This is a dish popular in almost every Cuban household and is a variation of my mother's own picadillo recipe. But it has numerous changes from my mother's original to the ingredients and the techniques.
Picadillo is basically Cuban peasant food. Every grandmother has her own recipe that she passes down to her children and no two grandmothers make it the exact same way. I like how adaptable it is to the particular tastes of each cook. It's popularity is based on how inexpensive the dish is to prepare. But it is the common simplicity of the dish that evokes that warm feeling of childhood and home.
The best part is you can make this the day before and just reheat for dinner because it is actually better the next day when the flavors truly meld. Also this is the best filling ever for the empanada. Ever. Your empanada will evocakie memories of the Jamaican patty when filled with picadillo.
The recipe below will easily feed 4 to 6 people and leave you enough to make empanadas to take for lunch the next day.
The ingredients...
2 lbs. of ground beef
4 to 5 good sized potatoes
1/2 cup of olives (Buy the pitted spanish olives that have the red pimiento inside.)
1/4 cup of currants or raisins
1 cup wine (I like red, but white is fine.)
1 green bell pepper
1 onion or 2 shallots
4 garlic cloves
3 ounces of tomato paste
1 can of crushed tomatoes
olive oil (I prefer the mild kind for this cooking.)
2 jalapeno peppers or 1 habanero (This is optional and not at all traditional. I prefer the Habanero.)
Sazon (Find this in the latin section of the grocery store but you can also use Sazon Completa,)
salt
pepper
garlic granulated powder
2 cups white rice
The equipment...
Rice cooker (these usualy have their own measuring cup)
Large pan
Cutting board
Knife
Large cooking spoon
Measuring spoons
The preparation...
2. Start the rice cooking in your rice cooker. If you don't have one, go buy one. They are very cheap, usually under $20. And are the easiest way to make rice without having to pay attention to it. The rice is the simplest part of this to make. Put in 2 cups of rice, 2 and 1/2 cups of water, 2 table spoons of a mild olive oil or a canola oil, 1 teaspon of granulated garlic powder and 1/2 teaspoon of salt in the rice cooker, put the lid on and press start. Easy.
4. Slice or chop the olives and set them aside in another bowl. Don't slice them too small because you want them kind of chunky. I usually slice each olice in half and then cut each half into 4 slices.
5. Set your currants to soak in the 1/2 a cup of the wine.
Let's Cook...
2. Add the ground beef with the sazon to the pan and brown the ground beef. Then add the cooked veggies back in.
3. Add the crushed tomatoes, the tomato paste, the currants and the red wine. Let this simmer over medium low heat for a little while. The longer it simmers, the more the flavors blend together. If it gets a little dry, you can add some more wine or water or even some beef stock. You can't be wrong here. It's just ground beef. Live a little!
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