seafood | Trader Joe’s Rants & Raves (mostly raves, a few rants)

Trader Joe’s LIGHTLY SMOKED SALMON (“gourmet canned poached salmon”)

26 May 2022 13 Comments

by promacnyc in All Natural, can, fish, General, New, News, Pantry, pescatarian, Prices, Products, Rave, recipe, Recipes, seafood, Staple, Trader Joes, Uncategorized, update, WhatsGoodAtTJ? Tags: canned, diet, fish, Food, gluten free, healthy, high protein, lunch, no preservatives, pecatarian, prepared, prepper, Products, Rave, review, salmon, seafood, smoked, tin, tinned, Trader Joes

RAVE

Trader Joe’s Skinless and Boneless Salmon poached in Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Top TJ’s Product!

Trader Joe’s came out with this product called “Lightly Smoked Salmon“. It’s a bit of an odd name but a great product. It’s in a pink can along with the cans of tuna, sardines, and two or three other kinds of “normal” cans of salmon they carry. However compared to those other cans of salmon this stuff is Off The Charts better. We are talking Gourmet Level. Now the first time I saw this I was both curious and confused by the name. Canned “smoked salmon”?? So first off just ignore that. It’s not smoked salmon. What it is is the best, repeat The Best canned salmon you ever tasted. Not anything like “smoked salmon”. A more accurate name for this would have been something like “Gourmet Canned Salmon” or “Olive Oil Poached Salmon”, which what this is. This stuff makes me think about those imported pricey gourmet tins of fish like high end canned tuna from Spain (Ortiz for example) which sell for $15-19 I see at Zabar’s and Fairway. “Lightly Smoked Salmon” is skinless, boneless salmon poached in extra virgin olive oil. Word has gotten out and Trader Joe’s has a hit here and sometimes it’s even sold out as it’s become so popular.

When you open the can, you will find a really nice hunk of pure meaty salmon swimming in lovely orange colored olive oil along with it’s juices. It was cooked (“poached”) in the can in this EVOO and because of this, the salmon is so moist and flaky. The fish has a wonderful flavor and texture from this decent quality extra virgin olive oil (probably Chilean?) Yes it is farmed Atlantic salmon not wild but it is high quality. This is a “Product of Chile” which I’ve learned is the world’s second largest producer of salmon. Now while “Applewood smoke” is listed in the ingredients I can’t really taste any smoke flavor so again forget about that. Just know when I first tried this to review it I found it so tasty I kept saying to myself “well let me just try one more bite” and soon noticed the can was almost empty. Now about that Golden Colored Stuff it is swimming in? It’s wonderful. If you dump this oil out you are making a huge mistake. Therefore I am ordering you: “Do not even think about dumping out that Golden Elixer”! Like how one usually immediately drains off all the oil in a can of tuna? But in this can, the golden oil is wonderful It’s the salmon’s cooking broth and decent quality EVOO and this golden elixer is a super yummy sauce just oozing with UMAMI. Spoon this golden sauce on the fish, add a squeeze of lemon. Ah! So good. You could equally spoon some of that flavorful golden sauce on top of say your salmon and greens salad, or say boiled potatoes, or rice bowl, or what have you when you serve with the salmon. You can think of this can of salmon exactly like it’s a piece of poached salmon, which is more or less what it is. You can simply open the can up and put it on a plate. Put it on top of a salad or greens or in a protein bowl, or mashed up into an avocado. Voila, you have an easy, instant, delicious – and healthy! – dinner or lunch with no effort. This salmon is wonderful as-is right out of the can. Try it on toast, or a toasted bagel, or on crackers. I found this is a perfect match with TJ’s great Norwegian CRISPBREAD for a Scandinavian style open faced sandwich. This salmon is especially perfect for summertime heat or whenever you don’t feel like cooking. Mix a bit of mayo and lemon juice into this and you can have a wonderful salmon salad in about a minute. The other night I didn’t feel like cooking. I found I had a nice ripe avocado I needed to use, so I just mixed a can of this salmon with a little mayo, lemon juice and some Peri-Peri sauce and spooned that into an avocado and voila! I ate this lovely avocado stuffed with salmon for dinner, which took me less than 5 minutes and was so tasty.

Open faced salmon sandwich on TJ Norwegian Crispbread, cucumbers, cream cheese, lemon. Delicious, try this!

Seaweed Hand Rolls with Salmon and Cucumber

One serving contains 190 calories and a whopping 21 grams of protein. The 5 oz can has about 3.6 oz of drained salmon. It’s $3.69. Product of Chile. Great pantry item. I would gladly buy it again.

RECIPE IDEA – Japanese Salmon Rice Bowl: I make this all the time. Put some fresh cooked rice in a bowl (if you have it, short grain) Now top it with this salmon, which you flaked up. Drizzle some of the Golden Oil over things. Sprinkle on a TJ’s Furikake seaweed seasoning and chopped scallions. Mix gently. YUM. Dinner! Optional: a sprinkle of Soy Sauce and a sprinkle of Toasted Sesame Oil. Maybe slices of avocado and cucumbers?

One might even get extra cans of this salmon and put it away in your larder for a year or two to improve with age (canned fish improves with age like wine*) *Spain and Portugal have some bodegas which specialize tinned fish and seafood aged for a year or two or three… Believe it or not the cans of fish improve with age like fine wine. Here’s a video of the late great Tony Bourdain visiting one of the most famouse of these bodegas in Spain, eating cans of seafood and loving every bite…. EL ESPINALER

TJ’s Smoked Ahi Tuna

13 Apr 2021 2 Comments

by promacnyc in fish, New, Products, Rant, seafood, Trader Joes, Uncategorized Tags: seafood, smoked, smoked fish

Trader Joe’s Sesame Crusted Smoked Ahi Tuna

I am crazy for most any smoked fish. Some nice smoked salmon on a bagel with a shmear of cream cheese is my idea of Heaven, or at least a heavenly Sunday breakfast. I also love Ahi Tuna, so when I saw this new product, Smoked Ahi Tuna it immediately said to me, “give this a try”.

TJ’s Sesame Crusted Smoked Ahi Tuna is very, very lightly smoked. As in barely smoked. Unlike most smoked salmon, where you open up the package and really get a smoked fish aroma this is so light that its a mere hint. So to be honest, while I found TJ’s smoked ahi tuna to be kind of tasty it’s not anything like smoked salmon or most any smoked fish I’ve had. Maybe people who don’t love smoked fish might like this as it’s not strong, its light. It has a light pink color and looks rather pretty. There are some white thread-like areas (more on this later*). It was cut a bit unevenly so it was a little thick in some places and thin in others. I found the thinner cut tuna tasted better than thicker areas. Cutting smoked fish by hand is an art.

What I didn’t like at all about this product were white thread-like areas, some of which when you ate them were tough and inedible. Like sinew.,,, do tuna have sinew? I guess they do! You can see the white thread like areas in the package. I carefully cut the densest of the white areas away before serving, which was a pain. These tough white areas seem like a lack of quality of the tuna and its preparation. These *white thread sinews are tough and inedible. Not good!

Anyway I served it by putting the smoked Ahi Tuna on top of halves of TJ’s Red Chile scalloped crackers (LOVE THESE!) spread with softened cream cheese mixed with a pinch of greek yogurt and lemon, and topped it all off with fresh dill. This actually did make a nice combination and a nice appetizer for us. Still our guests and I couldn’t help thinking it would have been better made with smoked salmon. So would I buy this again? Frankly I doubt it as it was not terribly special, was not great quality and I think the smoked salmon TJ sells is better for the same price. However if are not big on smoked fish and/or want to try something different for all I know you just might like this as it’s barely smoked fish. A package is $6.

I would not buy this again myself.

RANT

Trader Joe’s ARGENTINIAN RED SHRIMP

17 Jan 2021 21 Comments

by promacnyc in All Natural, fish, frozen, Prices, Products, Rave, recipe, Recipes, seafood, Trader Joes, update, WhatsGoodAtTJ? Tags: Food, frozen, healthy, inflation, no preservatives, pasta, pescatarian, price hike, price increases, ramen, Rave, recipe, review, seafood, shrimp

“Trader Joe’s Argentinian Red Shrimp are caught off the southern coast of Argentina. They have a sweet lobster like flavor and texture. Grill, barbecue or sauté. Serve with pasta, on salads or as an entrée…” (Wild, Raw, Peeled, Cleaned and Deveined Frozen Shrimp)

RAVE

If you are at Trader Joe’s looking for shrimp, these are the best ones they sell. These frozen red shrimp are large, meaty and actually do have a sweet “lobster-y” flavor and texture. A big plus is they are Wild Caught, not farmed. Wild shrimp are said to have better flavor than farmed shrimp. These Argentinian Red Shrimp are fished in the icy waters off Argentina’s coast in Patagonia. They’re individually flash frozen, cleaned and ready to use. They’re a decent size (20/25 count aka “Large”). Are these “the sweetest shrimp in the world”? … well even if some marketer came up with that, they actually do taste sweet and so have a “lobster-y” taste and texture. (If you are interested in learning more here’s detailed info about “Patagonian Red Shrimp”) You use these Red Shrimp the same as any other shrimp. If I’m not using the whole package I just take out as many as I need, then close it up super tight with a twisty, then double bag that inside a Ziplock freezer bag to keep them fresh as possible. So first things first, best defrosting method(s).

DEFROSTING : The best way is the traditional overnight thaw in the fridge in a covered bowl. If you didn’t plan ahead, the next best option is put them in a bag, and submerge it in a bowl under a light stream of cold running water (weight down bag with a plate). They should be defrosted in 15-20 minutes. OR this last method works OK in a pinch: I’ve simply put the frozen shrimp in a bowl, covered them with an inch of very cold water, and stirred them every 5 minutes or so, which should take maybe 30 mins. Cooking from frozen: One can but I would not recommend if possible. They will shrink more and be tougher. Nor would I nuke them to defrost them personally.

Cooking: Cook them as you normally cook any shrimp. These do cook a wee bit faster so be careful not to overcook them. If you are say using a sauce, you can simmer the (defrosted) shrimp slowly in the sauce at the very end cooking them in the sauce for maybe 2 minutes (turning them over once). As soon as they are no longer translucent and look firm these are cooked, and/or at least should be removed and then added back to your dish at the end. Not over cooking will keep them plumper and juicier. When you overcook shrimp they become chewier and shrink up.

TIP: If grilling them, you can marinate them for 15 min in lots of TJ’s CUBAN SPICE BLEND. Or any spices of your choosing. Ajika blend also is terrific as is TJ’s Peri-Peri Sauce. These shrimp are terrific simply sautéed in olive oil with lots of garlic, scampi style. You can blot them with a paper towel, optionally sprinkle them with a little seasoned flour and sauté them in oil and butter. One trick I saw on MilkStreet recently was to pan fry shrimp on one side only, then take them out of the pan and finish them in your dish for 30 seconds at the end. This is a great idea. These shrimp are of course great grilled / sautéed and used in a pasta dish. You can put them on a skewer and broil or grill them (oil them). They are equally great gently poached 3 minutes, which is a good way to make them for cold cooked shrimp or for the top of a salad.

If you try these shrimp you will probably like them as much as we do. I find them super convenient to have in the freezer. TJ’s sells these Wild Red Shrimp (1 lb. bag) for ~~$9.99~~

*UPDATE-1 (Feb 2021) price increased to $10.99. UPDATE-2 (Apr 2022) price went up again, now 11.99!

More cooking ideas follow.

I made a nice Thai Shrimp Curry with these shrimp, with veggies and TJ’s Thai Red Curry sauce – adding the shrimp during the very last 2 minutes (a no-recipe recipe follows below).

THAI STYLE SHRIMP CURRY – Sauté some onions, garlic, and chopped ginger in oil for 4-5 minutes. Throw in chopped up carrots, celery, potatoes (optional add ins: mushrooms, peas, sweet potatoes, scallions) …sauté everything for 5 more minutes, then add 1/4-1/2 cup liquid (water or broth (Option: Add a 1/2 cup Coconut Milk for the liquid)) Simmer for 10 minutes, then add in a jar of TJ Thai Red Curry sauce and simmer another 10 minutes or until all the veggies are just tender. The last 2 minutes of cooking, you add your shrimp and simmer gently in the sauce, stirring occasionally. Serve the curry with jasmine rice and add chopped scallions on top.

Here’s one more: As these shrimp are “lobster-y” they are perfect to make a New England style Shrimp Roll (aka Poor Man’s Lobster Roll). Gently poach shrimp 90 seconds or so. Remove and let cool, split or cut them up and mix with a little mayo and lemon juice, then put them in a lightly toasted buttered Brioche bread or Brioche Bun (spread with a little mayo) If you have it sprinkle a little Old Bay seasoning or dill seasoning) on top. Easy and delicious.

RECIPE: RED SHRIMP WITH HONEY ALEPPO SAUCE – https://www.traderjoes.com/home/recipes/honey-aleppo-shrimp

(NB: TJ’s recipe here says cook the shrimp for 5-10 mins; I suggest just ignore this unless you want really overcooked shrimp! Cook these shrimp no more than 2 minutes)

Ramen? Yes. I used the shrimp in (“Roy Choi style”) instant ramen with a slice of cheese and butter.. (crazy but it works, see video below). For this dish which was a dinner, I made a veggie stock instead of using the included packet of seasoning* and added some fresh mushrooms. I added the defrosted shrimp at the very end of cooking, and only cooked them about a minute or two. See they look juicy (not overcooked)? TIP: That little flavor packet included with instant ramen is just loaded with Sodium (like 50-70% of daily recommended level)? Bad for you, so better to use your own stock or a low sodium stock and maybe just add a pinch of the flavor packet. Worst case, use only half the packet and if it tastes too flat, add something to flavor it up without adding much sodium (a dash of low sodium soy sauce or a few drops of Nam Pla (fish sauce).

ROY CHOI’S INSTANT RAMEN WITH CHEESE

Another idea? Vietnamese style rice paper shrimp rolls (search Asian markets for the rice wrappers) https://justasdelish.com/vietnamese-shrimp-rolls-peanut-hoisin-sauce/

One more idea? Fried rice with shrimp.