Main
Picadillo a la Habanera
- Preparation time
- 40 min
- Servings
- 4
Ingredients
- Ground beef — to buy500 g
- Onion — to buy1
- Bell pepper — to buy1
- Garlic — to buy3 cloves
- Tomato paste — to buy2 tbsp
- Olives — to buy12
- Raisins — to buy40 g
- Cumin — to buy1 tsp
- Feuille de laurier — to buy1 leaf
- White wine — to buy60 ml
Preparation
Heat a drizzle of oil in a large pan over high heat, add the ground beef and cook for 5-6 minutes, breaking it up with a fork, until nicely browned with no pink liquid left.
Lower to medium heat, add the chopped onion, pepper and garlic, cook for 5 minutes, until the vegetables are soft and fragrant.
Add the tomato paste and cumin, stir for 1 minute to coat the meat well — this brief dry cooking intensifies their flavour before adding liquid.
Pour in the white wine and let it reduce by half over 2-3 minutes, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan.
Add the raisins, the olives cut in half and the bay leaf, cover and simmer over low heat for 15 minutes, until the sauce has thickened and the raisins have plumped up.
Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper — picadillo should be well-seasoned, balanced between the saltiness of the olives and the sweetness of the raisins.
Remove the bay leaf and serve hot with white rice and tostones, the classic accompaniment.