Cuban Picadillo With Ground Beef (Picadillo Santiaguero)

1. Gather the ingredients.

2. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the ground beef, oregano, cumin, salt, and pepper until well mixed.

3. In a frying pan, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil (or more if necessary). Sauté the onions, green pepper, and garlic until soft.

4. Add the ground beef mixture, beef stock, and tomato sauce and mix well. Cover and cook over medium-low heat for 15 minutes.

5. Add the diced potatoes and mix well. Cover and cook another 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.

6. Remove the cover. Add the olives and cook uncovered 15 minutes or until the liquid is fully evaporated, but the meat is still moist.

7. Serve the picadillo warm with rice or let it cool and use as a filling for empanadas and papas rellenas.

Other Types of Picadillo

Mexican picadillo is made with raisins, jalapenos or guajillo chiles, and brown sugar known as piloncillo along with the traditional ingredients.

Another type is spicy Spanish pork picadillo made with cubes of pork that are marinated overnight in a mixture of paprika, garlic, and white wine. Then the pork is quickly stir-fried and served with bread and/or fried potatoes.

Costa Rican versions are meat optional. Vegetables like potatoes, ayote squash, bell peppers, and onions are chopped and cooked with stock, herbs, and spices and the resulting picadillo is often served with tortillas or rice.

In the Dominican Republic, picadillo is made with peppers, red onions, garlic, tomato paste, stock, olives, capers, raisins, hard-cooked egg, vinegar, and spices and served with white or brown rice.

Puerto Rican varieties are made with ground meat, annatto oil, ham, recaito (a type of base made with greens and spices), tomato sauce, olives, capers, potatoes, spices, and sometimes raisins that have been soaked in rum. They are used as a filling for empanadas and other fritters, or just served simply with rice and beans.

Picadillo in the Philippines is a soupy concoction made with ground beef and potatoes or chayote squash, raisins, and tomatoes, but without green olives and capers. It is frequently served with white rice, fried plantains, and hard-cooked or fried eggs.