Comfort Food III, Cuban Edition....

Picadillo and Rice (with Cuban Black Beans)

I love this dish. When I want comfort food, I want something from my youth, Mom used to cook this dish she learned from her Cuban mother-in-law, my Grandma Filomena.  Filomena Macias Cata was born in the Key West Cuban community.  Sometime around 1910 she married my Grandfather Domingo Soler y Galvan, who was from Cuba, my dad was born in Chicago in 1915. I never met "Nena," nor "Mindo," as my siblings called them, but I'll bet they would recognize this legacy dish from her repertoire. I serve it with the black beans, but it works well with rice alone. Without the beans it is an easy, delicious, last minute meal. With the beans it is even better..

Picadillo

This should take about 5 minutes of prep work, 20 minutes to cook.
1 lb. ground beef
1 onion diced
1  bell pepper diced
2 cloves garlic mashed and chopped
1  teaspoon cumin
1 12ounce can, peeled plum tomatoes and juice
1T Wochestershire
1 ounce dry sherry
1/2 cup chopped green olives
1/2 cup raisins
3 dashes Tabasco
1 T olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Saute and drain 1 lb. ground beef, add onions, peppers and garlic, cook on medium heat until onions are translucent. Add the plum tomatoes and the juice, break up the tomato and continue cooking. Add the rest of the ingredients and turn heat to low stirring occasionally until the liquid in the mixture begins to thicken. Serve over cooked white rice.

Cuban Black Beans (Frijoles Negros)

Cooking beans takes a bit more time and care, but if you want to talk about Cuban cooking, you are certainly going to want to master this recipe. Some like their beans soupy, mine are a little more thick, if you want soupier beans add more liquid after the beans begin to soften. I think that no matter what style of beans you like, the taste of this dish says Cuban Cuisine. My Italian Mom makes a really great pot of black beans. Another item she picked up from her Cuban in-laws. This is my interpretation of her recipe.

16 ounces dry black beans (Picked over to remove any stones or dirt.)
Enough water to cover beans in a large stockpot by 2 inches 
1 bay leaf
1/2  green bell pepper, coarsely chopped
salt and pepper to taste 
(DO NOT ADD SALT UNTIL END OF COOKING TIME! Adding salt will inhibit softening of your beans. they will need salt, but in this case, we DO NOT salt until cooking is finished.) 


Rinse and soak the beans in water overnight. If beans have soaked up all of the water, add enough to cover by about 2 inches, add bay leaf and green pepper, cook over high heat until water boils,  turn to low, stir occasionally and add water if necessary. and cook uncovered until beans begin to soften, around 2 hours.  At this point you will add your Sofrito.

Sofrito

3 or 4 Tablespoons olive oil
1  chopped onion
3 cloves garlic mashed and chopped
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
1 serrano chile pepper chopped, seeds and membrane removed
1/2 t ground black pepper
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon cumin, ground
1 teaspoon Smoked Spanish Paprika
1 small Spanish Chorizo, sliced (optional)(this is not the soft Mexican Chorizo, but a hard, cured sausage.)
2 envelopes Sazon con Asafran seasoning (optional)
1/4 cup liquid for deglazing pan, water, red wine, white wine, cider vinegar, or chicken stock (Any of these will work, the flavor won't change too much, whichever you use.)

Heat oil until smoking hot, turn heat to medium, add onions, garlic and peppers cook, stirring, until onions are translucent. Add the rest of the ingredients, except liquid. Cook another 2 minutes, add and mash a ladle of the beans in the sofrito, tranfer the contents of the pan into the bean pot. Return the saute pan, turn up the heat and add the liquid to deglaze pan, add to beans. 


Cook beans covered an additional half hour or until beans are truly soft, add salt and pepper at this point. Serve over white rice, garnish with a teaspoon or 2 of diced raw onion.

By the way, I might as well give my recipe for cooking plain white rice. This is for regular rice, not sticky rice or sushi rice.  I use Basamati, it is a long grain rice, but you could cook any rice this way.  it does not matter if you want to use 1, 2, 3 or 4 cups of rice, this recipe will work for all amounts.

I put rice in a sauce pan that has a tight fitting lid, rinse the rice, add a dash of salt, a drizzle of olive oil, ADD ENOUGH WATER TO COVER RICE BY ONE INCH, (I use the first knuckle of my index finger to measure,) put sauce pan over high heat until it boils, set heat to low, stir rice once, put the lid on the sauce pan  cook, covered for 20 minutes. DO NOT lift that lid to look at the rice for 20 minutes!  Fluff the rice with a fork before you serve.

Some cooks don't rinse the rice before cooking, I think it comes out better my way, each grain of rice is separate and distinct. 

Go cook something!