H Mart bargain hunting, Costco-inspired dishes, a new salad

Jun's Tofu is made with non-GMO soybeans and sold at H&Y Marketplace, a Korean supermarket at 1 Remsen Place in Ridgefield. I like the tofu with wild sesame and sea salt, eaten hot or cold. A 28-ounce package is $5.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

H Mart is the biggest chain of Korean supermarkets in New Jersey, but the North Jersey stores don't seem to be run by the same owner.

Last week at the H Mart in Englewood, a 15-pound bag of California-grown Kokuho Yellow Label White Rice was on sale for $9.99, a savings of $5.

The catch: You need the store's Smart Card coupon and must buy more than $30, excluding coupon items.

The next day, I stopped at the H Mart in Little Ferry and found the same 15-pound bag of rice for $10.88, with no strings attached.

This H Mart put the regular price at $15.99 -- not the $14.99 quoted in Englewood -- and my receipt showed a savings of $5.11.

I also found a large seedless watermelon in the Little Ferry store for $4.99, compared to $7.99 in Englewood.

The Englewood store did have Chinese broccoli on sale for 98 cents a pound.

Kirkland Signature Wild Alaskan Smoked Sockeye Salmon from Costco Wholesale in an open-face omelet of 100% Egg Whites, also from Costco, served with mashed sweet potatoes from Trader Joe's. 

Good ingredients from Costco

Cold-smoked wild sockeye salmon from Alaska, refrigerated basil pesto, salted pollock, pignoli nuts, organic quinoa -- the list of quality ingredients from Costco Wholesale is long.

Supplement them with a few key items from other stores, such as whole-wheat pasta, and meal preparation is a snap.

Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto from Costco Wholesale is a wonderful dressing for whole-wheat pappardelle, mouth-filling pasta ribbons from Italy, with added pignoli nuts and fresh basil, two of the ingredients in pesto.

An egg-white frittata made with sweet peppers, garlic, shredded cheese and salted Alaskan pollock, a cousin of the cod. I served it with a mixture of organic brown rice and quinoa with salsa verde.

A salad of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix with organic beets, Campari tomato and pignoli nuts -- all from Costco -- dressed with extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

New salad from Earthbound Farm

I picked up a new organic salad from Earthbound Farm at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack.

The blend of tender baby kale, chard and spinach -- called "POWER" -- can be used in salads, smoothies and as a pizza topping.

A 1-pound bag is $5.99, compared to $4.49 for a 1-pound tub of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix.

The resealable plastic bag is similar to the one the spring mix was sold in at one time, and it is easier to store in the refrigerator than the bulky plastic tub.

I tried the assertive greens in a salad with spring mix, reduced-fat Jarlsberg Swiss Cheese, Jersey blueberries and Campari tomatoes, all from Costco (photo below).

Costco slashes price for fresh wild salmon

Hackensack's Alaska connection is Costco Wholesale.

About a week after the season's first fresh wild-salmon fillets began showing up at Costco Wholesale, the Hackensack warehouse store slashed the price to $8.99 a pound from $13.99.

On Friday, my wife picked up our second Copper River sockeye fillet, and I roasted the portions in a preheated 450-degree oven after adding just a sprinkling of salt and ground Aleppo red pepper.

The smallest portion was finished in about 7 minutes, and the larger ones in 10 minutes.

I had chopped up mint and oregano from the garden, and added extra-virgin olive oil and freshly squeezed lime juice to them, spooning some on the juicy fillet.

On Friday night, I ate wild salmon with a baked white Korean yam and a salad.

I have been eating a lot of smoked and frozen wild salmon in the last couple of weeks, so the fresh fillets are icing on the cake.

There is nothing like the color and taste of fresh wild salmon, especially when compared to artificially colored farmed salmon.

Straight out of the oven, fresh sockeye salmon is juicy. Straight out of the fridge, above, you can taste the heart-healthy fat in the flesh and skin. This was a light dinner.

Smoked wild Alaskan salmon in an open-face breakfast omelet.

For a break from wild salmon, we use salted Alaskan pollock to make ackee and salt fish, and serve it with boiled green bananas and Valentina hot sauce, below.

Add a little sweetness to your fresh wild-caught sockeye salmon

Image by drurydrama (Len Radin) via Flickr

Wild-caught pollock  is a cheaper alternative to cod.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The culinary fireworks didn't go off in my kitchen until after the long July Fourth weekend was over.


On Tuesday, I made an early trip to Costco Wholesale in Hackensack, picking up boxes of peaches and beefsteak tomatoes, organic spring mix and another fillet of fresh, wild sockeye salmon ($7.99 a pound).


I can't get enough of this wonderfully oily fish. Except for a 10-day break, I've eaten a pound or more weekly since it first appeared at Costco in late May.


For dinner Tuesday, I went out to my garden for rosemary, oregano, mint and basil, and washed and chopped them coarsely. From the refrigerator, I took a lemon and a container of Aleppo red pepper.

Fish with peaches

The fillet weighed under 1.5 pounds, so I cut it into seven small portions, squeezing on some lemon juice and then adding ground Aleppo pepper and herbs.


The large peaches were on the counter, and a light went off. The peaches were ripe and had a nice aroma, so I sliced one and put the pieces here and there in the roasting pan with the salmon.


I cooked the fillets in a pre-heated, 350-degree oven for 15 minutes, longer than usual, because my wife likes her salmon cooked through. 


I took out one portion after 10 minutes for my dinner, along with two peach slices, which were hot and had softened further in the oven. I had a second portion, with more peach slices and a salad. Delicious.


The fruit and the fish -- sweet and savory -- are nice foils for each other.


For breakfast this morning, I had another portion of fish and two peach slices right out of the fridge, over red-leaf lettuce from my garden, tomato, cucumber and olives.

Kosher Costco

From the refrigerated case in Costco's kosher section, I bought Meal Mart Hungarian-style Beef Stuffed Cabbage for my wife. 

Four large rolls with beef and mashed potatoes in sweetened tomato sauce weigh 2.5 pounds.


They are fully cooked and not just kosher, but Glatt kosher. Don't ask. The price, $8.99, seems a lot, because there's nothing on the package about how the beef was raised. 


It probably was raised conventionally with antibiotics and growth hormones.

Salt fish

At Costco last week, I bought more salted, wild-caught pollock from Canada -- 2 pounds for $7.29, up from $6.39. That's still a couple of dollars less than a single pound of salted cod at ShopRite, Fairway Market in Paramus and other stores.


On Tuesday, I picked up more Pasta Prima lobster ravioli -- 30 ounces for $11.99 -- but couldn't find lobster bisque, corn-and-chicken chowder, and other  refrigerated soups.


I was told they've been discontinued for the summer.