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I love rice and so does my husband. We try to find different ways to prepare and enjoy this wonderful food. Through time, we found hundreds of recipes, some simple and some exotic, and have enjoyed preparing them. We've found some real winners, which I have published on this blog and some that are not so great, which are in my personal "do not" repeat folder. I have created this site to share those memorable dishes - which are all about this wonderful food called "rice".

Picadillo

Comfort food. This is what this dish means to my family. It must mean the same to so many different cultures since they have their own version (Spain, Mexico, South America, Philippines, the Caribbean). Another very easy and adaptable recipe. You can serve it over rice or encase it in pastry dough, fry or bake and you have a Latin pastry called "empanada".
Feel free to change it up a bit. It is one of those "can't fail" recipes. That's what I did and came up with our favorite version.
Ingredients:
1 calabasa or pumpkin like squash (i.e. acorn)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 lb of good ground beef
1 onion (minced or chopped)
1 bellpepper (seeded and chopped)
4 garlic cloves (minced)
1 1/2 cups beef broth
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp sugar
1/3 cup pimiento stuffed olives (sliced)
1/2 cup raisins
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
salt and pepper to taste
Peel and cut the squash into bite size pieces; discard seeds. Heat olive oil in a skillet, add ground beef, onion, bellpepper, squash, and garlic. Brown the beef, stirring constantly breaking up the beef. Cook vegetables until softened; remove any excess fat. Add cumin, oregano, salt and pepper. Cook spices until heated. Add beef broth, tomato paste and sugar. Stir constantly until tomato paste disolves; bring to a boil; add raisins and pimiento olives. Reduce the heat to low; cover and simmer, stirring occasionally for another 15-20 minutes until squash is tender and most of the liquid has evaporated. Spoon over rice and enjoy.
Note: sweet potato can be substituted for the squash. For a Philippine version use potatoes. For a Caribbean touch, add a 1/4 cup of rum when adding the broth. Any long grain, jasmine or basmati rice works great with this recipe.

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