#picadillo

posting this for those who want it. it was in a reply, but i made some changes to the base recipe that i enjoyed a lot, so i want to leave them somewhere.

tools a pot with a lid (or a very big sauté pan with a lid), something to stir and break raw meat up with (spoon), a spare bowl for the meat, a colander or some kind of strainer to quickly drain meat with ingredients

a neutral oil (avocado?), 2 tbsp

2 tsp of adobo (with pepper) seasoning, i like iberia

1 tsp of sazón seasoning (w/ achiote and culantro), i use badía

1 tsp of onion powder, i use badía

2 lb of ground beef (85/15 is good here)

half a large white onion, smaller dice

one green or red bell pepper, smaller dice

1.5 tbsp tomato paste

5 cloves of garlic, minced

one 15oz can of tomato sauce

2 tsp capers

1/2 cup green pimento-stuffed olives

1 tbsp worcestershire sauce

1 tsp maggi seasoning

2 bay leaves

salt and pepper to adjust seasoning

instructions

get all of the listed ingredients ready and chopped and in discrete places before you get started. mise en place! don't let your ADHD win.

get your pot/pan up to medium-high heat. add 1tbsp oil.

once it's hot, add your meat, add your sazón, adobo and onion powder over the top of it, and then start mixing around to break it up and let it brown. i like to let it rest undisturbed so one side gets a little bit more color and some fond develops on the pan.

the meat will let out a lot of fat and water. drain the meat and set it aside for a sec. add the other tbsp of oil to your pot/pan.

add the onions and peppers (and potatoes if you're using them).

cook until the onions are a little translucent, about 4 minutes, stirring them around a bit.

add the garlic and the tomato paste and let that cook a little bit in there, about 1 minute, stirring it around.

add the meat back and add the worcestershire and maggi seasoning to everything and mix it up. give it like a minute for everything to get the tomato paste color all mixed up.

add the tomato sauce, then the capers, olives and the bay leaves. mix it all up.

let this start bubbling before lowering the temperature to medium-low and cover the pot.

let it simmer for 10 minutes then stir. repeat twice; you want a total of 30 minutes on top.

once it's done, serve it along with your favorite rice.

this is how it'll look before you give it the 30 minutes, more or less. after this, though, it should be pretty reddish and pretty delicious.

if you want to ease back on the salt, you can try cutting the maggi seasoning, but it feels like it was the little touch that sent it over the top for me. you could try replacing it with low sodium soy sauce, but i am not sure how effective that'd be

FAQ.

Q. where are the raisins?

A. shut the fuck up.

Q. how can i make this more like the more traditional version?

A. remove the worcestershire and maggi seasoning. remove the sazón. just use the adobo, and add a little salt and pepper to taste. you can add a little oregano (i don't).

Q. i live somewhere that makes it hard to find some of these latino powdered seasonings. where can i find 'em?

you're in luck! amazon seems to have 'em.

badía 7oz sazón: https://amzn.to/3B9FdFk iberia 16oz adobo, no pepper: https://amzn.to/4dZ4bWu badía bay leaves (.17oz): https://amzn.to/3Xquq1d