Picadillo and Tostones
Posted by Heather Lackey | Filed under Enjoying Food, Preparing Food
I was in southern Florida recently, and I took every opportunity I could get to try more Cuban food. There’s not a lot of Cuban food in northeastern Tennessee, you see. A new place opened earlier this year, not too far away. We checked it out, then quickly wished we hadn’t. There’s not a lot of GOOD Cuban food in northeastern Tennessee.
But being back in Tennessee doesn’t mean I have to give it up! I’ve been exploring picadillo (“pee-kah-DEE-yoh”) recipes and perfecting my tostones (toss-TOE-nez) here in the tin palace’s kitchen lately, and it’s given us some mighty fine meals, like the one we had tonight.
Here are the recipes for each.
Picadillo
Picadillo has a wonderful flavor. It’s often served over rice, but we don’t eat rice. I’m perfectly happy eating it on its own, like I would a bowl of chili, or—even better—spooned over tostones.)
1 Tbsp cooking fat (I used beef tallow)
1 pound ground beef
1/2 pound chorizo sausage, squeezed out of its casing
—
1 large onion, chopped
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
3 cloves garlic, minced
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1 Tbsp ground cumin
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
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1 can diced tomatoes
3/4 cup beef stock
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1/2 cup raisins (optional–we like it both with them and without)
1/2 cup chopped green olives with pimentos
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp capers, drained
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Juice from half a lime
Shredded cheddar cheese
- Heat the fat in a pot over medium heat. (I used a 5-quart dutch oven; you could use a large skillet.) Add the ground beef and chorizo and cook till gray. (Sounds appetizing, huh?)
- Stir in the onions, bell pepper and garlic, and cook till soft.
- Add the cumin, chili powder, oregano, paprika, cayenne, cinnamon and cloves, and cook, striring, for a minute.
- Pour in the tomatoes and beef stock. Lower the heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. (Now is a good time to get working on the tostones.)
- Stir in the raisins, olives, vinegar and capers. Simmer uncovered for five minutes.
- Add the lime juice just before serving. Sprinkle cheddar cheese on top, if desired, after serving.
Tostones
Tostones are twice-fried green plantains.
2 unripe (green or greenish yellow) plantains
A bowl of salted water
Enough cooking fat to fill a skillet 1 to1 1/2″ deep (I used coconut oil)
A glass or jar to smush them with
- Cut off both ends of each plantain, then use a sharp knife to make a slice in the peel from one end of each plantain to the other. Pull the peels off the fruit. (Sometimes they come off easy, sometimes they come off in pieces.) Slice the plantains into pieces about 1 1/2 inches thick. Drop them all in the salted water to soak for ten minutes or more.
- Heat the cooking oil over medium-high heat.
- Drain the plantains and pat them dry.
- Fry them in batches until they’re browned on both sides. Let each batch drain quickly on a paper towel before you use the bottom of the glass or jar to smush each slice flat. When smushing, it’s best to lay the plantain slice on a rounded side rather than a flat one–the tostone is less likely to fall apart after smushing this way.
- After you’ve smushed a batch, drop them back in the salt water to let soak for a few minutes. Then drain, pat dry, and, after you’re done with the first round of frying for all the slices, fry the smushed slices again until golden. Drain on paper towels. (As each batch is done, I toss them on a cookie sheet in a 200˚F oven to keep them warm until everything’s done.)
- If you’re making picadillo, when you start frying smushed slices, you’ll want to add your raisins, olives, vinegar and capers to the picadillo pot (step 5).
You can either enjoy the tostones on the side, or you can spoon the picadillo right on top, which is my preference. Mmmm. One day I plan on making jibaritos with tostones, too. That day’s going to be a good one….
Tags: capers, chorizo, ground beef, olives, picadillo, plantains, recipes, tostones
2 Responses to “Picadillo and Tostones”
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I’d been meaning to start a food-related blog for a few months—since not too long after I began changing the way I thought about food—but I couldn’t get a handle on where I wanted to go with it. Now, on January 1, 2010, it’s the first day of a new year—a new decade, even. What better time to get going on this? 
July 27th, 2010 at 10:25 am
Heather,
I’m making this dish this weekend. This looks fantastic. I may have to have some mojitos though so I’ll try to start my cooking after 12pm otherwise I’ll have an early evening.
July 27th, 2010 at 10:27 am
Haha! Let me know how it goes.