Picadillo

Picadillo is a Latin American ground meat dish that I’ve been making variations of for years. I was first introduced to it by a seasoning packet from Whole Foods, and I believe it just called for ground beef and a can of tomatoes. I didn’t think much of it, and we didn’t have it for a while.

But then we started the South Beach diet, of which the beginning stage limits you essentially to meats and vegetables. Tired of salad and stir fries, I found a recipe on a South Beach message board that had a variant of the below recipe. We tried it, and it was delicious (at least it was to me. I think Sean merely tolerated it). It omitted the raisins.

We ate the raisin-less version for a while, not knowing the difference, until I saw another, more authentic version. It was good, but not quite right.

So I combined the two and came up with the following recipe (I’ll omit the tomatoes and olive juice for Henry’s meal):

Picadillo

Olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 pound ground turkey (or extra lean ground beef, whatever)

½ lb finely chopped cold cut ham (optional, or add less)

1 can diced tomatoes with green chiles undrained

1/4 cup of pimento-stuffed green olives cut in half and a tablespoon if its juice

1/3 cup raisins

½ tsp all purpose seasoning (I use Spike)

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet and add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring, for about 10 minutes.

Add the turkey and ham and cook, stirring until the turkey is done, about 10 to 15 minutes. Drain off the excess fat. 

Add the remaining ingredients to the meat mixture in the skillet and cook through, another 5 to 10 minutes. Serve with rice or tortillas.

As a side note, I have always seen this described as a Cuban dish. However, according to Wikipedia, the above version is actually a Dominican dish.