Picadillo

Recipes

Picadillo is a Cuban dish. If you like olives, you will probably like this dish. Mary W

I found five or six versions of the recipe and put all the ingredients into this list:

1 Can chopped tomatoes (1 lb. 3 oz.)
8 Pimiento-stuffed olives, chopped
1/3 C. raisins -- rinsed in hot water, drained
2 Pitted black olives, sliced
3 oz Bottled capers, drained
1/4 c Burgundy wine or dry Spanish sherry
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Medium onion -- chopped
1 1/2 Lb. lean ground beef
3/4 Tsp. ground cumin
1/8 Tsp. ground allspice
juice of 2 limes
1/4 ts Each salt and pepper
Dash each ground cinnamon and ground cloves
1 ts Crushed oregano
1 dash Nutmeg
1 Medium green pepper – chopped
1/4 c Burgundy wine or dry Spanish sherry
2 Cloves garlic -- peeled and minced
1 ts Sugar
1 small Apple, pared, cored and chopped
1 Bay leaf
2 tb Wine vinegar
2 dr Hot sauce (more to taste)
1/2 ts Brown sugar

... and here's what I actually did:

Fill coffee cup half way with raisins, cover with dark rum, and nuke for 30 seconds at 50% power. Leave in microwave for later.

Sautee 1 lb lean ground beef in skillet, chopping into small pieces with hard plastic turner.

Cut an onion into small pieces and add to skillet before all the red is gone from the meat.

Cut 4-5 small (roma) or 2 large tomatoes into small pieces and add to skillet.

Spoon out most of the liquid fats.

Transfer meat to large pot so it will be easy to stir. Put the pot on the burner where the skillet was.

Stir in a can of diced tomatoes (ours had roasted garlic and onions in it, and it was a regular size can) and a small can of tomato paste (the one we used had garlic in it).

Stir in the raisins and their "special juice."

Cut about a dozen stuffed green olives into pieces. Drain a small can of sliced black olives, and about half a 3-oz bottle of capers. Stir these all in. Now you know why I didn't add salt.

Stir in about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon each of allspice, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, and ground nutmeg. Also stir in at least 1 teaspoon each of cumin and oregano.

Add two dashes of lime juice, and stir it in.

Cover the pot and turn the heat down, and leave it for about five minutes.

Note:

Most of the recipes said to serve over a bed of rice. We served a slice of whole wheat bread on the side, instead.

Much of what we did was based on what we had on hand, but I had specifically bought olives, capers, and raisins for this project!

Don't like olives? Use lots of raisins, instead.

We might add a can of black beans sometime. We might also cut more tomatoes, and sprinkle some on top as a garnish when serving.