Alcachofas al Ajillo or Garlicky Artichokes #FoodieExtravaganza

Alcachofas al Ajillo or garlicky artichokes are a traditional tapas dish from Spain made with fresh or canned artichokes, lots of garlic and chili pepper. I like to toss in some small tomatoes as well, for flavor and color.

This is normally served with drinks as part of an appetizer course but it is so simple to make that you might finding yourself eating it as a quick weekday supper with plenty of crusty bread to sop up the lovely garlicky buttery sauce.

Alcachofas Al Ajillo or Garlicky Artichokes

This recipe serves 4 as part of a tapas course, 2 as an side dish. It is also easily doubled or trebled.

Ingredients
1 can or jar (drained weight 5.8 oz or 165g) small artichoke hearts
1/4 cup or 60ml extra virgin olive oil
1 rounded tablespoon butter
8 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
10 grape or cherry tomatoes, cut in halves
1 small red chili pepper
Fine sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Few sprigs fresh parsley, hard stems removed, roughly chopped

To serve: slices of crusty bread

Method
Drain the artichokes well and rest them open side down in a strainer or on some paper towels so they can dry even more.

Split the chili pepper down the middle but leave it in one piece. This is purely aesthetic because I like the look of a whole split chili pepper. Feel free to chop it if you prefer. The seeds can be removed to lessen the spiciness of the dish.

Heat half of the olive oil along with the butter in a large non-stick skillet over a medium high flame.  Tip in the well-drained artichoke hearts. Cook for about 6-7 minutes on one side, until they are turning golden in places. Turn them gently so the artichokes can color on both sides.

Add in the chopped garlic, tomatoes, the chili pepper and the rest of the olive oil.

Lower the flame to medium and cook the garlic until softened, making sure to stir often to keep it from burning.

When the garlic is starting to color slightly and the tomatoes have wrinkled, turn the heat off. Sprinkle the top with salt, a few good grinds of black pepper and the chopped parsley. Stir again.

Serve with sliced crusty bread, and perhaps a cold beer, your favorite wine or a small glass of Spanish sherry.

Enjoy!

Are you a fan of garlic? Make sure to check out all of the wonderful garlicky recipes my Foodie Extravaganza group has for you today, in celebration of National Garlic Day on April 19th. Many thanks to our host, Caroline of Caroline’s Cooking.

• Aïgo Bouido (Provençal Garlic Soup) by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Alcachofas al Ajillo or Garlicky Artichokes by Food Lust People Love
• Cuban Cube Steak - Bistec de Palomilla by Caroline's Cooking
• Fresh Green Garlic Mince Bake by Sneha's Recipe
• Garlic Fried Calamari by Palatable Pastime
• Garlic Knots by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Garlic Loaded Tzatziki Sauce by Hardly A Goddess
• Garlic Roasted Brussels Sprouts by Jolene's Recipe Journal
• Homemade Creamy Garlic Salad Dressing by A Day in the Life on the Farm

Foodie Extravaganza celebrates obscure food holidays, and we all post recipes using the same ingredient. Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook page Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you!

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Peanut Butter Stuffed Banana Muffins #MuffinMonday

Peanut butter stuffed banana muffins are baked with our favorite banana batter filled with a good teaspoon of peanut butter each, then dipped in a sweet peanut butter glaze. These guys are a special treat for breakfast, snack time or even dessert.

Whenever I have bananas that are past their best, I can’t bear to waste them. My go-to recipe when my girls were still at home was banana cake, a light and fluffy after-school snack they both enjoyed. (Want something approaching muffins? Bake the batter as cupcakes.) Nowadays I am more likely to mix up some muffins.

If bananas are your favorite, check out these other recipes you might enjoy:

• Homemade Banana Cream Pie
• Banana Fritters
• Banana Pecan Bundt with Bananas Foster Frosting
• Banana Coconut Pineapple Bundt

For this month’s Muffin Monday, I decided to kick those banana muffins up a notch or two with the addition of peanut butter, but not mixed into the batter since that might overpower the banana flavor. Instead I froze 12 teaspoons of peanut butter and tucked them in the batter, where they became a lovely soft surprise.

Peanut Butter Stuffed Banana Muffins

Make these muffins with or without the peanut butter stuffing or the peanut butter glaze for a simpler treat, but if you’ve got just a little extra time, I recommend you make all three. The peanut butter can be popped in the freezer the night before, if you are baking these for breakfast.

Ingredients
For the muffin batter:
12 teaspoons peanut butter, frozen separately
3 ripe bananas
1/3 cup or 75g butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups or 190g flour
1/2 cup or 100g sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt

For the glaze:
1 rounded tablespoon peanut butter
2 tablespoons milk
1/4 cup or 130g powdered sugar
pinch fine sea salt

Method
Cover a plate with cling film or waxed paper and scoop out 12 teaspoons of peanut butter onto the prepared plate. Put the plate in the freezer until ready to bake, but for at least 30 minutes. The peanut butter never gets completely hard, even if left overnight but it does firm up nicely.

When you are ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 12-cup muffin pan by lining it with muffin papers. I also like to give the muffin papers a quick spray of nonstick cooking spray to help them release the muffins after baking.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

In a large mixing bowl, use a fork to mash your three very ripe bananas. Whisk in the butter, eggs and vanilla until thoroughly combined.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredient bowl and fold until just combined.

Scoop a little more than half of the batter into the 12 muffin cups. Remove the teaspoons of peanut butter from the freezer and poke one into each of the muffin cups.

Top with the remaining banana batter making sure to cover the peanut butter completely. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown in the preheated oven.

Meanwhile, make the peanut butter glaze by mixing all of the ingredients together in a small bowl.

Remove the muffins from the oven and set them aside until they are cool enough to handle, then remove them from the baking pan and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

Once the peanut butter stuffed banana muffins are cool, dip the tops in the glaze.

Set aside to dry. I had plenty of glaze so I actually dipped mine twice. Because more peanut butter is always a good thing.

Enjoy!

Check out all the other lovely muffins my Muffin Monday baking group is sharing today!

• Banana Nut Muffins from Palatable Pastime
• Butternut Squash & Apple Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Cheezy Garlic Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Healthy Carrot Cake Muffins from Farm Fresh Feasts
• Papaya Muffins from Passion Kneaded
• Peanut Butter Stuffed Banana Muffins from Food Lust People Love

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page.

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Creamy Crab and Scallop Chowder #FishFridayFoodies

My creamy crab and scallop chowder begins with frying bacon, as all the best recipes do. Pour in the whipping cream, add a whole pound of crabmeat AND a pound of bay scallops, for a deliciously rich mouthful in every spoon.

When our elder daughter graduated from university in 2013, she immediately started a job in New York City. She was paid hourly so if she didn’t work, she didn’t get paid. Which also means no vacation time. It’s a hard cruel world, right?

As summer turned to autumn, thoughts of the possibility of Christmas without her sent me to the internet where I looked for a house we could afford to rent for three weeks, somewhere in New England. We ended up in a little town called Tiverton in Rhode Island. When we arrived at the home, a typical northeastern winter had already set in with real snowfall that stuck still covering the trees and bushes and lawn.

Just a few days before Christmas, on our daughter’s birthday in fact, we decided we needed some clam chowder to warm us up from the inside out. We found delicious bowls in nearby Newport and I’ve been a chowder fan ever since.

Creamy Crab and Scallop Chowder

This recipe is adapted from the Nantucket Chowder recipe from an issue of Bon Appétit magazine, December 1995 and it's my favorite! See if you don't agree.

Ingredients to serve 6
8 slices thick-cut bacon, chopped
2 medium onions, peeled and chopped
3-4 sprigs fresh thyme, plus extra for garnish, if desired
4 1/4 cups or 1L seafood or fish stock
1/2 cup or 120ml dry white wine
2 medium potatoes, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3/4 cup or 180ml whipping cream
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 lb or 450g bay scallops, thawed if frozen
1 lb or 450g handpicked cooked crabmeat
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Traditional chowder accompaniment: oyster crackers – Buy some or make your own with this simple recipe: Easy homemade oyster crackers

Method
Fry the bacon pieces in a large Dutch oven, over a medium heat. Once the bacon is crispy, remove it from the pot with a slotted spoon and put it on some folded paper towels to drain.

Remove all but 2 tablespoons of the bacon drippings from the pot. You can discard what you remove but I suggest you put it in a clean jar in the refrigerator where it will keep for several weeks. Use it whenever you want to add a little flavor to a dish, like roasted vegetables or pan-fried chicken.

Add the onions and thyme to the pot and sauté them over a medium heat, until they soften, stirring occasionally. This just takes a few minutes.

Pour the stock and white wine into the pot, along with the potato cubes. Bring the stock to a boil and then lower the heat till it’s just above a simmer. Cook for about 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.

While the potatoes cook, take a few minutes to look through your crabmeat to make sure all the little bits of shell have been removed. Even the best, most conscientious pickers can miss some.

Remove the thyme sprigs from the pot and discard. Ladle about half of the chowder into a blender and pulse till smooth. Or you can use a hand blender in a tall measuring vessel, like I do.

Pour the smooth mixture back into the pot and cook for another 10-15 minutes, until it thickens slightly.

Whisk the cornstarch into the cold cream until it is completely dissolved. Add the cream to the chowder pot, stirring quickly.

 Sprinkle in half of the bacon and return to a gentle simmer.

Add the bay scallops and crabmeat to the chowder. Heat through and season the chowder to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Ladle the chowder into bowls. Sprinkle the remaining bacon, garnish with fresh thyme leaves, if desired, and serve immediately. If you have some oyster crackers, put those out too and folks can help themselves.

Enjoy!

Many thanks to this month’s Fish Friday Foodies host, P from The Saucy Southerner. Check out all the lovely crab recipes we are sharing today.

An InLinkz Link-up

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