Picadillo

[ranyhyn]

This is a recipe that I got from a friend of mine. Over the years it has become one of my favorite dishes. I hope you like it and if you do make it ... please come back and comment about what you think...

This is a slightly modified version of the traditional recipe for this dish ...

Ingredients:
2 - 2.5 lbs ground beef
1 large onion, diced
1 21oz jar manzanilla / green olives (pitted and stuffed with pimiento), drained and chopped (do not rinse)
2-3 bay leaves (2 large, 3 small-medium)
12oz dry white cooking wine
1 14.5oz can petite diced tomatoes
3 8oz cans of tomato sauce
2 Tbsp Cumin

Optional / additional ingredients
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
4-6 capers

Directions

1. Add the ground beef, diced onion, chopped olives, bay leaves, and 1/2 of the cumin to a pot. Cook over medium heat until ground beef is browned.
2. Drain meat mixture and then return to the pot.
3. Add the remaining ingredients (cooking wine, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, remainder of the cumin)
4. Simmer for about 1-2 hours or until the sauce starts to thicken.
5. Serve over rice or pasta

Notes:
You should NOT have to add any salt to the sauce. The olives and cooking wine should contain enough salt to suffice.

If you want to add the potatoes it is best to partially cook them prior to adding to the sauce so that they do not get too soft. Peel and dice the potatoes into 1/2" cubes. Place in a small frying pan with a small amount of oil and cook until slightly browned. Add them to the sauce when it has about 45 minutes left to cook.

If you choose to add the capers they should be added when the remaining ingredients are added (step 3)

Depending on tastes you can adjust the amount of cumin. The same goes for the olives. I personally like a lot of olives and a lot of cumin. The amounts above are the usual amounts for the recipe.

My wife is not a fan of green olives and has suggested that she would like to try making it using black olives. I've never tried it with black olives so if you do make it using them please post a reply and let us know how it turned out.

I prefer serving it over white rice, but I like it with spaghetti too. Feel free to try it with other kinds of pasta, rice, etc and let us know by posting a comment here. Some traditional recipes also call for the addition of raisins to the sauce when simmering. I don't like cooked raisins so I've never tried it that way.


At any rate... I hope you would give this a try and post a reply letting us know if you liked it, didn't like it, loved it, hated it, etc.

 

[JustOneWay]

This sounds very good. Being that I am in the Old Pueblo, I will try this dish with the potatoes and serve it in a tortilla....

 

[crjmurray]

I gotta try this