PICADILLO





Ground Beef/Turkey (1 package) $4.99

Garlic

One Large Onion

Bunch Of Green Beans $3.99

Tomato $0.87

Sea salt

Pepper

Garlic Powder

Olive Oil

Vinegar

Soy Sauce

Mixed Herbs

Fish Sauce

Potato









Picadillo is a Spanish influenced dish. With it’s unique combination of flavours, this dish is fit for the hard working nine to fiver coming home after a brutal day on the job hoping for a little retreat from the dizzying pace of modern life.





Filipino food – it’s delicious, it’s under rated, and it’s just about to explode onto the mainstream. Often, I am asked to explain what defines Filipino cuisine. I usually tell them it’s like a taste of summer vacation by a barbecue just meters from the shores of a white sandy beach… and then I talk about hundreds of years of Spanish colonial rule, decades of American imperialism and finally the rise of the people power revolution of ’86 against the Marcos Dictatorship– the first revolution to succeed without a shot fired. After that I typically find myself alone at the potluck I was reluctantly invited to only because I’m accompanying my wife: the soul, the wit, and life of the party. I guess history lessons on imperialism is frowned upon at parties. But, eventually I win them over with the potluck dish that annihilates the rest and I’m able to bask in the glory of this one victory against the yuppies and hipsters.





But, I digress.





Picadillo. It’s a dish for the masses. It’s a dish made for someone who is looking to make better choices in life and to cook something fast and easy instead of dropping half a day’s wage at the local burger pit. When adding to the basic ingredient list as outlined in the previous post “Basic Ingredients To Live By,” you’ll only be spending an extra $9.85 to make a delicious taste of the Philippines. Also, it takes almost no time to cook.









INGREDIENTS

Here is a list of the ingredients you’ll need to save your precious dollars from disappearing in the pub’s cash register.





1 package of ground beef/turkey $4.99

6 cloves of garlic

¼ of a largen onion (red or white)

A bunch of green beans (one handful) $3.99

½ a Tomato $0.87

½ a teaspoon of salt

½ a tablespoon of pepper

1 tablespoon of garlic powder

3 tablespoons of oil

2 tablespoons of vinegar

4 tablespoons of soy

1 tablespoon of mixed herbs

1 ½ cups of water

5 tablespoons of fish sauce

1 potato, diced (optional)





DIRECTIONS

**Before doing anything, be sure to cook some rice. It’s a filipino dish. Almost no filipino dish would be complete without rice. That’s just the way it is. And, it’s not hard to cook rice. You’re an idiot if you can’t manage that, so I’m assuming you’re not an idiot**





1. Finely dice the garlic and onions and put aside. Take half your tomato and slice that shit up. Then, cut the ends off the green beans and set that aside. You’ll need it later.





2. Heat up your ground meat in a pot adding garlic powder as it heats up. Once the meat is cooked, put the cooked flesh in a strainer (buy one, it’s cheap) and return the pot on the element and add your oil.





3. Sautee your garlic and onions until the garlic is lightly browned then add back your cooked flesh in the pot and stir that shit around. Also, add your soy and vinegar and let the aromas dance with everything in the pot. It’s a real party in there. Then add your diced tomatoes and mix it around. Let that sit for a couple of minutes.





4. Add water so that it’s not quite toping the contents of the pot. Bring that to a boil and introduce your fish sauce to the party. Let that boil up for a bit before finally adding your green beans. Not long after remove the pot from the element and cover the pot for a few minutes so that the beans don’t become too soft.





Once the rice is cooked, put it on a plate and add the filipino deliciousness on top. There it is. Picadillo. If you’re confused and need moving pictures, check out “I Am Not A Chef” for a detailed journey through my kitchen.











