Skip to main content

Picadillo



Great grandma may have cooked a fabulous all American home cooked meal last night, but tonight I was requested to make Picadillo.  Picadillo is a Tex-Mex cuisine upon which I have been eating before teeth.  Seriously, one does not need teeth to eat this meal.  It is smokey in flavor, filling, and dumb simple.  All one needs is time.  As with all good meals, the longer is melds, the better the flavors.

This recipe is close to my original stand by but the requested was to include tomatoes.  Tomatoes are a cooks preference.  I am more of a meat and potatoes only but I am also not one to turn down picadillo with tomatoes.  That would just be plain dumb. In trying new recipes, I vowed to try not to modify any recipe too much.  Note the word TOO much.  Until this meal, I feel as though I was sticking to those guidelines.  Today's meals threw all rules out the window.  Ingredients and their suggested quantities were the same.  It was in the cooking process where the instructions varied, alot.  As in massively.  Really, I don't even know why I used the recipe at all.

Modifications Made: Salsa
Making salsa and adding to picadillo is the quick and flavorless way to cook.  Instead all of these ingredients were added to the cooking process as a whole unit.

Modification Made: Picadillo

Ingredients:
2 lbs venison ground
1 yellow onion, diced
4 tablespoons of garlic
2 cans Original Rotel
2 cubes Knorr Caldo de Tomate
2 russet potatoes, diced large
2 heaping tablespoon comino
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
4 cups water
salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions:
Brown onions alongside ground venison.  Once browned, all the other ingredients and simmer on low until potatoes are cooked.  Adjust seasonings and water as see fit.

Scaled for Likability: Great
Picadillo is one of those cook and leave it meals.  Almost crock-pot in methods.  More like stew. Once the meat is browned, the flavors cook until desired tenderness of potatoes are met.  The larger the potatoes, the longer the cook time.  If smaller potatoes breakdown into the meat, it just makes the meat thicker in consistency.  Thick enough to place inside a tortilla!  Delish.  Easily adjustable to large scale and open to many ingredient variations, picadillo at the heart is just ground beef, potatoes, and comino flavorings.  After that, the sky's the limit.

Popular posts from this blog

Papas a La Mexicana (Ranchera)

It  is a crying shame that there are six hens and not a egg in sight. What am I supposed to do with homemade ranchero sauce? Thankfully with a few quick searches of the internet a recipe from my hometown newspaper was discovered: Papas Ranchera . Not once in the thirty years I lived in my hometown did I ever eat at a local food joint serving papas rancheras. No time like the present to remedy this cultural dish. Because this recipe is hidden behind a paywall (grrr...) I have included it here for you: Servings: 4-6  Ingredients: 1 pound potatoes, diced 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1/2 large onion 1 1/2 medium tomatoes 3 jalapenos 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup juice from canned tomatoes Instructions: Fry potatoes in vegetable oil until lightly browned (about 4-6 minutes).  Saute onions, tomatoes, jalapenos until soft.  Add garlic powder and salt. Add tomato juice until vegetables are covered (may need to add water).  Bring to a boil and then add potatoes.  Cover and reduc

Better Than Campbell's Old Fashion Vegetable Soup

Went to the store with the hopes of gathering fresh produce for soup. With more than 45 people in line for two packages of any meat product and the produce section containing only avocado, orange, and most randomly, strawberries, I settled upon canned soup.  Well not canned soup since that section was still void of food, too.  Instead soup made from canned goods as the canned vegetable section had been mostly restocked. Soups like this 15 Minute Vegetable Soup  are ideal in dire food situations such as current times. Modifications Made: Plain petite diced tomatoes omitted, frozen carrots instead of canned, green beans and corn undrained, peas omitted (gross, nasty little pods), one cup celery, three cups diced potatoes, one can tomato sauce, two beef and two pollo de tomate bouillon cubes, six cups water.  Once onions were softened, carrots/celery/potatoes/juice of green beans and corn, sauce, bouillon cubes, water were added and allowed to simmer until carrots almost tender.  Green be

Sour Cream & Chive Scalloped Potatoes

Can't believe the Month of the Potato is over.  There are so many more potato recipes saved.  Guess I will have to work them into another month. Last week's scalloped potatoes were one of the best new recipes during the month of potatoes.  With today being the last day in the Month of Potatoes, I decided to go out with a bang by cooking another batch of scalloped potatoes but this time sour cream and chive.   The Best Scalloped Potatoes , or so they said. Modifications Made: Recipe was reduced by half.  Mayo was omitted and one entire package of chives were chopped and added to sauce before pouring onto layers. Scaled for Likability: Good Betty Crocker Sour Cream and Chive Box Scalloped Potatoes were the standard for this recipe.  These were a family favorite for years but have long since been discounted.  Bummer.  Trying to replicate this seemed easy enough.  Alas, it was not. These had a nice texture but were too oily from the cheese and did not contain enough onion, garlic,