A saucy ground beef stew, or you could call it sweet Spanish chili if you wanted to name it in English.
I grew up with this dish, passed down from my grandmother to my mother. They were from Cuba.
I noticed over the years, that picadillo is very similar among its renditions, but not always the same. That said, you will likely never eat picadillo at a restaurant and then say, this is horrible, and my mom made it better. It's not that kind of dish.
I once had one that had no tomato and had potato and it too, was really good.
Many times I use fresh plum tomatoes and tomato sauce, but you can omit one or add both. On this video, I had not tomato sauce in the house, but the 8 plum tomatoes supplied all of the liquid for the dish's sauciness.
I’ve adapted the recipe to my likes and tastes over the years, but it is still very similar to the dish I grew up with.
Ingredients:
2 LBS (93% lean ground beef) this is where many will argue
8 – 10 plum tomatoes
1 – 8 oz can salt free tomato sauce (optional)
1 medium yellow onion – medium dice
1 medium green bell pepper
3 – 4 cloves of garlic crushed – chopped fine
2 oz of raisins (2 1 oz boxes)
4 oz green olives with pimento
1 oz capers
1 TBS sweet paprika
1 TBS ancho chili powder (optional)
¼ TSP cumin
1 TSP onion powder
1 TSP garlic powder
1 Beef bouillon
3 – 4 TBS olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
Heat 1 TBS olive oil in a medium sized stock pot (like a 6 quart pot) with a lid. You want medium heat.
When the oil is hot, add 1 pound of the beef and season it with salt and pepper.
Break up the meat with a wooden spoon and brown it (maybe 10 minutes). You will see in the video that I have it almost frying in it’s own fat at the end and it is getting browned.
Once browned, transfer it to a bowl and, do the same with the second pound of ground beef.
After the second pound of beef is browned, remove it and put it in the bowl with the first pound.
Heat another table spoon or two of olive oil and add the onion and peppers. Season with salt and pepper. Stir occasionally. When the onion and pepper start to soften and release some juices, add the garlic. Sauté for a bit to add a little bit of color, but don’t brown it.
Add the spices and bouillon to the mixture and stir it up.
Add the beef back to the pot and stir it up so that all of the onions peppers spices and beef are blended.
Add the tomato sauce if you are using it.
Add the tomatoes on top. Add the raisins, capers, and olives. Leave this all on top.
Cover the pot with the lid and put it on the back burner on very low.
Stir it up every ½ hour and simmer the whole thing for about 2 hours.
After 2 hours, you are done.
Kiss yourself for making deliciousness
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