Marx foods www.marxfoods.com recently contacted me about doing a food challenge with some of their ingredients and I was more than happy to participate. They are a fantastic food company that offer hard to find food items available online.

The ingredients they sent me were:

Adzuki Beans
Maitake Mushrooms
Mochi Rice
Dried Star Fruit
Organic Millet
Hijiki

The rules were I needed to create two dishes (I did three I know I know) from at least four of the ingredients and whatever other ingredients I wanted. So what was really fantastic was I have been busy with business meeting and just picked up the package a few hours ago talk about no pressure! But I got it done and I hope you will enjoy these creations with the Marx Foods products as much as I had creating them. I put a nice montage slideshow of the dishes being created at the end of the post.

THE STARTER

Organic Millet with Chilled Shrimp and Hijiki

Ingredients:

6 pieces Chilled Shrimp (three shrimps cut in half)

Baby Spinach leaves

one cup cooked organic Millet

Tablespoon Hijiki

Vinaigrette: 1/2 cup olive oil, squeeze of lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon deli mustard and a bit of water to thin it out.

METHOD:

Cook the millet as per the package, I added some salt and olive oil. When done onto a pan and let cool in chunks. To assemble lay the baby spinach  leaves  in a uniform pattern on a plate, now place the millet chunks in the same manner, followed by the chilled shrimp (slice in half makes for a better mouthful) now scatter the Hijiki around the plate (if dried soak it for 15 min and rinse once) and finish with a drizzle of the vinaigrette. Perfect started for two people cut portion in half for one service.

THE MAINS

Maitake Mushroom Risotto with Hijiki

This rice worked beautifully for this risotto, I know I will hear it from a lot of the Italians purest but this worked fantastic!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup reconstituted Maitake Mushrooms

1/2 cup Mochi rice

1/2 cup chopped shallots

Splash of Armagnac

1 1/2 cup of the mushroom stock left over from reconstituting the mushrooms

teaspoon of unsalted butter

Parmesan  Cheese

Teaspoon Hijiki

Kosher Salt

METHOD:

Start with hot pan olive oil and add the shallots and a tablespoon chopped Maitake mushrooms, pinch of kosher salt and begin to sweat them for a couple min, add the Mochi Rice and a splash of Armagnac let reduce until the rice is toasting a bit. Now one small ladle of the mushroom stock and start stirring until that is reduced, keep adding ladles stirring and reducing until you can see the rice is giving off its starch and becoming cooked perfect, once it’s almost there add a knob of butter and keep stirring until incorporated. Now add about a tablespoon of grated Parmesan cheese and stir in. At this point it should be silky thick and a little runny but very very luscious and rich in taste.

To plate into a small bowl  and finish with some chopped Maitake mushroom, scattered Hijiki and some more finely grated Parmesan cheese.

DESSERT

Sticky Mochi Rice with Dried Star Fruit Glaze

Ingredients:

Sweet Sticky Mochi Rice (one cup Mochi rice, 1/2 cup sugar, juice from one orange, cinnamon stick, into a pan and cover the rice with enough water to extend to one knuckle above the rice. Bring to a boil then reduce to simmer and cook until soft)

Dried Star Fruit Glaze (three dried Star fruit chopped into a pan with cup of water, tablespoon honey, splash of Patron Orange and teaspoon sugar. Cook and reduce until a thick syrup)

Fresh Mint

METHOD:

Once you have the sticky sweet rice cook spread it out on a pan to cool. Now using a teaspoon make three quenelles on a plate. Now spoon some of the Dried Star Fruit glaze on top and using a blow torch brulee the top until it becomes nice and brittle. Scatter some fresh mint around and enjoy!

Hope everyone enjoys the dishes and I am happy to have participated in the Marx Food challenge. Big thanks to Justin Marx for the opportunity!

Much Love,

Benny

Boneless Skinless chicken thighs and assorted Jalapenos and sweet mini peppers. Olive oil, salt, pepper and a good shaking of Benny’s Bold Zesty & Spicy Seasoning. Into 450 degree oven for 15 min basting every few min until peppers are chard and chicken is getting a nice crust.

 

Benny

 

 

Here is dinner! split a Lebanese pita in two its so thin you can see through it, spread this wonderful red pepper jam from Montenegro, follow by some fresh tomato and jalapenos. A layer of Kashkaval cheese and finish with some fresh parsley and mint. Cook in a frying pan low heat until pita is crisp and cheese is bubbling as you can see in the video.

Benny

Here was the dinner feast we had for Cinco De Mayo.

This was not the stodgy mush you get at the American Mexican chains. If fact nothing angers me more than bad Mexican food and I think if your eating at Taco Bell and you think that has anything to do with real Mexican food then you probably think the McRib is made with a real rib meat:) This was light, fresh , vibrant and delicious!

Benny