I love Cuban food and two of our favorite restaurants when we lived in Tampa, FL was the Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City. For the life of me, I cannot remember the name of the other one. I do remember the bread though. It was a dark bread that was not too dense, had an incredible flavor and perfect crust surrounding a soft warm interior. They brought this bread to the table almost as soon as you sat down. I think we went to this place about 6 or 7 times during the couple of years we lived in Tampa. Our dearest friends, Bob and Cecy Zaffuto went with us a number of times and I remember being introduced to Picadillo at this place. It was awesome! Combined with the bread, I couldn’t stop eating it. The only thing that did stop me was the fact that my plate was empty.

Although we lived in Tampa only a short time, I met two of my best friends living there, Dan Trammell and Bob Zaffuto. We worked together, played together, drank together, and ate together often. You can’t break bread with people that often and not come to cherish and love them. I miss both Bob and Dan, but I have this dish to help me remember them now.

Thanks to a more recent, and very dear friend, Ashley Cooper-Heath, I was reminded of this recipe when she responded to my post on Palomilla Steak. She asked me to put up a recipe for Picadillo. I honestly had forgotten that I ever had this until Ashley asked for the recipe. We didn’t experience a lot of Cuban cuisine once we moved away from Tampa. That was back in 1980 and 1981. In any case, THANK YOU Ashley Cooper-Heath for reminding me of this incredible Cuban dish.

This recipe will serve 4 and you can easily stretch it to 6, with some side dishes. There are lots of variations, but this is my favorite and the one I remember having for the first time in Tampa.

Pre time: 25 minutes. – Cook time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

1 – 2 Glasses of the Chef’s favorite red or white

Extra Light Olive Oil

1 – Garlic clove, minced when you add it to pan

1 – Onion, small, chopped

1/2 – Green Bell Pepper, chopped

1lb – Ground Beef, lean

6 -10 Green Olives, Pitted and quartered

1/2C – Raisins

1T – Capers

8oz – Tomato sauce

1T – Cumin, ground

1t – white sugar

2 packets – Sazon Seasoning (I use Goya for convenience) about 3oz

Salt to taste

White rice – Use your favorite

Making the Magic

Start your rice cooking while you prepare the rest of this recipe. Making 2 cups of rice will serve 6 people. We use an Instapot to cook rice all the time. It’s so easy and always gets it right.

Once you have or while you are prepping your onion, bell pepper and garlic, preheat about 2T of Extra Light Olive Oil in a large pan. When the oil starts to swirl in the pan, add the onions and bell pepper, then the garlic, mincing it into the pan. If you mince the garlic and let it sit, it will develop a much stronger flavor. Stir the bell pepper, onion, and garlic in the oil, cooking it over medium heat for about 5 minutes, or until the veggies are softened. The garlic will start to bloom in the hot oil, combining with the onions and bell pepper. Salt to taste.

Push the veggies to the edge of the pan and crumble the Ground Beef into the center of the pan. As the Ground Beef starts to brown, stir and mix it together with the veggies. Cook thoroughly, about 7 to 10 minutes. Salt to taste.

Now you have your base prepared, it’s time to create the magic in the pan.

Stir in the olives and raisins, mix thoroughly. Now add the capers and the tomato sauce, mix thoroughly. Finally, blend in the cumin, sugar and Sazon Seasoning, salt to taste. Blend and stir thoroughly. Ummm, smell the cumin come alive in the pan! The Sazon and the raisins, enhance the flavors and increase the intensity of the spices because of the contrasts.

Cover and let simmer on medium low for about 5 minutes. You want this to reduce slightly to intensify all the flavors.

When this is almost complete, plate the rice so that it makes a bed for the Picadillo.

Now, spoon a portion of the Cubano Picadillo over the bed of rice and prepare yourself for a meal you won’t want to stop eating!

Cuban food is a cultural mixture of Spanish, African and Caribbean cuisines. It’s an amazing blend of flavors and styles of cooking that takes simple ingredients to create gastronomic delights! You have to try this, at least once. But I’ll bet you keep coming back for more.

Variations To Keep This New

Try adding some Black Beans on the side, seasoned with bacon. Brussel sprouts, coated with olive oil and baked in the oven are also a great side to this dish. Substitute the raisins with sweet corn.

Wines We Love With This

A chilled Sangria works great with this dish.

Pinot Grigio

Reisling

Leftovers

Simply reheat. Is also awesome as part of a Taco Salad, or in Tacos.

Salud! Buen provecho!

Question

In what Cuban city did Michael Corleone kiss his brother Fredo!

Pork tenderloin is such an awesome cut of meat. It’s versatile, delicious and can be made in so many ways. I love pork tenderloin from the grill, in the oven, with sauces, dry rubbed, cooked in a pan, in sandwiches, with salads, well, you get the point. This recipe is one I found on the internet. I wanted something a little different and that would utilize the best lemons I’ve ever had. A long time friend of ours offered to give us a “few lemons” from the trees in their back yard. Having a bumper crop this year, they wanted to share. Wow, did they ever! We received a large shopping bag full of beautiful lemons, so many that I had to find a way to keep them long term and not have them spoil. These lemons are the same as those that are grown along the Amalfi Coast in Italy. The skins are not as thick, they have a slight orange tint, a hint of sweet, and can be eaten by themselves! The Amalfi Coast in Italy is famous for its lemon trees and lemons that are grown on every hillside and spot of land that isn’t occupied by a structure of some kind.

So, being inspired to make use of the lemons brought me to this recipe. I’ve made a few changes because the results were not as good as I had hoped. The problem may have been the chef, but I think the directions were a little off, in terms of timing.

This recipe will make 4 hearty servings and can be served over egg noodles, pasta or rice.

Prep time: 20 min – Cook time: 20 min

Ingredients

1 Glass of wine for the Chef

1 1/2lb – Pork Tenderloin

3 – Lemons

1 – Large carton sliced mushrooms

2 – Garlic cloves, crush when added to recipe

8T – Butter

2T – Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2T – Heavy Cream

1/2 Can – Cream of Mushroom soup

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

Egg Noodles

Making The Magic

Prep the pork tenderloin by slicing it into 1/2″ thick slices. Place about six of the slices into a large freezer bag. Pond the meat until it is thinned. I like to use the edge of a plate, not a meat tenderizer. The plate doesn’t pierce the bag and it keeps me from pounding too hard. You want to “thin” the meat into cutlets, not obliterate and separate! Season the cutlets to taste with the salt and pepper.

Wash the outside of the lemons. Cut one of the lemons in half, squeeze out all the juice from both halves, and set it aside for later. Discard the skin. Slice the other two lemons and set them aside.

Heat the Olive Oil and 2T butter in a large sauce pan or skillet. Bring the heat up to medium high. Add the pork tenderloin cutlets and brown on both sides. Don’t cook more than 1 1/2 minutes per side.

Remove the cutlets from the oil and set aside.

Begin to cook your egg noddles and let them finish while you do the rest of this.

Add 2T butter to the pan. Lower the heat to medium and drop in the mushrooms. Spread them evenly and allow them to cook, undisturbed, for a few minutes. Look for them to begin to change color, then stir the mushrooms to allow them to start releasing their moisture. DO NOT add salt. Cook for about 5 minutes, and then remove the mushrooms from the pan, leaving as much liquid as possible.

Add the garlic to the sizzling liquid and stir for a minute. Add the lemon juice and scrape all the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Let the garlic bloom in the pan and the lemon juice blend with the butter, oil and garlic. This takes about 3 minutes. The flavors will enhance each other and it begins to add a richness to the intensity of the flavor.

Add the pork and the mushrooms back to the pan. Layer the sliced lemons all over the pork and mushrooms and cook for about 3 minutes. Don’t overcook the pork, or it will dry out. The original recipe said to cook for a total of 10 minutes, but that was far too long.

While this is cooking, drain the noodles and plate them.

Once the the pork, mushrooms and lemons are done, plate the cooked pork over the noodles. If any of the pork tenderloin is left, remove it from the liquids and set aside.

Add 1/2 can of Cream of Mushroom Soup to the liquids left in the pan. Once it comes up to medium heat add the 2T of Heavy Cream and mix thoroughly. This is your lemon butter sauce.

Ladle the sauce over the plated pork tenderloin and lemons. Sit down and be prepared for your tastebuds to tingle! The flavors are amazing!

Variations To Keep It New

Since this is the first time I made this dish I can’t tell you what I’ve had. I can share what I think would be good with this.

Try serving this over rice or with a pasta, like linguine. I’m thinking this could also be an awesome dish if you made it with oranges, instead of lemons. I would definitely serve it over Jasmine Rice if I did it with oranges. I’m also thinking that adding some raisins to this while the pork tenderloin, mushrooms and lemons are cooking together would be awesome.

Wines We Love With This

We had a nice Pinot Grigio

Also would be good with:

Chardonnay

Sauvignon Blanc

Leftovers

What we had, we simply reheated in the microwave. It was just as delicious as the first time.

So, when life gives you lemons…….make Lemon Butter Pork Tenderloin!

Question

What is your favorite recipe using lemons!

So, in most places around the country, Bar-B-Q is a verb, as in “let’s barbecue some steaks”, or “do you want to barbecue this weekend”, or “I lay in the sun too long and got barbecued!” However, in its proper use, in the south, it is always a noun. Bar-B-Q is something you eat, not something you do. You can grill steak, or grill chicken, or grill burgers, but not all things that go on the grill are Bar-B-Q. So having made this point, I’m going to share a recipe using a Western Style Bar-B-Q rub that is awesome. And it is something you eat, and by-the-way, it doesn’t go on the grill. Chicken thighs! One of my favorite “comfort foods” is oven baked chicken. I love it so much I could eat it almost every night, but I suspect it would not be as delightful every time, if I did.

This recipe is baked in the oven along with the veggies. it’s also very easy to scale up or down. Making it all in one pan, especially lined with foil, is simple and quick, and the clean up is easy. If you’re making a lot, you can make two or three pans all at once. This recipe will serve four normal appetites or two “chow hounds”. I always have left overs when I make this. I love using the veggies in a breakfast bowl. The veggies soak up the chicken juice and the olive oil, and make for an awesome flavor when combined in a breakfast dish.

Prep time: 20 min. – Cook time: 30 min

Ingredients

1 Full pour of the chef’s favorite wine

4 Chicken thighs, bone in, skin on

3 – 4 Potatoes, medium to small

1 – 2 Onions, sweet work best

3 Carrots, large or 10 or so baby carrots, cut in half

Olive Oil

Italian seasoning mix – your choice

Bar-B-Q spice dry rub – your choice. I use a western style rub for this recipe. It’s awesome. Red Baron Barbecue Spice. It comes from Lindberg-Snider in California. They’ve been making rubs, spice blends and marinades for about 50 years. Their website is currently being totally renovated, but I’ll let you know when it is back up and running.

Making The Magic

Preheat your oven to 450°.

Line a large baking pan with aluminum foil. It makes clean up so, so easy compared to scraping and soaking the pan.

Whew…..sip some wine.

Cut your potatoes into 1/2″ cubes and toss into a large mixing bowl. Cut your onions into small wedges and separate the onion layers. Toss them in with the potatoes. Cut the carrots into 1″ pieces, 1/2″ thick or less. Add those to the potatoes and onions.

Pour 3 or 4T of Olive Oil over the veggies. Sprinkle to taste. I use about 3T of Italian Seasoning. Toss everything in the bowl until the veggies are fully coated with the oil and the seasoning.

Pour your veggies from the bowl into the foil lined baking pan and spread them evenly over the pan. Then push some of the veggies aside to make room for the chicken thighs you’ll be adding.

Time for another sip.

Pat the chicken thighs dry and place them skin side down in the bowl you used for the veggies. Add some olive oil and rub the thighs around in the bowl to completely coat them with the olive oil. Sprinkle a generous amount of your favorite Bar-B-Q rub and completely coat both sides of the thighs. Don’t be stingy with your rub. It doesn’t do you much good sitting on the shelf in the bottle!

Once the thighs are well coated with rub, place them in the baking pan along with the veggies. These juices and flavors of the chicken will blend and be absorbed by the veggies as everything bakes together. The result is awesome.

Take another sip of wine, you deserve it!

Slide the pan into your preheated oven and let bake for 30 minutes. Relax, finish your glass of wine and get ready for an amazing dish. The flavors will zing in your mouth.

The chicken will be dark, the potatoes slightly browned, the carrots tender, the onions sweet, soft and some charred and the combined flavors will be a mouth full of happiness. When you make this for someone, you’ll be putting a huge smile on their face. Plate your dish and enjoy.

Variations To Keep This New

I never get tired of this combination, but it is nice to change it up from time to time. I like to add veggies that are in season. Try it with halved Brussel Sprouts, cubed sweet potatoes, whole button mushrooms can be added for the last 10 minutes or so, broccoli or cauliflower is also great with this.

I’ve also made this with chicken legs, but they can overcook before the veggies are ready, so watch them. Whole, bone-in, or boneless chicken breasts are great, but with the skin on. They will dry out and can get tough if you don’t have the skin on them.

Wines We Love With This

Southern Table Wine (you tell me what you think this is)

Pinot Grigio

Chardonnay – I prefer a stainless aged one with this dish

Dry Rose

Leftovers

I always have left overs with this, if I’m cooking just for the two of us. The veggies are awesome when pan fried and part of a breakfast bowl. Leftover chicken, which isn’t often, can make a great chicken salad with Dukes mayo, grapes and walnuts. I’ve reheated this for a light lunch and also served it cold with a fresh salad.

When you are making this dish for others, tell them…

Come hungry, eat hardy, enjoy the company and let your taste buds dance!

Question

Who made the best chicken recipe you’ve ever had? Do you remember it?