Lomo Saltado

Anyone have a good recipe for this? It's one of my Peruvian favorites. The sauce and veggies were good and the crispy curly fries were delicious but the steak needed some help. Will try this one again soon.

Picadillo Improved

I couldn't give up after the last picadillo I tried, so I actually found a recipe and sorta followed it. It turned out pretty good. I ended up eating the whole batch in one sitting. It was good if you dip it with wheat saltines. The maduros on the side gave a nice contrasting sweet flavor.

• 
  
• olive oil
• sofrito paste (I used several tablespoons)
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1/2 small red bell pepper, finely chopped
• large pimiento-stuffed olives, coarsely chopped
• garlic cloves, finely chopped
• ground beef 
• tomato paste
• frozen peas and carrots
• chopped cilantro
• salt and pepper
• 
  
• Saute the sofrito in the hot olive oil, add the veggies for a few minutes.  Add the ground beef and brown, then add the tomato.  Continue cooking for a bit and add a little water and then the peas and carrots.  When it's heated through garnish with fresh cilantro and season to taste.  Serve with rice or plantains.

Sofrito

After my last mediocre attempt at picadillo, I decided to take several recipes' advice and make some homemade sofrito to enhance the flavor. This particular version was super easy to make, and I froze it in ice cube trays and then stored in a plastic bag in the freezer.

All the beautiful fresh ingredients

Chop and purée until smooth

Freeze in ice cube trays and this is what you get. Cubes of pure flavor!

1 large yellow onion

1 pimiento (Cubanelle) or substitute with green bell pepper

1 red bell pepper or 1sm jar roasted red peppers

1 medium head of garlic (2 tbsp. minced garlic)

1 bunch of cilantro

12 ajíes dulces (hard to find and may skip) [small sweet peppers]

6 leaves of recao - (Eryngium) (hard to find/skip) [culantro]

¼ cup Spanish olives, pitted

1 tbsp capers

2 tsps salt

1 tbsp black pepper

1 tbsp crushed orégano

½ cup olive oil

Shopping Fun

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