Also, it’s a great dish for entertaining and feeding a crowd. Plate it for a fancier preso or serve rustic and family style. If you are looking for a Spring holiday dish, this would be lovely.

Okay, I’m just going to say it because you know I’m 49 going on 13 – it’s really, really hard for me to write a recipe about meatballs without thinking of a certain SNL skit. I sort of feel like an adolescent here trying not to laugh at every turn. But regardless of my truly prepubescent sense of humor, I still feel that this is an elegant dish, I just wish we could rename it? Any suggestions!?!

The most important tip to making meatballs is to mix the ingredients just until incorporated evenly. Overworked meatballs tend to be tough. I also think it’s a great idea to sauté a spoonful size portion of the meat mixture and taste the seasoning before forming into balls.

If you can’t find fava beans fresh or frozen, you can sub edamame which I often find vacuum sealed and fresh in the produce area. If you can find fava beans fresh, remember they need to be shelled and then individually popped out of their tough skins – blanch favas in salted boiling water for one minute and cool down immediately in an ice bath. Then pop each bean out of its skin before moving on with the recipe. (Also, little kids are really great at shelling and popping favas out of skin.)

Use a nice ricotta. It’s easy enough to make at home but if buying I prefer Bellwether Farms sheep’s milk ricotta. It has a lovely light consistency without being too watery and it does not have any weird thickeners in it. Many store-bought ricotta products have some sort of gelatin, so read the label!

I served the leftovers with a tricolore bitter greens salad with blue cheese crumble and a white balsamic vinaigrette the following day and is was still delicious!

The post Ricotta Pork Meatballs first appeared on Amy Glaze's Pommes d'Amour.

I originally made this recipe about 8 years ago for a Pig Roast I did for Potrero Nuevo Farm in Pescadero and now here I am making it again for a backyard Fourth of July Party with two kids in tow. Oh how life has changed since my Farm-to-Table days.

Tangy green tomatoes make such a great starter. Feel free to batter up zucchini sticks too – the cornmeal crust slips off a little bit but they are still pretty darned snack-able. And if you can’t find fine cornmeal you can use a medium grind but they will be extra crunchy…

I love dunking fried green tomatoes into homemade ranch. But feel free to double up the sauces, remoulade is also great with this. I also make a killer Anchovy Remoulade Sauce that adds a little umami flavor.

Pictured below is Chef Valentin prepping 60 fry baskets for the Pig Roast many years ago…

Finding green tomatoes can be a little challenging if you don’t grow them yourself. The Green Zebra variety is actually ripe when green and too juicy for this recipe. If your market doesn’t stock green tomatoes as a specialty item have a look in the colorful heirloom pile. I often find green ones thrown into the mix or stop by your local farmer’s market and ask.

Here is a link to my original post many years ago…

http://www.amyglaze.com/cornmeal-crusted-fried-green-tomatoes-with-homemade-ranch-dressing/

The post Fried Green Tomatoes first appeared on Amy Glaze's Pommes d'Amour.

Keep it light this weekend, keep it spicy, keep it tangy and tart with a sweet slice of juicy melon ripe enough to drip down your chin.

Keep it anything but heavy, no need to pretend happy, just keep it real, focus on the flavor, figure out the future any way but not today.

Keep that seat at the table open and ready for that Veteran who maybe wants a taste of home but wasn’t able to make it in time to dine…

To all who have served: Thank you for our freedom. You are heroes. We are grateful and we honor and remember those lost and living who have protected our country.

The post Lemongrass Grilled Shrimp with Melon and Mint first appeared on Amy Glaze's Pommes d'Amour.

Just the idea of truffles and beets together sends my pulse sky rocketing. And not because the combo is super sexy (which it is) but because there is a certain off-menu salad at Guy Savoy that is insanely difficult to construct.

Monsieur Savoy’s Truffled Mâche and Beet Salad is a well-loved and simple (though expensive) French combination of ingredients: truffled vinaigrette, caramelized deep ruby red beets, bouncy mâche and the blackest truffle slices you’ve ever seen.

However, The putting-it-together part is pretty much like Jenga — if you’ve ever played that impossible stacking game before, you’ll understand exactly what I mean. The mâche and beets are carefully layered into a mile high tower and then completely covered in a delicate dome of black truffle concentric circles, each truffle slice placed over the one before until the entire salad is wrapped in beautiful blackness. Sounds easy. IT’S NOT! It’s quite often the leaning tower of truffled Pisa.

But, it is delicious. There’s no denying that the creamy truffle vinaigrette is drinkable just on it’s own and paired with the sweet & earthy beets and the minerality of mâche – it is one hundred percent satisfying. It goes nicely with a coupe de Champagne for a light lunch too (just sayin’!)

Monsieur Savoy pairs his famous truffled vinaigrette with a few other cold appetizers as well. My personal favorite is his signature dish: ballontine of chicken breast, artichoke heart and foie gras terrine sliced thick and served with truffled vinaigrette and a little mâche. If you happen to pop into Guy Savoy for lunch and want something different than the 4-hour tasting menu (just a quick bite peut être?) I highly recommend this dish, it is delicious. I loved making it and I loved eating the smaller slices of the ballottine that weren’t big enough for a proper serving.

I’ve put together my favorite truffled vinaigrette combos from Monsieur Savoy’s menu in a simple starter. But I’ve added my own touches too. My focus these days is on relocating to Portugal so of course the beets are lacquered with the sweet wine. And although Monsieur Savoy would most certainly use Poilaîne crostini, I have opted for rye, my personal fav.

The ingredients can be put together as a finger appetizer on a crostini or plated as a starter or enlarged to make a platter for a crowd. Foie gras is exceptionally difficult to get ahold of in California these days and companies like D’Artagnan (in NYC) will ship it along with high quality truffles (and lots of other insanely delicious ingredients). But for the sake of making this dish accessible for all, there are some excellent packaged foie de canard mousse in the markets these days too and you can use that here as well.

If you’re up for making foie gras torchon, making it at home is not hard just time consuming. I open up the lobes and devein, sometimes using my fingers or the back of a spoon to find the web like strands. (buy premium foie gras and it will be easier to devein). Then I sprinkle with a little rose salt and kosher salt, roll back up and create a cylinder with several layers of saran wrap tying each end tight and cook sous-vide. Curing salt needs to be measured and if you are having trouble finding it, ask your butcher, you don’t need a lot! I personally do not add other spices to my torchon but some people do.

I think Serious Eats has an excellent post on making foie gras torchon with clear instructions and since I made mine last year and froze it and I don’t have pictures, this is a great resource. By the way, if you do freeze yours for later use, make sure to take the cheesecloth off, rewrap and cryovac.

Nice fresh black truffles are also difficult to find right now as is mâche for some odd reason but I was able to find some canned truffles – not my preference but will do in a pinch – and some beautiful frisée too!

Bon Appétit!

The post Foie Gras Torchon, Port Lacquered Beets, Truffled Chicories first appeared on Amy Glaze's Pommes d'Amour.

This chowder is loaded with clams, fresh and canned, along with the usual suspects: potato, fennel, shallot, leek and pancetta. Topped with chopped tarragon, fried dill and freshly cracked black pepper, this classic is simply delicious.

I made this chowder one Christmas with my Step Dad Joe when I was a tweenager. It became a family tradition that continues on to this day and I’ve even used it at two restaurants. You can leave the fresh clams out if desired and only use canned or only use fresh clams (see my old recipe below) If you do want to give it a go with these sustainable bivalves, there are many neat varieties in all different shapes and sizes and they are all fun to experiment with!

Quahog varieties are the norm for chowder. From smallest to largest: countneck, littleneck, topneck, cherrystone, and chowder size. Chowder clams are very big at about 3-inches, and they can be on the tough side, so they are usually chopped. Here on the West coast we mostly get manila clams which work perfectly. See what your fish monger has in store!

It’s easy to make this chowder seasonal, just add fresh corn in the Summer and potatoes in the Fall and Winter – or both! Late season corn here in California is intensely sweet and yummy in this soup. The base is clam stock, which is light (and not fishy) with a big splash of cream. There is a little white wine too, to balance it all out.

For comparison, check out my old version of this soup that I created for Citizen Cake! It’s similar but I used fresh clams only with large wedges of fennel: http://www.amyglaze.com/citizen-cake-clam-chowder/.

Hope this chowder makes you happy as a clam!

The post Amy’s Clam Chowder first appeared on Amy Glaze's Pommes d'Amour.