There’s nothing boring about this bean salad – the ramps and morel mushrooms bring some of mother nature’s most amazing foraged flavors to what was once a humble side dish.

Drink Pairing: Pilsner

Ingredients:                                               Makes 6 Servings
1/2lb Fresh Morel Mushrooms, halved  (could substitute reconstituted dried morels in a pinch)
1 tbsp Unsalted Butter
1 bunch Wild Ramps, cleaned (how to clean ramps)
1 tsp Champagne Vinegar
2 cups Dried Beans (rice beans, marrow beans or giant Peruvian lima beans)
1 Bay Leaf
¼ cup Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese, very finely grated (microplaned)
Salt & Black Pepper

Directions:
1. Soak the beans overnight.

2. Move the beans to a pot in their soaking liquid (enough to cover by an inch of water).  Add a teaspoon of salt and the bay leaf.  Cook at a low simmer, gently stirring occasionally.

Note: if using multiple bean varieties, we recommend cooking them in separate pots (each with their own bay leaf) until each variety is tender for best texture.

3. After the beans have cooked for a while, add a pinch of additional salt. Add additional hot water as necessary to keep the beans submerged. Continue to simmer until tender.

4. Separate the ramp greens (tops) from the bottoms.  Finely mince the bottoms, cut the greens chiffonade (into thin strips).

5. Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat.

6. Add the ramp bottoms and sweat until translucent.

7. While the ramps are cooking, briefly dunk the morels in cool water to remove any sand or grit.

8. Add the morels to the ramps & continue to cook until they are tender.

9. Add the cooked, drained beans.  Cook until the beans are heated through, then add the ramp greens, champagne vinegar, salt & black pepper to taste.

10. Serve hot, cold, or at room temperature topped with the parmesan cheese.

Note: If you’d like to use a couple of different bean varieties for a blend of colors & sizes (as we have here), we recommend simmering each variety separately for the best texture.  That way you can take each off the heat when they’re ready.

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Browse More:
Morel Recipes
Ramp Recipes
Bean & Lentil Recipes

Mother’s day is coming!  Are you ready?

There’s nothing like breakfast in bed or a nice brunch with friends & family to spoil the mom(s) in your life.  Here are some of our favorite recipes to help you plan.

Mother’s Day Breakfast & Brunch Recipes
Morel Bruschetta Recipe
Cheese, Cranberry & Honey Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms Recipe
Peppered Brown Sugar-Glazed Bacon Recipe
Toast with Yuzu Marmalade
How to Make Compound Butters – Make a honey or maple butter with nuts for waffles/pancakes!

Egg Recipes:
Baked Eggs with Morels Recipe
Uni Scrambled Eggs Recipe
Bacon Quail Egg Breakfast Sandwich Recipe
Gruyere Morel Frittata Recipe
Green Nettle Pesto Eggs Recipe

Potato Sides:
Pan Fried Chive Potato Cakes Recipe
Bacon-Sausage Potato Hash Recipe

Baked Goods:
Huckleberry Clafouti Recipe
Blue Cheese Bread Pudding Recipe

Mother’s Day Brunch Beverage Recipes

Cocktails:
Yuzu Drop Recipe
Elderflower French 75 Recipe
Huckleberry Daiquiri Recipe

Non-Alcoholic Beverages:
Iced Hibiscus Tea & Lime Hibiscus Cooler Recipes
Lavender Lemonade & Lavender Huckleberry Lemonade Recipes

Presentation Ideas
How to Write Messages on a Plate with Chocolate
Edible Flowers make plates beautiful!

We have added A LOT of new products to our store that we think you’ll love – you can check them all out below. Be sure to stay tuned for even more new arrivals coming soon…

New Nut and Nut Meals

Pecan Halves                                                  Pecan Meal

Whole Hazelnuts                                            Hazelnut Meal

English Walnuts                                              Macadamia Nuts

Whole Almonds                                               Almond Meal

As you can see, we have added a lot of new items to our nut section. The almond meal and whole almonds can be ordered either blanched, or with the skins-on.

New Spices

Amchur Powder

Fenugreek Seeds

Dried Fenugreek Leaves

Our spices just got more exciting with the addition of tart & tangy amchur powder, made from finely ground green mangoes.  We’ve also added dried fenugreek leaves and fenugreek seeds, perfect for curry, tandoori dishes and East Indian cuisine.

New Seeds

Pumpkin Seeds

We now carry conveniently pre-hulled pumpkin seeds, which make a great addition to trail mix, salads, snacks, baked goods…or you can just eat them by the handful!

New Pasta

Squid Ink Orzo

Visually striking squid ink orzo has been added to our orzo, couscous & fregola collection. This orzo has simply been colored and flavored with cuttlefish ink (commonly referred to as “squid ink” whether it is from squid or cuttlefish).

New Bulk Truffle Oils

You can now buy high quality, yet affordably priced truffle oil by the case with our new D Dalla Terra bulk white truffle oil and bulk black truffle oil. They are both all natural (chemical free).

Fresh Lemon Verbena

The newest member of our bulk fresh herbs is fresh lemon verbena. With its potent, bright lemon-floral flavor & aroma, it’s a great way to add lemon flavor without the added acidity, sugar, and liquid lemon juice brings to a dish.

The lemon and lime slices, basil leaves, and dulce leaves & buttons create a bright, refreshing citrus flavor with an intriguing herbaceous quality. The addition of club soda at the end of this cocktail adds an extra effervescent tingle. We recommend not salting the rim for this margarita so that the flavors really shine.

Ingredients:   Makes 1 Drink
2 oz Tequila
3/4 oz Triple Sec
2 Lime Slices
2 Lemon Slices
3 Basil Leaves
3 Dulce Leaves
2 Dulce Buttons
Club Soda

 Directions:
1. Combine lime and lemon slices, basil leaves and dulce leaves & buttons in a mixing glass.

2. Muddle thoroughly.

3. Add ice, tequila and triple sec and shake to mix.

4. Strain into a rocks glass, or serve straight up.

5. Top with a bit of club soda.

6. Float a dulce leaf on top (optional. Applicable only if serving this margarita straight up.)

Mixologist: Katie Wallace

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Browse More:
Cocktail & Beverage Recipes
Dulce Button Recipes

Equipped with only dried morels and their culinary imagination (and driven by the hope of winning 2lbs of fresh morels), we asked 14 bloggers to create original recipes for our 4th Annual Morel Recipe Challenge…and create they did.

Many of the bloggers submitted recipes with a distinctive spring feeling and featured classic pairings like morels with asparagus, ramps, and goat cheese. We also saw a few surprise pairings like morels with citrus & saffron, as well as guava & cream cheese. You can see the full list of recipes submitted here.

The winning recipe, chosen by a combination of a public poll and an internal vote amongst all of the participating bloggers, is…

The Morel, Wild Ramp, Poblano & Goat Cheese Soufflé from The DelGrosso Food Blog! Your recipe was selected as the cream of the crop. Soufflé is an ambitious choice, but you definitely pulled it off. Congratulations!

We also have some very good news for a second blogger…we’re going to send Savory Sweet Living 2lbs of fresh morels as well! She was a very close runner-up once all of the bloggers’ internal votes were tallied, and her Morel Goat Cheese Gnudi with Ramps & Morel Sauce was a clear crowd favorite.

If you watched the public poll, you saw that the race was close between the DelGrosso Food Blog and Primlani Kitchen…our readers loved her recipe, so we have to give serious kudos to her and her Rapturous Morel Marmalade.

Now that the morel challenge has come to an end, we’re sending out a lot of morel love! Savory Sweet Living & The DelGrosso Food Blog get 2lbs of fresh morels, but it doesn’t end there…The DelGrosso Food Blog also gets to pick a bfff (best foodie friend forever) to receive an additional 2lbs of fresh morels!

Thank you to all of the bloggers for participating in this contest and for making our 4th Annual Morel Recipe Challenge such a success!

UPDATE! A winner has been selected…congratulations to Jenn (comment #7!) We have a sneaking suspicion that sunflowers will be in a vase on the table this Mother’s Day. But you’ll also have the added bonus of edible flowers of your choice!

The random number generator selected the lucky edible flower recipient, check it out below:

A bouquet of flowers is a pretty standard gift for Mother’s Day, but we think you should shake things up this year and enter to win FLOWERS YOU CAN EAT!

Imagine the look on mom’s face when she sees karma orchids on her plate, rose petals in her drink, pansy blossoms on the desserts, or micro flowers decorating the entire table. (Trust us, she’ll look happy.)

Want to win edible flowers for your mom? Here’s how it works:

1. Leave a comment on this blog post by Wednesday (5/9) and tell us either your mom’s favorite flower, or why you want to give your mom edible flowers.

2. One winner will be randomly selected and will be announced by 8am PST on Thursday.

3. We will ship out 1 order of the edible flower of your choice on Thursday (5/10) to have them delivered on Friday.

One comment per person, please. Only US residents are eligible to win.

Feast your eyes upon the 14 amazing recipes filled with morel goodness from our 4th Annual Morel Recipe Challenge. For this contest, we asked bloggers to create original recipes featuring morel mushrooms. We sent out samples of dried morels to the participating bloggers to create their best morel masterpieces and they came up with everything from pasta & pastries to tarts & even egg rolls.

Now it’s time to cast your vote for your favorite recipe. At stake for one lucky blogger is 2lbs of fresh morels! And better yet, the winning blogger gets to pick their bfff (best foodie friend forever) to receive another 2lbs of fresh morels.

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The polls will close at 6pm PST on 5/3, so make sure you vote before the deadline.

The ultimate winner will be chosen via a combination of this public poll and an internal vote amongst all of the participating bloggers. Each blogger will pick their two favorite recipes (besides their own), and the top three vote-getters from this blog poll will each have an additional two votes added to their score. The blogger with the most total votes will win!

We are throwing down the gauntlet with this three round recipe challenge!

It all revolves around our amazing Integrale rice … Fine Cooking magazine has sung its praises and we think it’s pretty great too. Want to test it for yourself? We’re looking for 15 brave bloggers who think they’ve got what it takes to make it through the gauntlet.

We’ll ship a kilo of the Integrale rice to each blogger and the rest will be up to you. Bloggers will be cut after each round until we reach the final phase of the gauntlet, and only one blogger will win it all!

The prize at stake is a $200 credit to MarxFoods.com for the winner. We’ll also send all 5 bloggers that make it to the final round a surprise item from our pantry collection.

HOW TO ENTER:

Feel like you can make it through the Integrale Gauntlet? Send an email with your name, mailing address and blog URL to Katie at kwallace(at)marxfoods(dot)com by Tuesday, 5/8.

The full details of the contest are below:

Round 1: Savory Risotto Challenge                   Voting Method: Public Poll

Because this is a fantastic risotto rice, that is how we’ll start this challenge. Create an irresistible, original risotto recipe featuring Integrale rice. You are welcome to use any additional ingredients you would like, but this risotto has to be savory. Links to the recipes from this first round will all be published on our blog and put to a public vote to narrow down the field. The top 10 bloggers will move forward.

Round 2: Dessert Risotto Challenge                  Voting Method: All-Inclusive Internal Vote

This is the sweet round – create an original rice pudding (or “dessert risotto”) recipe featuring the Integrale. Again, you can use any additional ingredients you’d like, so long as you make a sweet treat. These recipes will be voted on via an internal vote – each of the participating bloggers will vote for their top two favorite recipes (other than their own), and the Marx Foods staff will vote for their top 5 recipes (5 votes total). The 5 bloggers with the most votes from this round will move forward to the final round.

Round 3: Photo Challenge                                 Voting Method: Marx Foods Staff Pick

The last hurrah! For the final phase, it’s all about presentation. This is the photo round! We want to be wowed to the point of drooling by the photo and the recipe. Create any original recipe of your choosing with the Integrale rice, just make sure it LOOKS as good as it tastes. The submissions will be judged by our photographer, photo assistant and videographer to select one winner.

Important Dates:

• 5/8: Entry Deadline
• 5/11: Integrale Rice Ships
• 5/29: Round 1 Deadline
• 5/30-6/1: Public Poll for Round 1 on the Marx Foods blog
• 6/1: Bloggers for Round 2 Announced
• 6/10: Round 2 Deadline
• 6/12: Recipes from Round 2 posted on the Marx Foods blog
• 6/14: Internal Poll Vote Deadline for Round 2
• 6/15: Final Bloggers for Round 3 Announced
• 6/24: Round 3 Deadline
• 6/26: Winner Announced

FTC Regulations for Bloggers

Spring is in full swing and the change in weather means a lot of things…picnics, barbecues, parties, weddings & family reunions.

What does that mean for you? It means the season of palm leaf plates is upon us and we’re giving YOU a chance to review them!

We’ve done our own experiments seeing how much weight palm plates can hold, we used a steak knife to try to cut through a plate, and we’ve taken photos demonstrating how sturdy palm plates are, but we want you to push the limits even further. Throw everything you’ve got at these plates (we think you might be surprised at how much they can take!) If you want to put a plate in the refrigerator with leftovers on it to see how it holds up, go ahead…if you want to test how far you can bend one before it breaks, be our guest…feel like dropping a plate off your roof to see how it fares? We’re curious to see what happens

We think these plates are great, but we want you to give us your 100% candid and honest thoughts – we’re looking for an objective review.

If you’re up for it, send an e-mail to Katie at kwallace(at)marxfoods(dot)com with your name, mailing address, and blog URL by 5/4. We will pick several people and send samples their way!

Bloggers who post their reviews on their blogs and send us a link by Sunday, 5/27 will have their reviews published in a roundup on the Marx Foods blog. As an added bonus, the blogger with the most thorough review (submitted by the deadline) will receive a little surprise pantry goodie in the mail.

FTC Regulations for Bloggers

Risotto without cheese? Yes…and thanks to the garlic-y, oniony flavor of wild ramps, you will love it.

Wine Pairing: Chardonnay

Ingredients:                         Makes 4 Servings
4 tbsp + 3 tbsp Unsalted Butter
1 1/2 quarts Vegetable Stock   (quantity can vary, so have extra on hand)
2 cups Vialone Nano Rice (could substitute other risotto rice, modifying stock quantity & cooking time)
½ cup White Wine
4 tbsp Ramp Puree Recipe
Zest of 1 Lemon

Optional Garnish: Pea Tendrils or Ramp Greens

Directions:
1. In a pot, warm the veggie stock.

2. Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a wide frying pan.  Add the rice and toast it, stirring occasionally, until it’s lightly browned and emits a nutty aroma.

3. Deglaze the pan with the white wine.

4. Add ladles of hot stock, stirring frequently…only adding more stock as the last infusion is absorbed (see how to make risotto for the full technique).

5. Once the rice is tender, remove it for the heat and stir in the remaining 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter, lemon zest and the ramp puree.  Add salt & pepper to taste.

6. Garnish with pea tendrils or ramp greens if desired & serve.

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Browse More:
Ramp Recipes