During this time my father was in a labor camp, for the crime of wanting to leave the country. Alone, and with few provisions, as my mother struggled to care for us, she was struck with inspiration. One day she went out to the back patio to do the wash and saw a cute little frog sitting by the door to the kitchen. My mother has always liked frogs, and this little frog by the kitchen door gave her an idea...
My father and I were very close, but I did not always get along with my mother, so even though she was a marvelous cook, I had never been interested in learning her cooking secrets. However, after my father’s death, I witnessed my mother’s severe deterioration and overwhelming sadness. Looking for a way to engage her, I had the idea to ask her to teach me how to cook like her...
A great many of the delicious foods that came out of Mamina’s kitchen began with a sofrito. It is the seasoning base for many Cuban dishes. Sofrito is sauted onions, peppers, garlic and sometimes tomatoes....
I am so excited to introduce a special post from my "oh so talented" niece, Katie Dayton! She is mom to three beautiful little boys (they really are beautiful) and wife to my nephew Adam, who is in law school. Katie loves to cook, refinish furniture and repurpose old things. She agrees with Mamina's philosophy (as do I) that cooking a great meal and feeding everyone around you, is a great way to show your love! Here is her version of picadillo.
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I am Maria's niece, married to her nephew. So unfortunately I am not Cuban, but I say I can claim to be at least 1/4 because my kids have that much Cuban in them. Despite not having Cuban blood, I love Cuban food (and Cubans!)
When Adam and I were first married we would go a few times a week to visit Mamina and Papillo. Adam would do physical therapy with Papillo and Mamina and I would chat or cook.
Cooking with Mamina often involved a lot of laughing. I speak very poco Spanish, so there was a big language barrier between us. She would try her best, often taking a few seconds to think of words. She would sometimes give up, and yell at Adam across the room in Spanish what the word she was looking for was. Many times he was busy, so she would shrug her shoulders, laugh and move on.
Food is something that translates through all languages, it always turned out fantastic and just by watching her I knew what she was doing.
I didn't get that many years with Mamina but I will always treasure the time we shared in the kitchen together. I wish we could have made many more meals, she was an amazing cook!
This version of Picadillo is like Maria's with just a few differences. Mainly that it uses turkey instead of ground beef.
2 lbs turkey
1/2 onion
1/2 green pepper
4 cloves garlic
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
1/4 cup white wine
1 tsp salt
1/2-1 cup raisins
1/2-1 cup spanish olives
Start to brown your turkey on medium heat. While it's starting to cook, throw the onion, pepper and garlic in the food processor.
It usually comes out like a liquid it's been so processed, but it doesn't matter as long as the flavor is there!
Pour it over your ground turkey, mix it in, cover and let it simmer for 10-15 minutes.
Then add your tomato sauce and wine. I know some of you may be hesitant to use wine, but believe me, it is so worth it! The alcohol does simmer out, so don't worry about that if you don't drink.
Mamina taught me a little trick that I am sure goes back to her time in Cuba using everything available. She would pour out the tomato sauce, then pour her wine in the can. She then would put her hand over the can and shake it up, to get all the tomato sauce off the sides. I can never skip this step because I am sure Mamina would not be happy that I didn't get all the tomato sauce out!
Throw in your raisins and olives right after the sauce and wine. If you like lots of sweetness, add more raisins. If you like more salty, add more olives. It all depends on your taste. I like to add about the same amount of each. Follow it with the salt.
Mix it all together, cover it again and let it simmer for another 15 minutes.
And you're done! Serve it up with some rice and black beans, and you are in Cuban heaven.
Condensed recipe:
2 lbs turkey
1/2 onion
1/2 green pepper
4 cloves garlic
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
1/4 cup white wine
1 tsp salt
1/2-1 cup raisins
1/2-1 cup spanish olives
Brown turkey over medium high heat.
Chop up, blend, or process the onion, green pepper and garlic. Pour over turkey, bring to a simmer and cover for 10-15 minutes.
Add tomato sauce, wine, salt, raisins and olives to the turkey mixture. Bring to a simmer and cover again for 15 minutes.
Serve with rice and black beans.
This is a ground beef dish, the name sort of means chopped up, minced. It is an easy every day dish, while at the same time being fancy enough for company.
When we were young children, in Cuba, our father was gone a lot helping his father run their plantation and also working at a distillery. Sundays, however, were family days. I loved Sundays! We would go visit relatives and friends on Sundays, especially those who lived too far for a casual weekday evening visit. We drove for miles along softly rolling hills covered in beautiful, green sugar cane fields and dotted with majestic Royal palms or dark green groves of trees. I loved the long drives, talking and singing songs together, or just listening to our mother sing old love songs in her beautiful voice. Once we arrived at our varied destinations, there were usually other children to play with and my sister Isis and I were able to explore in the hills and groves and recreate the adventures we had read in books. Baby sister Nina was too young to join our play, had to stay near the parents. Almost always there was a meal to share. Picadillo reminds me of those Sundays.
Speaking of Isis and Picadillo. She was a very picky eater as a baby. One day when she had refused every type of baby food Mamina had made for her, our grandfather asked for a small dish of Picadillo and rice and sitting her on his lap hand fed her. She ate every bite. I guess she just wanted grown up food, forget the bland baby mash! Or maybe she felt special being fed by our Abuelo. She still loves and makes delicious Picadillo! 
1 lb hamburger
1 med onion
4-5 garlic cloves
½ green pepper
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
¼ cup cooking wine (optional)
1 teaspoons salt
1/2-2/3 cup Raisins 1/2-2/3 cup Green olives
This is a picture of the picadillo before adding the tomato sauce, olives and raisins.
Brown beef with onion, garlic and green pepper. Continue cooking on medium heat. When the onions are becoming translucent, add the tomato sauce and cooking wine. cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes then add the raisins and green olives and continue simmering for another 10 minutes. I add raisins and olives until “it looks right”. My sister Isis is more exact, she stirs them in and aims for 1 raisin per inch of meat and 1 olive every 11/2 inch.
My mother rarely added the raisins or olives. I think she got out of the habit because as the Communists took over Cuba, niceties like raisins and olives were some of the first things that disappeared from the stores. Then when we got to the US she continued to make do without these luxuries, to save money and help our family make it in this country.
I love the combination of sweet and salty tastes, but it was too exotic for my children when they were young. It’s great with or without the raisins and olives.
Serve with rice or mashed potatoes. I like to make a large quantity of Picadillo and use the leftovers to put on top of salads or as taco filling.
