crab cake and, possibly, a wild-salmon burger. 

The last two are from Costco Wholesale in Hackensack, and already in the freezer.

A sweet Thanksgiving

I bought conventional sweet potatoes from Trader Joe's last week, and today, I picked up organic purple sweet potatoes at Whole Foods.

I'll boil them with whole garlic cloves, drain them and mash them with extra-virgin olive oil, sea salt, cinnamon, curry powder and other seasonings.

We'll also serve a big organic spring mix salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, pomegranate seeds and Grana Padano Cheese, all dressed in EVOO and balsamic vinegar. 

My wife went to Costco Wholesale in Hackensack on Monday right after it opened and reported it was "mobbed."

She bought pomegranates ($14.99), a 9-inch apple pie ($9.99), Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix ($4.79) and 3 pounds of organic bananas ($1.99).

I also went holiday shopping on Monday morning on the way home from the gym, stopping at ShopRite in Paramus for two sale items, a 5-pound box of Spanish Clementines ($4.99) and Turkey Hill Ice Cream ($1.99).

My wife steamed whole wild-caught porgy last week -- $2.49 a pound at H Mart in Englewood -- with fresh okra, onions and sweet peppers.

Quinoa with creamy garlic cloves stood in for bread at breakfast with two organic eggs, non-fat Greek yogurt with cucumbers and mint, and pomegranate seeds. I sprinkled za'atar thyme mixture over the quinoa before I reheated it.

A half-dozen jumbo California Pomegranates were $14.99 at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack. Though they are more expensive, the seeds from them are far superior to those from smaller and cheaper pomegranates, such as those I bought for 99 cents each at ShopRite in Paramus.

A 5-pound box of Spanish Clementines were $4.99 at the Paramus ShopRite. The store also had 5-pound boxes of sweet potatoes for $2.49.

A beautiful display of sweet potatoes and yams greeted shoppers this morning at Whole Foods Market in Paramus. I bought about 2 pounds of organic Purple Stokes Sweet Potatoes on sale for $1.49 a pound to mash with conventional sweet potatoes from Trader Joe's.

Flavors from the Middle Eastern kitchen bring meals alive

Pomegranate seeds and non-fat Greek yogurt lend a Middle Eastern accent to organic Spanish brown rice with black beans, garlic cloves, organic diced tomatoes and saffron.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

This onetime bread lover couldn't get enough of loaves spread with a fragrant mixture of za'atar (Arabic for "thyme") and olive oil.

Fresh bread covered with za'atar -- dried thyme, sumac, salt and sesame seeds -- was terrific, but I also loved toasting it and hearing the mixture sizzle when it got hot.

Za'atar and yogurt, filled with diced cucumbers and dusted with dried mint, are flavors I recall fondly from the Syrian cooking I enjoyed growing up in Brooklyn.

I discovered Aleppo pepper -- a simple, mildly spicy crushed red pepper that adds color and flavor -- in the Syrian groceries and restaurants in Paterson's Middle Eastern bazaar. 

I continue to enjoy those flavors today.

Now, I use za'atar to season eggs, rice, fresh tomato slices and other food, relishing the sour sumac and crunchy sesame seeds.

In an omelet stuffed with smoked wild salmon, the sourness of the za'atar contrasts nicely with the slightly salty fish.

At dinner tonight, I tried to recall the flavors of my mother's mujaddara -- a rice-and-lentil dish served with yogurt, diced cucumbers and dried mint -- using thick Greek yogurt and hothouse cucumbers from Costco Wholesale, dried mint from Fattal's in Paterson and pomegranate seeds from ShopRite.

Aleppo pepper and za'atar thyme mixture can be added in the last few minutes of cooking an egg-white omelet stuffed with reduced-fat Swiss cheese or used liberally inside and outside the omelet.

I sprinkled thyme mixture over organic Spanish brown rice before I reheated it in the microwave, and used a thick layer, such as you'd find on za'atar bread, with two organic eggs fried sunny side up.

Aleppo pepper added color and flavor to fresh wild Atlantic cod when I poached the skinless fillets in Roasted Salsa Verde from Whole Foods Market, and organic diced tomatoes and fresh lime juice, both from Costco. The fish was $7.99 a pound at Costco.

Taking a break from eggs at breakfast, I plated the last piece of leftover cod with sweet potatoes and whole garlic cloves mashed with extra-virgin olive oil and seasoned with sea salt, cinnamon, curry powder and other seasonings.

Za'atar thyme mixture, Aleppo pepper, dried mint and many other spices are available at Fattal's, 975-77 Main St., Paterson; 1-973-742-7125.

Fattal's is open 7 days a week and has a large parking lot.