My mom is from Cuba and, after escaping to Spain, she made her way to Kansas (of all places!). She grew up an island girl, never having owned a coat and with a cook that prepared traditional Cuban cuisine. Once in Kansas, my abuela had to attempt to cook for the first time in her life with some new ingredients. The traditional Cuban dish of Picadillo (pronounced Pick-a-dee-yo) was morphed into a mid-west version of the dish, which is the way I grew up eating it. It's very quick, simple and satisfying, and since my mom was visiting she offered to make it for me.
Make Moros y Cristianos (or the more politically correct "Black Beans and Rice") by making 2 cups of white rice per the directions, then stirring in a can black beans including the liquid that comes in the can. Here we used whole wheat rice because that's what I had.
Picadillo ingredients lined up for cooking. You'll need:
1 lb. ground beef or turkey
1/2 small onion, diced
1/2 C green olives, sliced
1/4 C ketchup
1/4 C cooking sherry
1 t garlic powder
Brown the meat.
Toss in the onions to the half-browned meat.
Take photos of your mom cooking while she asks why you are doing this. Hi Maria!
Toss in sliced green olives.
Note that the dog likes to nap immediately behind your feet so when you turn you nearly crash to the floor.
Here we go, Sherry, here we go! This adds a lot of flavor to the meat.
Ketchup. Definitely not a Cuban ingredient.
At this point, Dad calls and Mom goes racing for her cell phone like a middle-schooler expecting a call from her crush. I take over the cooking by throwing in some garlic powder.
Serve with the beans and rice. My Mom eats them separately, I like to mix them. I realize this picture isn't very pretty, but trust me, it's yummy.
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