We blogged about this recipe here.
Picadillo
Updated from a Cuban-inspired recipe which I cut out of a magazine probably 30 years ago....maybe Ladies' Home Journal - isn't that where everything came from back then?
Ingredients
- 2 T olive oil
- 1 large Yukon Gold or red potato, diced (no need to peel) – about 2 cups after dicing
- 1 green bell pepper, diced
- 1 large onion, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced – about 1 1/2 tsp
- 1/3 c tomato paste
- 1/3 c water
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 3 drops Tabasco sauce
- 1/2 c dark raisins
- 1/2 c sliced pimento-stuffed olives
- 2 T catsup
- 1/2 c frozen green peas
Directions
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the diced potatoes and cook, stirring frequently, until lightly browned, about 5 minutes, . Add the bell pepper, onion and garlic and cook just until the onion is softened, about 3 minutes more. Add the tomato paste and water, stir it all well, and simmer another few minutes. Add the ground beef, salt, and pepper, and cook for about 7 minutes, breaking up the meat as it cooks. Add the cumin, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco sauce, raisins, olives, catsup, and frozen peas and cook another 5 minutes or so. Stir in the catsup and frozen green peas, cover the pan slightly and simmer for about 10 minutes.
Serve the picadillo with rice. Or open a can of black beans (we love Bush’s Cocina Latina Frijoles Cubanos), heat, and serve them along side the picadillo.
Or refrigerate and eat it tomorrow (by the time I’m done cooking even a big little recipe, I’m ready to eat something else for dinner). It will re-heat nicely in the microwave. Freeze what’s left in proportions just perfect for you. Another day use the left-overs to make a taco or burrito. If you’re really wild and crazy, bake some sweet potatoes, cut them in half, mash them a little in the shell, and then serve them with the picadillo on the top. Or use the left-over picadillo for breakfast with an egg fried sunny-side up and put over the top.
Here’s the really important stuff: don’t get stuck on following the recipe exactly. If you don’t think you’ll like the sweetness of the raisins, leave them out. You want it a little more liquid-y? Add another little bit of water till you like the consistency or even some white wine or chicken stock. Lots of picadillo recipes call for more tomato; you could add the rest of the 6 oz can of tomato paste, if that’s what you used. Or substitute a 15 oz can of diced tomatoes for the tomato paste and catsup. And we added LOTS more Tabasco. After all, we lived in Baton Rouge, Louisiana for 26 years.
Recipe provided by Big Little Meals and Andy and Ann
Big Little Meals 