You can enjoy perfectly grilled, juicy wild salmon in only 6 minutes

Fresh wild sockeye salmon from Costco Wholesale spends only 6 minutes on a preheated stove-top grill. Here, I served it with Costco pesto and organic salsa, as well as chopped mint and other herbs from our garden.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

We cook fresh wild salmon at home nearly every week during the season, which runs from June to October at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack.

A friend who just returned from a vacation in Alaska reported rivers are thick with salmon struggling to swim upstream and lay their eggs.

The price of fresh wild sockeye fillets has fallen steadily since June, and I've learned a thing or two about cooking this wonderful fish on a preheated stove-top grill.

For one thing, I was cooking the fillets too long -- 8 minutes to 10 minutes.

I reduced the cooking time to 6 minutes, and they came out juicier.

The longer cooking time is appropriate for wild king salmon fillets, which are thicker than sockeye.

Wild sockeye fillets are thinner and smaller than both king and Costco's artificially colored farmed Atlantic salmon, which are probably raised on antibiotics.

I usually get six serving pieces from about 2 pounds of wild salmon, and add sea salt and fresh lime juice before arranging the pieces skin-side down on the large, rectangular preheated grill.

The All-Clad Grill is 20 inches long and 13 inches wide, and the fish cooks best at both ends -- over the burners.

Quick dinners

Besides quick-cooking wild fish, my strategy for putting a meal on the table in less than 10 minutes includes making such side dishes as quinoa, brown rice, pasta and baked or mashed sweet potatoes in large quantities.

Then, you can plate and reheat some, add your wild salmon, enjoy dinner and finish with a big salad of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix, also from Costco. 

In the morning, two organic eggs, sunny side up, are wonderful over sweet potatoes mashed with extra-virgin olive oil, especially when you break the yolks over them.

The All-Clad Grill I use straddles two burners of my stove. I preheat it, use spray oil and turn the heat on both burners to medium-high before adding the fish, skin-side down. After 3 minutes, I turn the pieces, and then again onto the skin for the last minute. If you're serving the salmon with ripe peach halves, grill them first, because they need much more time.

A package of 2 pounds of Fresh Wild Sockeye Salmon yields about six serving pieces.

An electric cooker full of organic brown rice, organic diced tomatoes, low-sodium red beans and chopped fresh garlic, prepared with extra-virgin olive oil. The leftovers allow you to put dinner or breakfast on the table in minutes.

Wild king salmon swims my way at Seafood Gourmet in Maywood

Wild King Salmon with a Strawberry-Lime Salsa and Couscous, above and below, at Seafood Gourmet in Maywood, where dinner reservations are a must.

A fat slab of wild-caught king salmon on ice was displayed in the market's refrigerated case. Each king, the biggest salmon, can weigh 50 pounds or more.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

At Seafood Gourmet in Maywood, a popular fish market-restaurant, you can often find your dinner chilling on plenty of ice in a case you pass on the way to the 38-seat dining room.

And so it was on Thursday night, but I foolishly went there without a reservation to celebrate a special occasion with my son.

We were told the wait was an hour, but luckily, a man was just finishing his meal at a table with two stools in the market, and offered it to us.

I sat with my back to a tank of live lobsters ($14.99 a pound).

I ordered Wild King Salmon with Couscous ($28.99), and my son chose a pan-fried whole Red Snapper with rice and fresh spinach sauteed with garlic ($24.99).

I also asked for a side dish of spinach with garlic, and the generous portion was only $4.95. Seltzer and soda with refills were $1.80 each.

A cup of Manhattan Clam Chowder came with my meal. My son had a bowl of Lobster Bisque.

Salmon and strawberries?

I wasn't sure about the strawberry salsa listed with a special of wild king salmon, and thought it might be too sweet, so the waitress offered to serve it on the side.

Two cups of salsa were on the plate -- one pureed and one roughly chopped with scallions and cucumber -- and they worked beautifully to complement the richness of the fatty salmon.

I'm sorry to say I don't know the name of the chef who is responsible for the imaginatively prepared fish I've enjoyed at Seafood Gourmet in the past few years. 

The fish market opened in 1988, and the restaurant was added about a decade ago.

A large portion of fresh spinach with garlic.

Catches of the Day were listed on a board on the wall above our small, round table.

Seafood Gourmet is a BYO.

Fresh seafood salads for sale in the market.

Details

Seafood Gourmet, 103 W. Pleasant Ave.; 201-843-8558. Open for lunch and dinner. Closed Sundays. Free street parking, BYO. With only 38 seats, reservations are recommended for dinner.

Web site: Your dinner is waiting on ice

Going nuts and getting soaked at Costco Wholesale

These 2-pound bags of raw hazelnuts at Costco Wholesale are imported from Canada, but the label says, "Product of Turkey or USA." They are $10.99 a bag.

Northern New Jersey had another day of on-and-off thunderstorms on Monday, but the rain had stopped when I got out of the car at Costco Wholesale, armed with a full-size umbrella.

As I write this, even more heavy rain is falling today, just as it did on Monday and last Friday.

On Monday, by the time I had checked out with more than $106 worth of fresh wild king salmon, smoked wild salmon, beefsteak tomatoes, seedless watermelon, canned fish and other items, Hackensack was hit by another wind-whipped rainstorm.

Back of the lot

It was a long walk to the car, which I usually park at the back of the lot to avoid the congestion of lazy shoppers who insist on a space closest to the door.

The umbrella kept my head and shoulders dry, but the wind-whipped rain soaked my shirt sleeves and the back of my pants, not to mention everything in my cart.

When I opened my car doors, the seats got wet, and when I grabbed the soaked box of 4 Tropicana half-gallons, the box broke and flew out of my hand onto the carpeted floor in front of the back seat.

A heavy, oblong seedless watermelon (no bargain at $7.49) nearly slipped out of my hands before it landed on a car seat.

One shopper abandoned a bag of sweet peppers at the Heinz Tomato Ketchup display. Did he or she think ketchup is a vegetable?

Kirkland Signature spices come in the same size jar, but their weight varies.

Snacking nuts

In the store, a display of raw, sodium-free hazelnuts caught my eye.

I decided to try a 2-pound bag for snack food, and roasted them at home in a 275-degree oven for 1 hour and 20 minutes, then dusted them with Kirkland Signature Ground Saigon Cinnamon from Vietnam.

We've been doing the same with  Costco's salt-free raw almonds, and four of us usually finish a 3-pound bag in about 10 days.

At 2 pounds for $10.99, the hazelnuts are more expensive than the almonds, but they have a distinctive taste.

At $2.59 for a 10.7-ounce bottle, Kirkland Signature Ground Saigon Cinnamon from Vietnam is one of the cheapest items in the Hackensack warehouse store. Only 3 pounds of bananas at $1.39 are cheaper.

Leftover wild king salmon with steamed organic quinoa, both from Costco.

A canned-fish salad over organic spring mix, with beefsteak tomato and hothouse cucumber, all from Costco. Canned tuna, pink salmon, and sardines are combined with chopped celery and apple, and dressed with hummus, Dijon mustard, lime juice and ground cumin.

A quick egg-white omelet with Trader Joe's Jalapeno Yogurt Cheese and Kirkland Signature Wild Alaskan Smoked Sockeye Salmon from Costco.

Wild salmon makes good eating year-round

A smoked wild salmon frittata oozes with imported buffalo-milk mozzarella.

Fresh, wild-caught salmon appears to have had its run at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack.

In the seafood case today, I found thick steaks of ahi or bigeye tuna, and fillets of flounder, haddock and cod, all wild-caught.

I enjoyed plenty of fresh, wild sockeye and king salmon until last week, so now it's time to turn my attention to other wild-caught fish and the smoked or frozen wild salmon Costco carries year-round.

Today, I picked up skinless Pacific cod fillets at a low $6.99 a pound.

I added smoked wild salmon and cheese to a salad I bought in a hospital cafeteria.

An open-face egg-white omelet with smoked salmon and pesto.

Kirkland Signature's Wild Alaskan Smoked Sockeye Salmon is preservative-free and comes sliced, so it's easy to add to an omelet or salad or roll up with a piece of cheese and dip in mustard for a snack.

The price has held steady at $15.39 for a package with two half-pound sections. 

I made a frittata with smoked salmon, fresh buffalo-milk mozzarella, capers and organic brown eggs -- all from the Hackensack warehouse store.

Ahi tuna has supplanted wild king salmon in the fresh fish case. I bought Pacific cod fillets, a wild-caught fish that doesn't raise concerns about excessive mercury.

Small, fully cooked langostino tails, upper left corner, are preservative free.

In addition to the cod fillets, I bought frozen "langostino lobster" tails that are fully cooked and peeled.

They will be a change of pace from the whole-wheat pasta and sardines I make at home. A 2-pound bag from Chile was $22.99.

Unlike the jumbo lobster tails sold at Coscto, the langostino is preservative free, though salt is added, and they are actually from a shrimp-like sea creature, not a lobster.

The Organic Strawberry Spread uses fresh strawberries.

Two other purchases were Kirkland Signature Organic Strawberry Spread, made with sugar ($7.49 for a 42-ounce jar), and MaraNatha All-Natural Roasted Almond Butter ($5.99 for a 26-ounce jar).

I bought the sodium-free almond butter when I couldn't find Kirkland Signature Natural Creamy Peanut Butter.

When I got home, I stirred the oil at the top of the jar into the almond butter, and put the jar into the refrigerator to prevent separation.

How long will DePiero's be around?

The entrance to DePiero's Country Farm store on a hill in Montvale.

Stairs to the store's gift and housewares loft.

No visit to Montvale would be complete without stopping at the hilltop store of DePiero's Country Farm.

Unfortunately, all of the fresh, local produce and the relaxed food-shopping experience soon may be just a memory.

If town officials approve, half of the farm's 55 acres will be used to build a huge Wegmans Food Market, displacing the homey farm store.

The Wegmans would be the chain's first store in Bergen County.

The Wegmans in Woodbridge is an enormous 140,000 square feet -- bigger than any other supermarket in Bergen.

Photos of the Woodbridge Wegmans 

On Monday, I stopped at DePiero's for a large cup of soup and purchased sweet corn, romaine lettuce, basil and leeks, all grown on the farm.

Fragrant basil, above. Romaine lettuce and leeks, below.

In late afternoon, customers arrived in twos and threes, but the store never got crowded.

The thick, meatless lentil soup was delicious.

When I got home, I shucked and steamed the bi-color corn, which was sweet and need nothing (6 ears for $3.50). 

It was far superior to corn I picked up last week at the Ramsey Farmers' Market.

I chopped some of DePiero's fresh basil, along with oregano and mint from my garden, to use with fresh wild king salmon on Tuesday night.

I plan to use the rest of the basil to make pesto, which is wonderful with fish.

A plastic spoon stood up easily in the thick soup.

Halloween costumes are available now.

DePiero's greenhouse.

DePiero's Country Farm Store, 300 W. Grand Ave., Montvale; 201-391-4576. Open 7 days until 6 p.m.

Web site: An Old-Fashioned Farm

My wild salmon swims in a sea of green

Frozen wild salmon fillets cook quickly in bottled Mexican salsa verde.

Wild salmon with collard greens and leftover organic brown rice.

Editor's note: Today, I discuss preparing frozen and fresh wild salmon, using a no-calorie cooking spray instead of oil, and pass along a a couple of bargains I found at Costco Wholesale and H Mart.

If past years are any guide, fresh wild salmon will be available at Costco Wholesale for only a couple of more weeks.

But frozen Alaskan wild sockeye salmon fillets are sold year-round, and we made a quick dinner the other night with four pieces we found in the freezer.

We used a 16.7-ounce bottle of La Costena Green Mexican Salsa (medium spicy), a preservative-free combination of tomatillo, jalapeno pepper, iodized salt, corn starch and spices.

I partially thawed the fillets, seasoned them with lime juice and Aleppo red pepper; put them in the pre-heated sauce, and covered the pan.

They were ready in 10 minutes; from frozen, they usually cook in about 20 minutes.

I also blanched fresh collard greens from the Englewood H Mart (68 cents a pound), drained them and seasoned them with a little soy sauce and sesame oil. 

Fresh wild king salmon from Costco is veined with heart-healthy fat.

Ready for the oven with Aleppo pepper, lime juice and chopped fresh herbs.

On Tuesday, I found fresh wild king salmon at the Hackensack Costco for $12.99 a pound -- a dollar more than when it first appeared a few weeks ago.

At home, I chopped fresh oregano, basil and mint; sprinkled the fillets with a little salt, Aleppo red pepper and lime juice, and cooked them at 400 degrees (roast/convection oven setting).
 
I had placed the salmon in a pan with aluminum foil and cooking spray.

For medium rare, the inch-thick fillets cooked in about 10-12 minutes; they cooked through in about 15 minutes, but stayed moist.

The high heat setting toasted the fresh herbs.

I also picked up a 2-pound package of those incomparable Campari tomatoes for $3.49 after an instant $1 coupon (through Sept. 23).

Two organic eggs prepared with no-calorie cooking spray.

No-calorie cooking spray

We've been using the Kirkland Signature Canola Oil Cooking Spray I bought at Costco to cook eggs, sautee vegetables and prepare Jamaican ackee and saltfish.

We substitute the spray for extra-virgin or canola oil.

The Kirkland Signature top is on the left.

A better bottle top

Both Costco and Trader Joe's have terrific 100% Spanish extra-virgin olive oils, and they are about the same price.

But the slit in the top of Costco's Kirkland Signature oil is ideal for drizzling, while the round hole in the Trader Joe's top requires more attention to avoid using too much oil.

Kimbap rolls, foreground, were 50% off at the Englewood H Mart.

Surprising bargain

On Wednesdays, I usually stop at Jerry's Gourmet and More in Englewood to pick up restaurant-quality takeout dinners, which are reduced to $5.99 from $7.99 after 4 p.m.

But this week, I went to H Mart in Englewood for prepared Korean food, and found a bargain on kimbap -- those addictive seaweed-wrapped rolls with egg, vegetables and fish.

The large package of Jinga kimbap was 50% off after 4 p.m. -- $2.49 instead of $4.99. 

The new awning and sign on Main Street in Fort Lee.

Here we are

Ramen Setagaya in Fort Lee is easier to find now that it has a new awning and sign.

The ramen restaurant opened several months ago on Main Street near Center Avenue.

The powerful lure of familiar foods

Icelandic haddock with Roasted Pineapple & Habanero Sauce from Costco Wholesale.

A pot of Trader Joe's Organic Whole Wheat Fusilli with sardines.

Brown rice. Whole-wheat pasta. Whole-grain bread. Air-conditioned dining.

These were some of the missing elements during our long weekend at Round Hill Hotel and Villas, one of the most expensive resorts on the island of Jamaica.

We ate very well, of course, enjoying lots of organic vegetables and greens, and intensely sweet papaya and mango, as well as fresh seafood.

But the first dish I prepared when I got home was a big pot of Trader Joe's Organic Whole Wheat Spaghetti with sardines, anchovies and their oil.

I really missed the full, satisfied feeling this comfort food gives me.

And because I've sworn off bread and pizza to lose weight, I eat whole-wheat pasta with eggs in the morning, drizzled with extra-virgin olive oil.

I occasionally have a little bread crust when eating out, but the dinner rolls at Round Hill are nothing to speak about, and white toast is the only kind served in the morning.

This past Sunday morning at our Round Hill cottage, I made a little sandwich of ackee and salt fish with a half-slice of unbuttered white toast.

It wasn't worth the calories.

A frittata of organic eggs, grated cheese and beefsteak tomato.

For breakfast, I added leftover mashed garlic sweet potato.

At Round Hill, we enjoyed eating lunch and dinner under almond trees shading a terrace with a glorious view, but the next day, we got to sit in an open, upper-level dining space that was cooled with ceiling fans.

Best of all would have been an air-conditioned dining room, given the hot and humid August weather.

Since our return, I've prepared simple food -- such as snowy haddock fillets from Iceland topped with Roasted Pineapple & Habanero Sauce, both of which  I found at Costco on Tuesday.

The fresh, wild-caught fish was $7.99 a pound.

To go with the haddock, I whipped up mashed Trader Joe's sweet potatoes with their skins and whole cloves of garlic, moistened with good Spanish extra-virgin olive oil and sprinkled with a little salt, organic no-salt seasoning and black pepper.

The first wild king salmon I've seen at Costco was $11.99 a pound.

A 37-ounce bottle of Roasted Pineapple & Habanero Sauce was $7.69.

I've been adding Costco's Cello-brand grated Pecorino Romano sheep's milk cheese and low-fat milk to omelets, which fluff up nicely.

This morning, I took six Kirkland Signature Organic Brown Eggs and mixed them with a little milk and several large tablespoons of this terrific grated cheese, which I usually eat over whole-wheat pasta or sprinkle on soup.

I seasoned the cheesy egg mixture before pouring it into a 10-inch non-stick pan that had been heated up with olive oil.

After the crust was set, I added three thick slices of beefsteak tomato from my garden and more grated cheese, then finished the frittata under the broiler.

I ate about a third of the frittata with mashed garlic sweet potato.

A plate of intensely sweet papaya at Round Hill Hotel and Villas.

Round Hill's Ackee and Salt Fish, Callaloo and Fried Dumplings.

We had breakfast in the upper dining room at Round Hill on Saturday and on Sunday, the staff prepared breakfast at our cottage.

I had Ackee and Saltfish both mornings, and both times noted how little salted cod was used compared to the version we make at home.

I also noticed that canned Grace-brand ackee was used on Sunday, even though I had seen an employee carrying two big plastic bags of fresh ackee to the kitchen the day before.

Salt in Costco Wholesale almonds, Trident Seafood fish sticks

Image via Wikipedia

Blanched almonds, like those sold at Costco Wholesale.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A half-dozen or so roasted almonds are one of my favorite snacks -- alone or with fruit and cheese -- and I rely on Costco Wholesale in Hackensack for these crunchy treats.

But in looking at labels, I've discovered that the more expensive Kirkland Signature Marcona blanched almonds from Spain have twice as much salt as the Kirkland dry-roasted almonds from California.

A 28-gram or 1-ounce serving of the Spanish almond contains 9% sodium, compared with 4% for the same serving size of the California almond (on the daily value scale). 

The former costs $7.99 for 17.63 ounces, while you'll pay $8.89 for 40 ounces of the latter. They are both delicious.

I believe Costco sells a 3-pound bag of raw, unsalted almonds, but I've never bought them or checked out the label. Next time.

Update (2015)

For the last couple of years, we've been buying the raw almonds at Costco to cut down on our sodium intake, and roasting them in the oven at 275 degrees for 1 hour and 20 minutes.

After they cool, we put them in a container on our kitchen counter and dust them with plenty of ground Saigon Cinnamon, also available at Costco.

Cover via Amazon

Fish shtick

Costco is the only retailer I know that publishes a magazine, and the February 2011 issue  of Costco Connection has an upbeat story on Trident Seafoods, the Seattle, Wash., company that supplies fish sticks and other products to the warehouse store.

I read about The Ultimate Fish Stick from Trident and asked my wife to pick up a package this week. Four pounds or 60 breaded fish sticks are $12.99. 

I prepared some last night. I found them tasty, but think the name is overblown. 

They are finger-length and cut from fillets of snow-white Alaska pollock, the largest wild fishery in the United States. 

Pollock tastes like cod, but is cheaper. Salted pollock, for example, retails for about half the price of salted cod.

A sad footnote is a 2008 incident that killed 120,000 wild king salmon when they were caught in pollock nets, according to "Four Fish, The Future of the Last Wild Food," a new book by Paul Greenberg.

The Trident package calls the fish sticks "crunchy" and "more fish, less breading." They are 65% fish, but they weren't crunchy. 

I didn't preheat the oven to 475 degrees, so that may have been a problem, though I baked them for much longer than indicated in the directions. 

Costco also sells Trident's tilapia-fillet fish sticks, but the package doesn't say whether they are made from farmed fish. They appear bigger than the pollock fish sticks. 


I've seen wild-caught tilapia at H Mart, the Korean supermarket chain, but most tilapia is farmed. It also is called St. Peter's Fish.