Lamb tacos in 45 seconds

We love lamb -- especially the free-range, grass-fed stuff from Australia sold at Costco and ShopRite -- but cooking it at home is a challenge. I enjoy it medium rare, even rare, but my wife and son insist on lamb that shows no sign of blood -- in other words, well done.

Image by el_en_houston via Flickr

Last time I cooked boneless leg of lamb from Costco, I cut it into two pieces, then the pieces into thick slices, coating them with Sweet Mesquite Seasoning, also from Costco. I put half the slices in the oven at 375 degrees and after 20 minutes, I put my slices in. I still managed to overcook all of it -- mine came out medium.

Today, after my son came home from school, I made lamb tacos from my leftovers, slicing the meat really thin, placing a half-dozen pieces on a handmade flour tortilla from Trader Joe's and pouring on Goya Salsa Taquera (hot).

They went into the microwave for exactly 45 seconds (no need to cover them) and I garnished them with a little chopped parsley and onion (I didn't have fresh cilantro) before rolling them up and gobbling them down. With tacos this good, you won't need a tacos truck in your neighborhood (photo).

Shopping, cooking and tasting notes

Have you seen these Stop & Shop TV commercials where a woman learns to make pizza at home to save money and invites friends over for dinner? I don't want to learn how to make pizza, but I was interested in mention of  $4.88 for 5 pounds of clementines with a store card -- the lowest price I've seen.

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I visit Stop & Shop about once a month to look over its Nature's Promise offerings that are found throughout the store. These are naturally raised or grown items such as poultry, meat, eggs, milk, organic lemonade and so forth. Yesterday, I went to the Teaneck store for the clementines and to pick up a few things I needed to serve the delightful Syrian meat sandwiches called arayes, which we've enjoyed at Aleppo Restaurant in Paterson. (My spelling of arayes is just a guess.)

The box of clementines looked to be identical to those from Spain, but this one was from Morocco. Still, you can't beat the price (reduced from $7.99) and they turned out to be sweet, though harder to peel than their Spanish counterparts. I weighed the box and fruit  in the store and they totaled 5.32 pounds.

For the arayes, I needed parsley (99 cents for a big bunch, most of which will go to waste) and some Nature's Promise ground beef to add to the naturally raised ground lamb I bought the day before at Whole Foods in Paramus. I also picked up Nature's Promise large brown eggs ($2.99 a dozen) and organic, low-fat milk ($3.69).

Chuck, one of my loyal readers, advised me to use a lot of chopped parsley for the arayes meat, which totaled about a pound and a quarter. I also seasoned the lamb-beef mixture with salt, sumac, allspice, cumin and Aleppo red pepper, and added finely chopped onion and red pepper before hand mixing it.

I split two medium-size pocket breads from Fattal's Bakery in Paterson, spreading and pressing the meat as thinly as possible into each of the four halves. I put them under the broiler until the meat was firm and sizzling, then reunited the halves and cut each sandwich into four quarters. (I made lamb burgers with the rest of the meat and put them into the freezer.)

They were yummy and tasted pretty close to what we've had in restaurants. I served the arayes last night with lamb sausage from Fattal's, yellow rice, canned fava beans with my added tahini sauce and salad.

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This morning, I fried one Nature's Promise large brown egg -- sunny side up -- in extra-virgin olive oil, seasoning it with a little salt and a generous pinch of Aleppo red pepper. I toasted one large and one small roll, and ate the egg with this and that -- a slice of Swiss cheese, some tuna-red salmon-sardine salad, wild lox, kimchi and seasoned tofu. Life is good. We've been eating only egg whites for far too long.

Try this "local" dinner at home

Image by Anne With An "E" via Flickr

We started with Alaskan king crab and corn chowder.

The entree was ravioli stuffed with smoked mozzarella and artichokes, and I dressed two salads of organic mixed greens with organic extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

I put a pan with more than two dozen Little Neck clams (photo) on the table. All but two had opened after I steamed them in  sake and a little sweet cooking wine.

The ravioli were in marinara sauce and I would have loved some bread to soak it up, but didn't put any out.

I drank wine. Then, I looked at the food and mentioned to my wife and son that soup, salad, olive oil, clams and ravioli had come from Costco, less than two miles from home.

While my wife was washing the pots, I drank the salty clam broth-sake mixture straight from the pan. A nice dinner.

Make sure you have good health insurance

 If you want to eat like the author of the following blog, please check your health insurance. Of course, he's only 29, according to his profile:

Ridiculous Food Scoiety

My usual Monday run to Costco

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I usually make my weekly visits to Costco in Hackensack on Mondays. This is what I picked up today:

1. Two pounds of U.S.-grown strawberries, $5.99
2. Three pounds of Amy Lu preservative-free
    andouille chicken sausage, $13.99
3. Three pounds of Kirkland wild sockeye
     salmon fillets, $25.89
4. Two loaves of  Kirkland 100% whole grain bread, $3.99
5. Wild-caught Little Neck clams, $2.99 a pound
6. Six pounds of frozen broccoli, carrots and cauliflower, $6.59
7. Two pounds of Finlandia thin-sliced, lactose-free
    Swiss cheese, $8.99

Last Friday, I again went in search of Kirkland preservative-free smoked wild sockeye salmon from Alaska -- missing from the refrigerated case for two Mondays in a row -- and found some at $14.79 a pound.

Costco Wholesale, 80 S. River St., Hackensack; 
(201) 487-5471; open seven days, www.costco.com

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Improvising a breakfast frittata

A couple of days ago, I saw a recipe for a frittata with kimchi on the Arirang kimchi Web site and this morning, I started pulling items from my fridge to see what I could improvise. I eat kimchi as a side dish most mornings, so why not incorporate it into the main dish, I thought.

I had a jar of Arirang cabbage kimchi I bought in Englewood, egg whites, drug- and preservative-free bacon, thin-sliced Swiss cheese and a little leftover sauteed spinach from dinner Friday night.

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I chopped up spinach, kimchi and cheese, put them into a bowl, added the liquid egg whites -- enough to fill a 12-inch non-stick frying pan -- and seasoned them with salt, pepper and an organic  spice mixture from Costco. I also sliced a plum tomato.


I added a couple of ounces of extra-virgin olive oil to the pan and poured in the egg mixture. After it cooked a while and the edge was set, I placed three strips of bacon on top, along with tomato slices, salting them individually (the tomato, not the bacon). The frittata spent about 8 to 10 minutes on the stove and another 6 to 8 minutes under the broiler, until it was sizzling all over and the cheese oozed.

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I ate it with warm Syrian bread, hummus and seasoned tofu from H Mart in Little Ferry. I liked how the kimchi still had some crunch, but realized I had put way too little into the egg mixture. Next time, I'll add enough so its presence shouts, not whispers.