My cheese of the month club

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Manchego is a sheep milk's cheese from Spain.

From among the more than 50 cheeses at Costco in Hackensack, I brought home a big chunk of Manchego from Spain today. Last month, I tried a buffalo-milk mozzarella from Italy -- a container with four soft, delicious orbs in water.

Manchego is a buttery, sheep's milk cheese. I just tried a few small slices with an apple, and they pair beautifully. The Villacenteno-brand cheese is aged 3 months and costs $8.29 a pound. I found a wedge that weighs just under 1 and three-quarters of a pound.

I remember visiting Spain in the mid-1980s, and enjoying a dessert of Manchego and membrillo or quince at a restaurant in Madrid, where my entree was rabo de toro (tail of the bull). Author James Michener wrote about the dessert in his book "Iberia."

The inedible rind of the cheese I bought today is stamped with the word "Baquero."

I also picked up Old Farmhouse Vegetable Stew, which I tried recently and loved. Two 20-ounce portions were $7.99. Kirkland Signature frozen Alaskan wild sockeye salmon fillets were $27.89 for 3 pounds.

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H Mart puts fish on sale

The Korean supermarket chain is featuring whole pollock, a cod-like fish, for $2.49 a pound and Spanish mackerel for $1.49 a pound. The sale dates are today through March 10, 2011.

Unfortunately, fresh tuna steaks also are on sale -- for $12.99 a pound. Tuna is a fish high in harmful mercury. However, the sales circular doesn't specify what kind of tuna is being sold.

There are H Marts in Ridgefield, Fort Lee, Little Ferry and Englewood.

Quick-cooking wild salmon from Costco

The cooking time I gave in yesterday's post for Alaskan wild sockeye salmon from Costco -- 15 minutes -- is for steaming the fish when it is still frozen. Last night, I defrosted three skin-on fillets first and they cooked in barely six minutes in a Pyrex glass dish set atop a pot of boiling water.

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The fillets came out moist with medium interiors. I seasoned them with salt and black pepper and a little cheap sake, soy sauce, sweet cooking wine, rice vinegar and Thai fish sauce, and covered the dish. I waited for the water to boil before placing the dish on the pot. I plated the cooked fish and spooned a tablespoon of sauce over each.

I don't see why you couldn't steam the fish with white wine, lemon juice, garlic and a bit of olive oil, if you don't care for this Asian spin.

I had set a timer for 12 minutes and put Idaho potatoes into the microwave to bake for 11 minutes, but in only six to seven minutes, I ended up eating the fish with a big organic spring mix salad, then finishing the last few pieces with the potato and salad. With warmed halves of Syrian pocket bread, I enjoyed a couple of salad and salmon sandwiches, too. Yummy.

This fish, sold under the Kirkland name in three-pound bags for under $26 (eight fillets in my bag),  will be great once a week until summer, when fresh Copper River salmon fillets from Alaska start showing up in Costco's refrigerated cases. You can also find frozen Alaskan salmon and other frozen fish at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods Market.