08 December 2008

What's Cookin'---Picadillo

Picadillo is a dish mainly consisting of ground beef (sometimes shredded beef or chicken) typically found in Cuba, Mexico, and other Latin American countries. In Mexico it is sometimes used as a filling, such as for tacos, and can be mixed with vegetables. It can also be prepared as a type of stew. In most other Latin American countries it consists of a common table from where people pick small beef pieces or other food such as french fries. The name comes from the Spanish word, "picar" which means "to chop". Picadillo is a traditional dish in many Latin American countries; it's made with ground meat, tomatoes, and regional ingredients. The Cuban version includes olives and on occasion capers, omits chili powder, and is usually served with black beans and rice. The classic recipe uses ground meat, boiled and cubed potatoes, raisins, slivered almonds, diced olives, allspice, salt, pepper, chopped serrano or jalapeno pepper, and sometimes a little chili powder. This is all slowly simmered and served with hot flour tortillas.
-wiki-
Here in the Philippines we eat it with rice. There are so many ways to make this recipe your own. Picadillo is also good stuffed in any large bell pepper of your choice, topped with cheese (let the microwave do it's thing for 3-5 mins).
This particular dish is one of my favorites prepared by my grandmother. My mother-in-law has her version of Picadillo too (which is in Oyster sauce). Now, I gathered the available ingredients from my pantry and crisper.
What You Will Need:
4 pcs. medium potatoes (cut into cubes)
1 red bell pepper (sliced about an inch long and half inch thick)
4 cloves of garlic (minced)
1 medium onion (chopped)
1 K Lean ground Pork or ground sirloin
2 tbsp. olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp raisins
1C water
Sauces: You can choose from any of these:
I used this Ragu Old Fashioned Spaghetti sauce.
Tomato Sauce:
1 (227 g pouch plain tomato sauce)
1 (250g Filiino Style tomato sauce)
If you have this same dilemma as mine...
a 1/2 C of any tomato based sauce of your choice will do.
Fresh Tomatoes: Of couse this is the best option. 5 ripe (red) medium sized tomtotoes (sliced)
Oyster Sauce: 2 tbsp.
Note: sauce measurement good for 1K of ground meat

How To:

Saute garlic in olive oil until medium brown
Add the onions and diced potatoes
Add ground meat simmer for a few seconds
Mix it all together
Add water
Simmer for 7 mins or until potatoes and meat are cooked
Add the tomato sauce
note: for fresh tomatoes, just saute it with the onions and continue with the How To

Simmer for another 4mins
Add the bell pepper & raisins
Add water if necessary
Salt and pepper to taste

note: you can also add a little sugar to balance the taste.

Enjoy! and have a Delicious week!
Big Hugs!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

hmmm i love this too with rice. :)

Liz said...

yummy! fave ng dad ko yan, kaya lang he prefers using fresh tomatoes. ;)

Umma said...

I never try this one so I dont know what it taste.. But it looks yummy though, as you said added with rice will be enough to satisfy one empty stomach hahaha

sweetytots said...

yummy.... looks easy too.. here is a link of the sketch going to Kids Ahoy, I will be there on December 13, in the afternoon only, because its also little J's christmas party in school. Hope to see you there.. http://kidsahoy.multiply.com/photos/album/110/Open_House
I'll be there around 3pm pa.

Fly High said...

Ooh, I got to make this. But you know, we like it sweeter because the canned tomato sauce that we have in the Philippines is sweeter. When you use fresh tomatoes, while it would be the best theoretically, it would be a little bit sour and our Pinoy taste wouldn't like it. (It's the same with other stuff that traditionally use canned goods - when you substitute ingredients with fresh ingredients - for example a fruit salad - nobody likes it. It has to be the canned fruit cocktail.)

Ken said...

Ooops, I used a public computer to comment - shouldn't be flyhigh - don't know who she is ... the previous comment should be from Ken.

Sherry Go Sharing said...

is this spicy?

Enchie said...

Thanks ken!

Enchie said...

Hi Sherry! It's not spicy...The Red chili is a native red bell pepper :)

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