Pork Picadillo
You may have heard of picadillo, ground beef or pork cooked with seasonings (think Latin Sloppy Joes.) Picar means to cut, picadillo means to chop fine. Whether it's pork, beef or a mix of the two, it's usually a filling for something like these alcapurrias or empanadas or stuffed vegetables. The filling is left pretty simple so the saltiness of the olives and the flavor of the pork come through.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons Achiote Oil (see notes below) ¼ cup Sofrito (see notes below)
¼ cup alcaparrado or coarsely chopped pimiento-stuffed olives
1 pound ground pork
1 tablespoon tomato paste
Fine sea or kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
Preparation
1. Heat the achiote oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
Add the sofrito and alcaparrado and cook until the liquid is evaporated and the sofrito starts to sizzle, about 5 minutes.
2. Add the pork and cook, stirring to break up any lumps, until the pork is cooked through. The pork will give off a lot of liquid. Keep cooking, stirring once in a while, until the liquid is evaporated.
3. Stir in the tomato paste and cook a minute or two. Taste and add salt and pepper if you like. Cool before using. The pork filling can be made up to 2 days in advance.
Variation: Make a beef picadillo by substituting an equal amount of beef for the pork. Everything else stays the same.
Achiote Oil
Aceite de Achiote
Annatto seeds, known as achiote in Spanish, are small irregularly shaped, deep reddish colored seeds about the size of a lentil. They grow in pods but are sold loose in jars in the spice aisle. (Or see the "Sources" section above.) Steeping annatto (achiote) seeds in hot olive oil for a few minutes will do more than give the oil a brilliant orange-gold color; it will infuse it with a nutty, delicate aroma and add a quick kick to whatever you use it in. This incredibly simple technique will become part of your repertoire, not just for the many dishes that call for it in this book, but any time you want a splash of color and a hint of annatto flavor.
Makes about 1 cup1 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons achiote (annatto) seeds
Heat the oil and annatto seeds in a small skillet over medium heat just until the seeds give off a lively, steady sizzle. Don't overheat the mixture or the seeds will turn black and the oil a nasty green. Once they're sizzling away, pull the pan from the heat and let stand until the sizzling stops. Strain as much of the oil as you are going to use right away into the pan; store the rest for up to 4 days at room temperature in a jar with a tight fitting lid.
In addition to using achiote oil to sauté onions, garlic and such, you can use it straight, painted onto fish and poultry headed for the grill or broiler.
Sofrito
There is no other recipe I could have chosen to open with. This is the one indispensable, universal, un-live-withoutable recipe. Having said that, it is incredibly easy to make with ingredients you can find at the supermarket. And if you can't find all the ingredients I list below see the note that follows for a very simple fix. What sofrito does is add freshness, herbal notes and zing to dishes -- you can do that with the onion, garlic, bell pepper, cilantro and tomato alone.
In many houses, sofrito makes its way into everything from yellow rice, black bean soup, sauce for spaghetti and meatballs to braised chicken and sautéed shrimp. Not only that, it freezes beautifully, so in about In 10 minutes you can make enough sofrito to flavor a dozen dishes. I'm telling you, this stuff does everything but make the beds. Try out your first batch of sofrtio in the recipes you'll find throughout this site, or add sofrito to some of your own favorite dishes that could use a little boost. You will change the way you cook. I guarantee it.
Makes about 4 cups.
If you can't find ajices dulces or culantro, don't sweat. Up the amount of cilantro to 1 ½ bunches.
2 medium Spanish onions, cut into large chunks
3 to 4 Italian frying peppers or cubanelle peppers
16 to 20 cloves garlic, peeled
1 large bunch cilantro, washed
7 to 10 ajices dulces (see note below), optional
4 leaves of culantro (see note below), or another handful cilantro
3 to 4 ripe plum tomatoes, cored and cut into chunks
1 large red bell pepper, cored, seeded and cut into large chunks
Chop the onion and cubanelle or Italian peppers in the work bowl of a food processor until coarsely chopped. With the motor running, add the remaining ingredients one at a time and process until smooth.
The sofrito will keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. It also freezes beautifully. Freeze sofrito in ½ cup batches in sealable plastic bags. They come in extremely handy in a pinch. You can even add sofrito straight from the freezer to the pan in any recipe that calls for it in this book.
Pantry Notes: Ajices Dulces, also known as cachucha or ajicitos are tiny sweet peppers with a hint of heat. They range in color from light to medium green and yellow to red and orange. They add freshness and an herby note to the sofrito and anything you cook. Do not mistake them for Scotch bonnet or Habanero chilies (which they look like)--those two pack a wallop when it comes to heat. If you can find ajicitos in your market, add them to sofrito. If not, up the cilantro and add a pinch of cayenne pepper. Culantro is not cilantro. It has long leaves with tapered tips and serrated edges. When it comes to flavor, culantro is like cilantro times ten. It is a nice, not essential addition to sofrito.
