Beef Picadillo and Fluffy White Rice

a taste of my roots!!!

The best cook in my family was hands down my maternal grandmother, Carmen. I have specific memories of watching her spend hours in the kitchen grating yuca by hand, soaking salt cod for fritters and whirling homemade sofrito in her old school Oster blender. Her place was in the kitchen, by choice and by necessity, she had 7 daughters and a husband to feed daily. I believe it was her love language and you could taste every bit of that love in her food, my God was it good!

 She never wrote a single recipe down and I wish I could teleport myself back in time to document her recipes on paper. I channel her frequently when I’m in my own kitchen experimenting and need her spirit to guide me. Carmen was one of a kind; her food was made with love and soul and sharing time in the kitchen with her is locked into my core memory bank forever.

The first recipe I knew I had to perfect was an empanada aka empanadilla aka meat turnover. As a child, I would wait in the kitchen as my grandmother would fry mounds of these for family gatherings. The filling, picadillo, is made differently depending on where the empanada is from. We use a mixture of ground beef, spices, sofrito, and green olives with pimentos. Once you start cooking it, the aroma will absolutely make your mouth water, it’s undeniable. You can use ground turkey or chicken to substitute the beef and they can also be enjoyed with cheese inside but that’s an entirely different post for another day. They are the truth and the first things to disappear anytime they are put out. Even people who aren’t fans of olives devour them, they are indeed that delicious.

Puerto Rican food is savory, garlicky and uses cilantro like it’s going out of style. It’s truly delicious stuff and if you learn a few basics and arm yourself with a few flavor bombs, it’s simple. In my opinion the 3 key components that really make up the building blocks of Puerto Rican cooking are Sofrito, Sazón and Adobo. Sofrito is akin to the French mirepoix (carrots, onions, celery)  or the Cajun “Holy Trinity” (bell peppers, onion, celery). There are many cultures that have a typical flavor base for their cuisine and use ingredients sourced from their region. Our sofrito is a blend of onion, garlic, peppers, and cilantro and or culantro. We also tend to use a lot of pork products as a base for added flavor which if you’re not a fan of you can absolutely omit. I wouldn’t say it’s healthy food by any means, but it is comfort food at its finest and if you’ve never tried Puerto Rican food, I encourage you to give this week’s recipe a chance. If you follow the recipe along, you will make cubes of sofrito that will elevate your stews, soups, meats, and rice dishes to higher levels. You make it once in a food processor or blender and you freeze it for later use, it keeps forever in your freezer. You can cheat and buy the stuff in the jar but the homemade stuff rules.

We are starting with the basics this week and I’m teaching you how to make a pot of good simple white rice as well as the picadillo filling for the empanadas. Serving the picadillo on its own over a bed of white rice with a salad is  a meal that my family is crazy about. If you want to take it to the next level and make the pastries for the empanadas, I’ve included that recipe below as well. Empanadas are awesome for parties, and for entertaining and I’ve had great success putting them in the air fryer instead of pan frying for all my fellow air fryer cooks. These are my secret weapon that win people over and I’m so happy to share my recipe with you. I’m giving you 4 recipes this week….happy cooking!!!

THE RECIPES

Homemade Sofrito

you can buy this stuff in a jar for an alternative if you’re short on time

Makes about 3 cups

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch fresh cilantro (you can use some of the tender stems but any tough ones, discard)