adventurous: beef picadillo

Picadillo in its first stages

Picadillo after cooking down for 2 hours!

Beef picadillo over quinoa with some pico di gallo on the side

I made a bad choice the other day of going to get groceries on an empty stomach. MISTAKE MISTAKE. anyway, I went to a store in Evanston (I won't name names since I'm not here to promote any grocery retailers) and saw that a certain pasture raised grass fed ground beef was on sale. I DO NOT BUY GROUND BEEF. I think the last time I even contemplated it was when I was 17 and curious about burgers....and as you know I have a thing for ground turkey. I guess the hunger overtook me and I bought 1 1/2 pounds of it. As I checked out, looking at all my impulse buys, I asked myself WHY.

Anyway, I got home, devoured some sushi and tuna salad and looked at my package of ground beef. I kinda regretted it but then thought about all the wonderful things that do indeed taste better once beef is involved. Obviously, I thought about beef picadillo! So, I've had it as a ground beef taco filling type meat before and I remember enjoying it, so I decided to explore recipe options. I modified a Williams-Sonoma recipe and here is the result. It was sweeter and more acidic than I expected, but still yummy. I have given you the modifications to avoid this sweetness and acidity!

Beef Picadillo

1 Tbs. olive oil

2 yellow onion, chopped

1 ½ lb. lean ground beef chuck

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 bay leaves

½ tspn cumin

1 ½ tspn. chili powder

¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground allspice

1 can (28 oz.) diced tomatoes with juices

1 ¾ cups stock

¼ cup raisins or currants

2 tablespoons tomato paste

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Suggested side: Quinoa or yellow saffron rice

1. heat olive oil over medium high heat in a deep pan (deep enough to hold all the meat and tomatoes- you'll be doing this all in one pan/pot) and add onions. Cook for 3-4 minutes and then add meat, garlic, and bay leaves. Cook until meat has browned. Pour off excess fat, if any.
2. Add in cumin, chili powder, cinnamon, and allspice next. Cook for one minute.
3. Stir in tomatoes, stock, raisins, tomato paste, and vinegar.
4. Allow to cook down for about 1.5 hours, or until most of the liquid has evaporated and you are left with a thick "sauce." Now, add salt and pepper to taste.
5. Serve over quinoa with a little pico di gallo. This is how I did it and it's lovely!


Exotic beef eating adventures are fun, try it if you eat meat.

yay
HK

the one upper: amaretto rice pudding

Amaretto rice pudding with raspberry coulis

I have never made rice pudding before. In fact, I had never had it before the fundraiser dinner. I'm a huge fan of tapioca pudding, and figured I could try to make rice pudding since I have a huge 25 pound bag of rice in my possession. I browsed around and wanted a special recipe, and spied a lemon and almond rice pudding recipe from food network a la Giada de Laurentiis.  I have made ample changes and here is my version! I served my rice pudding with vanilla yogurt (instead of whipped cream, to be a tad bit healthier) and homemade raspberry coulis (recipe also below!).

Amaretto Rice Pudding

6 cups whole milk

2 cups water

1 cup cal-rose/ sushi rice: washed and drained

3/4 cup sugar

1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/2 cup amaretto liqueur

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (pure!)

1/2 cup milk of your choice

1. Mix together the milk and water in large pot, non-stick is preferred. I'm sure this is like 2% or something, but this is how I did it (probably because it's what I had on hand). I'm sure it'll work with any kind of milk as long as you use 8 cups of liquid for the 1 cup of rice. Turn on the flame to medium. Add rice, sugar, and salt right away (do not wait till milk simmers). STIR this mixture, like you mean it. Give it a chance to heat up.

2. As soon as it starts to look like it will boil, turn down the heat to medium low or low: whichever it takes to get a simmer. This will take a while, expect to periodically check in on the mixture and stir it for the next 35 minutes.

3. Check that mixture is thick and rice is almost done. The goal is rice pudding that isn't hard but not mush either. The best thing to do is taste it and see how you like it, remember it'll cook for another 10 minutes so it should be slightly more done than what you'd want.

 4. Stir in amaretto and vanilla extract. Allow mixture to cook with amaretto for 10 more minutes. Check when time is up to see if you like the consistency. If not, give it a few more minutes.  Once its the way you like it, turn off the flame and remove the vessel from the burner. Stir in the milk. 

5. Refrigerate the rice pudding for at least 4 hours. Look below for suggestions and some notes.

serve with:

1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted according to directions on package

vanilla yogurt if desired

raspberry coulis! recipe below! so simple!

Raspberry Coulis

1 14 ounce bag of frozen raspberries (This is what I used to make it, I'll update when I try with fresh)

3 tablespoons sugar (up to 1/4 cup if you really want it to be sweet: but give the raspberry tartness a chance!)

juice of one lemon

1/2 teaspoon of flour

2 tablespoons orange juice

1. Put raspberries, sugar, and lemon juice into a small pot and let it come to a boil. Let it boil away until raspberries break down.

2. Mix the flour with the OJ, this will be a slurry used to thicken the coulis. If you want a runny sauce, omit these ingredients and this step. Pour the slurry into the raspberries and mix around; let it come back to a boil.

3. Remove sauce from heat. Blend if desired, but it's nice when it's chunky too!

notes: if you want a fresh acidity to the rice pudding, you can also stir in the juice of 2 lemons when you add the amaretto. I'd suggest you try to make the recipes once without it first since the lemon can be kinda strong.

This was the ultimate one upper. All the attendees said they enjoyed it, so try it for yourself!

There you go, you have 5 out of 5 courses! Don't worry I've been cooking up a storm so more recipes to come soon.

EAT EAT EAT

<3 HK