Picadillo

Picadillo

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This recipe is referenced to Pat Weil.  She lived a block over from us and our families interacted often.  I was a bit surprised by the odd assortment of ingredients in this dish.  I was also surprised at how not bad it tasted.  It was actually somewhat pleasant.  It didn't wow my family but if you are an adventurous eater (they are not) then you might enjoy this.

I associate picadillo with Hispanic cooks / Mexican food.  Historically this type of food is made from cheap cuts of meat (and other cheap ingredients) so I doubt the authenticity of this recipe that calls for stuffed green olives and slivered almonds - neither of which is cheap.  Perhaps it has more of a Spanish origin.  You'll notice the recipe also lacks a bit of direction - things I wonder about - like which way to cut the olives (across the equator or from pole to pole).  I cut some each way to see if one or the other was better.  In particular I thought the pimento stuffed in the middle might fall out.  The equator cuts were definitely more noticeable in the dish.  They did maintain the pimento in the middle.  I really didn't notice the pole-to-pole cut so I can't say if the pimento held.  I think either way is fine.

For this recipe I got to use a couple of my favorite kitchen tools - my fairly recently acquired T-Fal Heat Master with Thermo-spot and Diamond finish skillet and the Zing! Multi-function tool I picked up on impulse in the check-out line at JCP.

I'm really tired of skillets that warp after a couple of uses.  This one says not to use it above a heat level of 3 so I've adjusted my cooking style and am successfully maintaining the flat bottom.  Surprisingly things get cooked - even at only a 3 setting.

I only made a half-recipe so I used 1 lb of ground beef (H.E.B. Natural Angus).  I browned it all and drained the grease then pulled some out and tossed it in with some left-over mac & cheese so that my pickiest, sensory-challenged child could have something to eat.  THEN I added the onion and garlic (he doesn't tolerate slimy foods such as cooked onion).  I mis-read the recipe and thought 2 chopped onions, reduced by half, meant 1 c. chopped onion.  That's always a pet-peeve - how big is "an onion"?  1 cup was probably the right amount, or maybe even 3/4 cup.  I sauteed it until the onions were soft and then added the rest of the ingredients.

1/2 c. raisins (mine were pretty old - I separated the from the ginormous clump in the box as I was measuring them out)

1/4 c. stuffed green olives (cut in half)

1/4 c. slivered almonds (fresh is best - mine had been sealed in a ziploc in the pantry for a while and they sort of tasted stale)

2 fresh tomatoes (peeled) (here again, I misread, or assumed.  I didn't notice "peeled" and assumed "chopped".  My mom LOVED peeling tomatoes.  It was her opportunity to be a magician by dipping a tomato into boiling water for a few seconds and then peeling the skin off in large sheets after it was scalded.  I did NOT peel the tomatoes and did notice some flakes of tomato skin in the dish.  Typically I don't like fresh tomato cooked into a dish but it wasn't bad - even with the skin flakes.)

2 or 3 jalapenos, chopped fine (I almost never buy fresh jalapenos.  Here again is the dilemma of how big.  Sorry, I forgot to measure but I chose one very chunky jalapeno.  What is it about cutting a jalapeno that instantly makes you want to touch your eye?  Of course I removed all the seeds and cut it very fine.  I was worried it would bring too much heat because I don't like spicy things but I really didn't even notice it.)

Cutting the jalapeno was not as bad as I thought (my mom used to wear gloves to cut them).  But if I were to make this again, I think I'd just add a can of Ro-tel (or 2 cans if using 2 lbs. ground beef).

I'd also add salt.  I added it at the table.  Sometimes olives can cause things to taste salty so I didn't add it while cooking but there were so few olives it still needed salt added.  If you choose to use the canned Ro-tel that probably comes with salt as well so I'd definitely sample before salting.