Cuban fare

Last week I visited Cuba by making a Picadillo and supporting dishes. You can find a number of renditions of this dish worldwide, it's basically a modified beef and potato hash. While I like the idea of this dish, I'm not too crazy about cumin and this dish called for it. I tried only using a touch of it, but my cumin radar is too sensitive. Nevertheless, I think this recipe will also stay in my repertoire but without that specific spice.

2 large potatoes
1 can tomato sauce
2/3 c green olives, chopped
1/2 c capers
2 Tbsp oil
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
1/4 cup golden raisins
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 lb ground beef
2 c red wine
1/3 tsp cumin
pinch oregano

Cook the potato, drain, and set aside. Sautee garlic, onion, bell pepper ~2 min. Add beef and pinch of salt. Drain off any fat that remains after cooking (I use the lowest fat mixture I can buy from the local butcher). Add wine, capers, tomato sauce, olives, raisins, cumin, oregano. Simmer to reduce for about 30 minutes. Drink the rest of your wine during this time.  :)   Fold the potato chunks into the mixture and heat ~5 minutes. Should be sort of saucy, but not soupy by this time.

Serve over white rice with fried plantains and black beans.

1 can black beans
1 can green chilis or jalapenos
1/2 onion, minced
chopped cilantro

Sautee chilis and onion ~2 min, add beans and heat through. Garnish with cilantro.

I can't tell you how much I love potatoes in this dish, it was wonderful. A little strange coming across the olives and capers, but somehow the whole mixture just worked. I've been making breakfast burritos from the leftovers with a bit of hot sauce on them. Not totally authentic, but I like it.