Seeing too much red? Meatless meals come in a variety of nice colors

SOME LIKE IT HOT: Wedges of a frittata with fresh tomatoes and organic salsa, left, share a plate with spicy stewed tofu and cabbage kimchi.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The bad news about beef and other red meat keeps on coming.

If you overdo it, you can get colon cancer.

If you undercook it, especially when it is ground for hamburgers, there's a good chance you won't kill all of the harmful bacteria in it, according to Consumer Reports magazine.

Cook ground meat to at least medium (an internal temperature of 160 degrees Farenheit).

My policy is to avoid the stuff altogether, relying on wild-caught seafood, cage-free eggs, tofu, organic whole-wheat pasta, salads and other heart- and brain-healthy food.

See a related post:

Brace yourself: What most cows eat

STEWED AND SALTED FISH: A breakfast plate of sauteed spinach, stewed tofu, stewed Alaskan pollack, and Ackee and Saltfish, a Jamaican specialty. You can find prepared tofu and wild-caught pollack at H Mart and other Korean supermarkets.

HOW SWEET IT IS: My wife's sweet-banana dumplings are wonderful with savory Ackee and Saltfish. 

GET SMASHED: Organic sweet potatoes from Trader Joe's and peeled California garlic from Costco Wholesale are boiled together until soft, then mashed with extra-virgin olive oil and seasonings.

SIDE DISHES: Oven-roasted Brussels Sprouts with mashed organic sweet potatoes.

FROM THE DEEP SEA: Argentine Red Shrimp grilled on top of the stove. We've also cooked the shrimp, right out of the freezer and without the heads, in a Pulmuone-brand organic soft-tofu stew kit I found on sale at H Mart, the Korean supermarket in Little Ferry.

KEEN ON QUINOA: Two organic eggs with a dusting of grated Pecorino Romano Cheese, accompanied by Brussels Sprouts, on a bed of organic brown rice and quinoa prepared in an electric cooker.

CRAB AND SLAW: Coleslaw, top, and Wild Red King Crab salad with sweet peppers in a Dijon mustard dressing.

COOKING AHEAD: This frittata started with a mixture of whole eggs and whites, plus grated cheese and some low-fat milk. As the bottom set over medium heat on top of the stove, I added sliced plum tomatoes and organic salsa. Then, it went under the broiler for about 20 minutes to brown and finished cooking.

SUNNY SIDE UP: Two organic eggs with sauteed spinach over organic brown rice and quinoa.

A 2-pound bag of kale from Costco may be biting off too much to chew

HAILING KALE: One batch of kale down, rear, and one batch to go. In our biggest pan, I sauteed the greens in sesame and extra-virgin olive oils, plus a little wine, with chopped garlic and ginger, sea salt and other seasonings.

Kale served with mashed organic sweet potatoes and an egg-white omelet stuffed with organic salsa and reduced-fat Swiss cheese.

Editor's note: Today, I relate more adventures in preparing healthy food at home.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

We love greens and routinely buy and easily consume 1-pound packages of organic spring mix or baby spinach as salads or side dishes.

But a 2-pound bag of triple-washed kale from Costco Wholesale proved to be a challenge.

The price, only $3.79, can't be beat, but Nature's Greens Kale, though chopped, needs a little more preparation than fresh spinach, collard or other greens we buy.

Leaves and stems

The bag contains both kale leaves and tough stems.

My wife used the fresh kale in a smoothie, and found the leaves and stems don't blend completely, and you can see and taste tiny green flecks throughout.

When I sauteed the kale, I skipped blanching or boiling the green in hot water, and no amount of cooking in a pan on the stove top will tenderize those stems.

Nature's Greens describes the taste as "bold and bittersweet." My sauteed kale tasted tangy.

A 2.5-cup serving provides 260% of Vitamin A, 170% of Vitamin C and 10% of the calcium you need every day.

Nature's Greens recommends cooking seasoned fresh kale in 1 cup of chicken broth in a covered pot, a method that is a lot simpler than what I did.

The back of the bag also has a recipe for Kale Soup with Cannellini Beans (cooking time is 45 minutes).
  

Leftover whole-wheat fusilli pasta in bottled red sauce with added skinless-and-boneless sardines and anchovies is a good bread substitute at breakfast.

Ackee and Saltfish, the Jamaican national dish, with sauteed fresh spinach and Valentina Mexican Hot Sauce.

A salad of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix crowned with fresh pomegranate seeds, and reduced-fat Swiss and Parmigiano Reggiano cheeses, all from Costco Wholesale. The dressing is extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Whole wild sea bass from H Mart in Englewood prepared in aluminum-foil pouches in the oven with fresh lime juice, okra, sweet peppers and onions. Cooking time is about 40 minutes at 400 degrees.

I did blanch the stems and leaves of Chinese Broccoli from H Mart in Little Ferry before sauteeing them in a pan with sesame oil, sea salt and granulated garlic.

More images from the lush, green island of Jamaica

This small but powerful waterfall, which I visited on a Jeep 4X4 Safari with Chukka Tours, feeds the Great River on the island of Jamaica, below. The waterfall once was the source of power for a sugar mill on a plantation with slave labor.

Birds of Paradise growing in the shadows near the falls.

Beautiful flowers abound.

A banana spider.

Dairy cattle.

A former slave hospital was converted into an Anglican church in 1847, above and below.

The building's exterior was made from ballast stone, which helped stabilized ships sailing to Jamaica from England. The stone also was used to build bridges and other buildings, such as the slave master's house on the sugar plantation.

Bamboo, a member of the grass family, grows four to six inches a day.

When the sugar-plantation slaves revolted, they burned the slave master's house and broke into his safe, which was filled with money.

The national dish in Jamaica combines a bland fruit called ackee and salted cod fish with hot peppers thrown into the mix. The Iberostar Grand Hotel Montego Bay served the dish for breakfast with the traditional side of boiled green bananas. The fresh ackee used in Jamaica is a rarity in New Jersey.

The sun setting near Montego Bay.

Good food that's also good for you

Kitchen-sink hot cereal contains oatmeal, chia seeds, pine nuts and dried and frozen fruit, and I add fresh fruit and low-fat milk. As with many dishes, I make a large batch to last a few days.

Jamaican ackee and salt fish (cod) served with boiled sweet potato and a whole-wheat dumpling. The dish gets a lift from Valentina Mexican Hot Sauce.

Two organic eggs served with stir-fried collard greens and Chinese broccoli, plus light potato gnocchi from a Meal To Go purchased at Jerry's Gourmet and More in Englewood.

Trader Joe's Organic Whole Wheat Fusilli with canned sardines in tomato sauce. For this lower-sodium version, I drain and rinse the sardines under running water.

The pasta spirals stand in for bread at breakfast the next day, when I serve them with an egg-white omelet containing pesto and reduced-fat sliced cheese.

A 5-pound box of Clementine Hybrids from Israel were on sale for $6.99 at the Englewood H Mart. They are harder to peel than Spanish Clementines, but taste better.

Two organic eggs with sun-dried tomatoes -- served with king whiting steak, upper right, and mashed Korean yams, sweet potatoes and Kabocha squash.

From the vegetarian menu at Wondee's Fine Thai Food and Noodles in Hackensack: Crispy tofu tossed with fruit and carrots in lime juice and chili paste ($10).

Wondee's shrimp soup with mushrooms, lemon juice and chili paste ($4).

Wondee's fried rice with fresh basil leaves, another vegetarian dish ($10).

Steam softens the bright colors of large shrimp topped with sweet and sour chili sauce ($17). We took a no meat and poultry pledge at Wondee's three years ago, and I'm the only family member who still sticks to it, relying on great seafood dishes like this one. 

A modest Feast of the Three Fishes

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Jamaican ackee and saltfish served with cole slaw.

Surrounded by meat and meat eaters, I wan't able to assemble an Italian-American Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve, but managed a more modest three seafood dishes at two meals.


For breakfast on Saturday, my wife prepared ackee and saltfish, a Jamaican dish that combines a soft, bland fruit with meaty codfish and sweet and hot peppers, and a side of boiled green bananas.


Our Christmas Eve meal included six entrees, half of them brought by our guests; organic brown rice cooked with red beans and coconut milk (called rice and peas); two big bowls of salad, based on romaine lettuce and fresh spinach; steamed French green beans, and potato salad.


I'm not eating meat and I'm cutting down on carbs, so I concentrated on large Tiger shrimp, which I marinated in fresh lemon juice and seasonings for a couple of hours before cooking them quickly on the stove; fresh croaker, salad and green beans, eating only a couple of tablespoons of rice and potatoes.


The others had curry goat, chicken in barbecue sauce, jerk pork and a spiral-cut ham in a brown-sugar glaze.


My wife went to H Mart in Little Ferry, then H Mart in Englewood on Saturday before she could find enough whole fresh fish -- a half-dozen small croakers -- but the fishmonger misunderstood her instructions on how she wanted them cleaned, and cut off their heads.


At home, my mother-in-law fried the fish whole, arranged them on a large platter and covered them in onion, green pepper, whole black peppercorns and hot pepper prepared in vinegar.


This preparation is called "escoveitch fish."


We drank sweetened sorrel with ginger and rum, and sparkling apple cider. 


After dinner, I only had room for almonds, chestnuts and dried dates, though our guests had black rum cake with tea or coffee or took some home. 

Foods that cry out for each other

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Break those yolks over rice or pasta -- and go to town.

If you listen carefully enough, you'll hear some of the foods in your refrigerator and cupboard pleading with you to eat them together and elevate every day into the sublime.


Here are some terrific flavor combinations:

• An Italian-Korean salad of small, soft balls of marinated mozzarella cheese from Costco Wholesale and spicy, crunchy Arirang-brand cabbage kimchi from Gaboh Inc. in Englewood.
• Peanut butter, preserves and sliced, skin-on cucumber for crunch -- laid on thick on 100% whole grain toast from Costco.
• A yolk -- from an egg fried sunny side up or softly boiled in a Korean tofu stew -- eaten over steamed rice.
• A variation: Two eggs fried sunny side up and eaten over any kind of pasta or kimchi friend rice.
• The bland Jamaican fruit called ackee with salted cod or pollock, and sweet and hot peppers -- considered the Caribbean island's national dish.
• Boiled potatoes, mixed vegetables and hard-boiled eggs, bound together by mayonnaise -- Jamaican potato salad.
• White pizza, made with ricotta cheese, then layered with arugula and prosciutto. If you don't eat meat, any pizza topped with large quantities of fresh, wilted spinach.
• Bibimbap, a one-dish wonder, is a Korean entree in a hot stone bowl with steamed rice, several marinated raw vegetables and greens, a little ground beef, a raw or cooked egg on top, and spicy red-pepper paste. It's just as good without  meat. You stir everything up and eat it with a spoon.
• Wild salmon baked or grilled with fresh herbs and ripe mango or peach slices.
• Fried eggs, fish or hummus sprinkled with mildly spicy Aleppo red pepper.
• Anything eaten in fresh Syrian pocket bread, such as the soupy fava-bean stew and salad I enjoyed today at Aleppo Restaurant in Paterson.
•  Please fill in your favorite food pairings.

Chasing sardines


The 99-cent cans of sardines from Morocco have been hard to find recently.


Last week, I dropped into Sahara Fine Foods on South Summit Avenue in Hackensack, only to find Al Shark-brand skinless-and-boneless sardines, at $1.49 a can. The merchant said he couldn't get the cheaper ones in spicy or regular oil.


At Fattal's Syrian Bakery on Main Street in Paterson today, there was a large empty space on the canned-fish shelf, and the cashier said the distributor promised the 99-cents sardines would return in a couple of weeks.


At Brothers Produce on East Railway Avenue in the Paterson Farmers' Market, I finally found another brand of Moroccan sardines, Sultan, in vegetable oil with chili pepper for 99 cents a can or with spicy olive oil for $1.29.


I bought 10 cans of the former, and I'm looking forward to pasta with sardines in red sauce or eating these mighty little fish over a salad.

Recovery is harder than the operation

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The coronary arteries and the aorta, which carries blood to the rest of the body.

I've just spent four more days in the ugliest, most ill-fitting clothing known to man -- the hospital gown.


When I looked at my naked body -- shaved, bloodied and bruised -- in the mirror of my hospital bathroom Tuesday afternoon, I winced. But soon, I had my first hot shower and first shave since open-heart surgery on Friday, and I was going home.


I survived not only the operation, but food and sleep deprivation. The medications I received altered my taste buds, a problem that continues.


Food tastes funny 


Even familiar salt-free almonds I roast at home tasted weird. The hospital's orange juice from concentrate tasted so sour I thought it was grapefruit, which is incompatible with my cholesterol medication.


Because of a heart murmur, I needed a new valve fashioned from a cow's heart, but I required no bypasses. My surgeon said my 66-year-old coronary arteries  are whistle clean, affirming my no-meat diet, which is heavy on heart-healthy fish.


I have no memory of the operation, the sawing open of my breast bone and the replacement of a calcified aortic valve that was barely opening. Before I went in, the operation was estimated at four to six hours, from putting me to sleep to waking me up in the recovery room.


Recovery is real challenge


One moment, it seemed, I was talking to a doctor and male nurse as they administered anesthesia Friday morning at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, and the next moment I awoke in the Cardiac Recovery Unit -- on a bed with my hands restrained so I couldn't try to remove a breathing tube jammed down my throat.


I also had chest drains, catheters in arteries in my throat and arm; a temporary, portable pacemaker with two hair-thin wires into my heart, EKG posts and leads all over the place, and an IV drip of saline solution.


I couldn't see the line of stitches obscured by dried blood that ran vertically down my chest -- about 9 inches long -- covering where my femur had been opened for the operation, then secured with stainless-steel ties. Under that  were horizontal cuts for pacemaker wires.


And my chest hurt like hell. Five days after the operation, I still feel both a heaviness and  a tenderness. I was warned about raising my hands above my head or bending down to pick up something.


No solids for two days


I had stopped eating about 10 Thursday night, when I had some red grapes while watching TV. My first solid food in the recovery unit were diet lemon ices early Saturday, followed by a scrambled egg, large tater tots, a slice of toast and decaf coffee on Sunday morning.


Doctors placed me on a meatless diabetic's diet -- no salt, no sugar, no caffeine, no taste -- even though I'm not diabetic.


I was dying to get out of the recovery unit, though had nothing to look forward to in terms of food. When the physical therapists  came by, I impressed them with my ability to get off the bed and walk normally -- thanks to a solid year of going to the gym five days a week and losing 30 pounds.


The man who came to transport me on my back to the 7th-floor Cardiac Step-Down Unit said I was the first recovery unit patient he had seen who was able to walk on his own.


Best food isn't shared


Six more meals brought to my private room would follow before I was released Tuesday afternoon, and I actually thought a couple of them were palatable.


One was Monday's lunch of pale, farmed salmon that had been cooked through but still retained some moistness, served with scrumptious oven-roasted potatoes,  and Tuesday's lunch of seasoned, baked fish with mashed potatoes and melted Smart Balance spread.


When I asked for fresh vegetables -- asparagus, carrots, broccoli -- they invariably were cooked too much. A fresh fruit cup on Tuesday held two kinds of sweet melon.


Sleep was nearly impossible. My vital signs were monitored frequently, sometimes on the hour, and to measure blood sugar, the end of one of my fingers was pricked by a needle -- and a brown scab formed.


The door to my room was left open, flooding part of it with bright light. Telephones rang, patient call chimes echoed and monitors beeped.


I could hear conversations in English, Tagalog, Spanish and Caribbean patois.


One form of all-night torture were sleeves slipped over my lower legs that inflated every minute to fight blood clots.


Electrocardiograms were taken first thing in the morning, once at 5:15 a.m. by a woman who could be someone's Italian grandmother. While she hooked me up to the machine, I silently admired her ornate, gold eyeglass frames.


The best food at the hospital is brought in by employees for "lunch," which could come at 2 a.m. at this 24/7 operation. One of my night nurses was a gap-toothed Asian Indian who had just eaten her home-cooked meal of rice with spicy fish.


Boy, I would have loved some of that.


Good and bad shifts


I asked an elderly woman whose English had a Caribbean lilt why she was working in the middle of the night.


"I want to eat bread," she said, but added she slept poorly, because there is nothing like "night sleep."


Marta, the Polish nurse who took care of me during the day, said she worked a 36-hour week -- three days of 12-hour shifts. I heard her on the phone one day, expressing concern that an upcoming shift would have only three nurses for 21 patients.


When you ask doctors or other employees why the food served to patients is so bad, they invariably say, "It's a hospital" or "It's a big institution."


Other patients


I walked around the Cardiac Step-Down and Cardiac Telemetry Units and chatted with other patients.


A Cuban man said he lives in Miami and had worked for 30 years, most of the time in a factory producing milk and eggs, and never had to learn more than a few words of English.


We spoke in Spanish and he laughed heartily when I said the food is "como mierda."


A man in his Seventies was recovering from an operation to remove a tumor from one of his kidneys. He had two bypass operations in the past. As he was trying to peel a banana, I noticed he had no fingers on his right hand.


A woman in her Sixties had taken advantage of a 2-for-1 sale, getting a new heart valve and a triple bypass at the same time. She thought her valve came from a horse.


Rich ethnic stew


During my four days in the hospital for the operation and two and a half days for tests the week before, I met about one hundred employees, from Dr. Adam G. Arnofsky, my cardiac surgeon, to a Dominican woman who was mopping floors Tuesday morning.


I didn't catch her name, but a couple of days earlier, she had left her 2007 Toyota Camry at the curb and started taking the bus to work from upper Manhattan after the George Washington Bridge cash toll was raised to $12.


So, thanks to all. Thanks to Marta, Daisy, Jamie, Martina, Jo Anne, Liberty, Karen, Erin, Ari The Greek and all the doctors, nurses and other workers whose names I forgot.


I haven't seen the bill yet, but I also want to thank Medicare. I couldn't have done it without you.   


Celebratory meals


On Tuesday night, I celebrated my release with a spicy shrimp dinner prepared at home and eaten Korean style in red-lettuce leaves with rice, kimchi, scallion and garlic.


This morning, I had my first cup of real coffee in days and later a breakfast of my wife's delicious ackee and saltfish -- Jamaican comfort food -- with boiled green banana.


That was a real welcome home.

Comfort food says you're home

Ripe ackee fruit. The edible portion is inside.

Image via Wikipedia

After a week or so of  hotel breakfast buffets and unfamiliar restaurants, the simple food I had at home today and at one of our favorite spots was even more enjoyable than usual.

This morning, my wife prepared a special breakfast: ackee and saltfish with boiled green bananas. Ackee is a soft, bland Jamaican fruit we buy in cans, and it serves as a foil to the salty cod fish, hot and sweet peppers, and tomato. The soft bananas are a familiar and filling side dish.

I usually warm some Syrian pocket bread and stuff it with ackee, saltfish and banana -- a decidedly un-Jamaican way of eating it.

Tonight, we drove to Palisades Park for a filling dinner of soft-tofu stew with white rice and side dishes of kimchi, bean sprouts and peppery raw squid at So Gong Dong, a second-floor restaurant overlooking Broad Avenue. The tab, including tax and tip, was $36 for three.

I ordered my tofu stew with mushrooms, my wife asked for shrimp and my son rebelled by ordering pork. We asked for all of them to be prepared "more spicy," the spiciest of three choices.

When the stew is brought to the table in a stone bowl, it is bubbling furiously -- just the right time to break a fresh egg or two into the hot broth. I eat around the egg until a soft yolk forms, then break it over the rice in a separate bowl. Delicious, warm and comforting.

I knew I was home.

Food gifts from Jamaica

My wife returned from the island of Jamaica late Friday night, bearing gifts of food.

Most prominent were two bags of 100% Jamaica Blue Mountain roasted coffee beans she bought in the Wallenford Blue shop at the Montego Bay airport. These bags have shrunk to three-quarters of a pound, but at $19 each, they are a great buy when compared to nearly $40 for one pound of Blue Mountain coffee beans at Fairway Market in Paramus. (Photo: Three Finger Falls in the Blue Mountains.)

This morning, my wife served steamed bread fruit she had baked in Jamaica and put in her luggage, along with four or five small fish she bought from the fishermen at Harvey Beach, seasoned, dipped in flour and fried (I visited their shacks during my August vacation on the island). Jamaicans who live in the U.S. say they can't find fish that tastes as good as the ones back home.

But the one thing she could not find was fresh ackee, that odd Jamaican fruit that serves as a foil to salted cod and hot peppers in what many call the Jamaican national dish: ackee and saltfish (photo, with fried dumplings). So we had that for breakfast, using canned ackee in brine from Hackensack Market.