Making Mexican at home

[Emily_R]

Hey folks --

Ok, so I'm definitely intrigued by this Carne de Res con Col -- but after finding the recipe, can someone tell me -- does this basically end up tasting like stuffed cabbage? The cabbage, beef, and tomatoes all scream stuffed cabbage to me -- a dish that I'm not entirely fond of. Maybe if I tried it with red cabbage that would cut down on the stuffed-cabbage-ness?

Thanks in advance,

Emily

[rancho_gordo]

I'm not a huge cabbage fan either. The tomatoes end up being minimal. It's a ground beef dish, as far as I'm concerned. I preferred it fresh when the cabbage was still putting up a fight to the leftovers when the cabbage had given in.

[kalypso]

kalypso says, it's very easy to like and make. My only comment would be that one single chile isn't enough.

I agree on the chile. Those over-hybridized bland, monster jalapeños just don't work. I switched that our for a largish serrano, unseeded. I also don't think the onions and tomato need to be minced. I think a regular dice is just fine. I also upped the quotient on the onions and tomato.

[kalypso]

Hey folks --

Ok, so I'm definitely intrigued by this Carne de Res con Col -- but after finding the recipe, can someone tell me -- does this basically end up tasting like stuffed cabbage? The cabbage, beef, and tomatoes all scream stuffed cabbage to me -- a dish that I'm not entirely fond of. Maybe if I tried it with red cabbage that would cut down on the stuffed-cabbage-ness?

Thanks in advance,

Emily

Emily, it doesn't taste like stuffed cabbage. I think the chile and cilantro do a lot to prevent that.

Dont' mince the onions and tomatoes and use a chile stronger than a jalapeño. I thought a 1/2 cup of packed cilantro would be way too much, but it wasn't. If you ready what DK said about the recipe, she encountered it as a topping for a tostada. After having made this a couple of times, I can kind of see it as that. I'm going to try it with totopos, or the thick, Mexican-style tosdada shells next time I make it.

[rancho_gordo]

I used tostadas from the local Mexican market. I was going to make my own but these really are fine.

[kalypso]

I used tostadas from the local Mexican market. I was going to make my own but these really are fine.

Yum Yum. I just got back from a great lunch and your photo made my hungry all over again

I think I'll make it again next week after Easter and serve it as a tostada.

[Emily_R]

Thanks everyone! I'm sufficiently convinced this won't scream stuffed cabbage, and it goes on the menu for next week! Will report back then...

[Emily_R]

Hey folks -- made the Carne de Res con Col tonight, and it was delicious! You're all right -- even though I'm not sure why, it didn't taste like stuffed cabbage at all. I served it as a soft taco filling for corn tortillas, with a little queso fresco on top. Delicious. I used two jalapenos with seeds, and I probably should have minced them smaller as I got a few bites that were whoppers on the heat. Anyway, a great, quick, healthy-feeling meal! Thanks everyone!

[C. sapidus]

Red chile steak, from Mexican Everyday. There is a shortcut version made with ancho chile powder, but we had none so we made it with toasted / soaked / blended whole ancho chiles. Chunks of steak browned medium-rare and browned white onion, simmered with tomatoes, pinto beans, beef broth, garlic, cumin, and Mexican oregano. A long-simmered weekend version with beef chuck would be even better.

Mrs. C made delicious batch of guacamole, which did not survive to picture time.

[nbaines]

Here's a white pozole I made last week.

[janeer]

Chiles Rellenos

[JAZ]

I've been cooking a lot of Mexican and Mexican-influenced dinners, but haven't been taking pictures. A few days ago it was pork chile verde based on a recipe from Rick Bayliss' Mexico One Plate at a Time, with rice and refritos. Tonight I had a quesadilla and a "shrimp ceviche cocktail," also from Bayliss. One of these times I'll take pictures.

[Chris Hennes]

Tonight for dinner I used some of the leftover Picadillo from this recipe and made some empanadas. I used the recipe from Mexico: One Plate at a Time for the empanada dough (he calls them fried quesadillas there). It worked pretty well, except I am always overfilling these things. I guess I don't make them enough, the filling seems so tiny when you are putting it on there... but if you add too much they explode, like so:

I got some of them right, and even the exploded ones tasted good. Of course, I ended up using about three tablespoons of the picadillo, so I still need a solution for the rest...

[Pierogi]

...Of course, I ended up using about three tablespoons of the picadillo, so I still need a solution for the rest...

In my experience, at least with my recipe, picadillo freezes really well. Doesn't seem to harm the raisins, nor the almond slivers I have in mine....

[Jaymes]

...Of course, I ended up using about three tablespoons of the picadillo, so I still need a solution for the rest...

In my experience, at least with my recipe, picadillo freezes really well. Doesn't seem to harm the raisins, nor the almond slivers I have in mine....

Picadillo does freeze really well, unless you've added potatoes, which do not.

However, I often serve picadillo as a hot dip with tortilla chips alongside. Everybody loves it.

[Chris Hennes]

My picadillo isn't really the consistency of a "dip"—is that how you serve yours, or do you add something to it?

[Jaymes]

My picadillo isn't really the consistency of a "dip"—is that how you serve yours, or do you add something to it?

Are you sure it isn't the consistency of a dip?

My picadillo is the consistency of loose hamburger meat. Just like in the olden days, if you made seasoned hamburger meat for tacos. It's that consistency. You scoop it up with tortilla chips. You do need some rather sturdy chips - those wispy thin ones are a little harder to work with. You can fry your own out of corn tortillas or, if you have a good Mexican market there, sometimes you can find those authentic heavy corn chips - totopos - in a bag.

I serve it in a chafing dish so that it stays hot. I very often make it just for that purpose - to serve as a hot dip.

You might just get your picadillo out, heat up a small amount - say a half cup or so - in the microwave. Grab a bag of chips and try it. Think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

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Edited July 18, 2010 by Jaymes (log)

[Darienne]

Oddly enough, we ate Picadillo for lunch today with rice and pinto beans, salsa, sour cream and tortilla chips. The Picadillo was thawed from June's making. Yes, we are doing renovations.

I've been making Picadillo for a couple of decades now from the recipes in Elisabeth Lambert Ortiz, The Complete Book of Mexican Cooking, the only 'real' Mexican cookbook I owned from when I cooked under some duress. Ortiz gives two recipes: Picadillo and Picadillo de la costa with no hints about serving. Besides, I have no idea where we would get 'sturdy' tortilla chips in this neck of the great frozen north woods, short of making them. Yes, some day...

Over the years I tweaked the recipe to suit us and call it Picadillo de la cabana (can't do a tilde on my machine) which means to us Picadillo in the manner of Cavan (which is where we live. I know, silly, but then I didn't get this old by not being silly sometimes). Basically it just sticks together all the ingredients from both Picadillos, plus whatever else I have on hand and want to use, and uses shredded beef.

I do this with North American and European recipes...I do it with Mexican too.

Edited July 18, 2010 by Darienne (log)

[Chris Hennes]

Are you sure it isn't the consistency of a dip?

My picadillo is the consistency of loose hamburger meat.

Yes, that's it, I was just imagining a texture more like a cheese dip when you first said it. Now I see what you mean, sounds like lunch!

[kalypso]

Picadillo makes a great filling for chile relleno, with or without the capeado (batter coating).

You can fill fresh chiles like a poblano or some of those big jalapenos, the ones that now have no heat. Or you can rehydrate some anchos or pasillas in a solution of water and piloncillo and stuff them. If you're really ambitious, you can use it as the filling for Chiles en Nogadas since we're starting to get close to the season.

Other uses could be as a filling for tacos, quesadillas or flautas/taquitos/tacos dorados (whichever name the rolled and fried taco goes by in your neck of the world)

[Jaymes]

Picadillo makes a great filling for chile relleno, with or without the capeado (batter coating).

You can fill fresh chiles like a poblano or some of those big jalapenos, the ones that now have no heat. Or you can rehydrate some anchos or pasillas in a solution of water and piloncillo and stuff them. If you're really ambitious, you can use it as the filling for Chiles en Nogadas since we're starting to get close to the season.

Other uses could be as a filling for tacos, quesadillas or flautas/taquitos/tacos dorados (whichever name the rolled and fried taco goes by in your neck of the world)

Yes, when I first started making it some thirty years ago or so, it was indeed to stuff chiles, for Rellenos, or en Nogada. But one day, after the stuffing was done, I had some chips handy and shoveled in the cup or so of picadillo I had left over.

And so a legendary (in our family anyway) dip was born.

[Darienne]

Picadillo as dip sounds great. I would just have to make sure that the pieces of fruit were cut smaller. I am not a 'small' cutter by nature...just as Ed is not a 'large' cutter by nature. You can always tell who made the food in our house.

I think it's a splendid idea. Just have to find a source of stout tortilla chips...or make them myself. Perhaps it is time.

[kalypso]

Picadillo makes a great filling for chile relleno, with or without the capeado (batter coating).

You can fill fresh chiles like a poblano or some of those big jalapenos, the ones that now have no heat. Or you can rehydrate some anchos or pasillas in a solution of water and piloncillo and stuff them. If you're really ambitious, you can use it as the filling for Chiles en Nogadas since we're starting to get close to the season.

Other uses could be as a filling for tacos, quesadillas or flautas/taquitos/tacos dorados (whichever name the rolled and fried taco goes by in your neck of the world)

Yes, when I first started making it some thirty years ago or so, it was indeed to stuff chiles, for Rellenos, or en Nogada. But one day, after the stuffing was done, I had some chips handy and shoveled in the cup or so of picadillo I had left over.

And so a legendary (in our family anyway) dip was born.

I do think the dip idea sounds good. I'd probably want to throw some doble crema in it and gild the lilly

[Jaymes]

Picadillo makes a great filling for chile relleno, with or without the capeado (batter coating).

You can fill fresh chiles like a poblano or some of those big jalapenos, the ones that now have no heat. Or you can rehydrate some anchos or pasillas in a solution of water and piloncillo and stuff them. If you're really ambitious, you can use it as the filling for Chiles en Nogadas since we're starting to get close to the season.

Other uses could be as a filling for tacos, quesadillas or flautas/taquitos/tacos dorados (whichever name the rolled and fried taco goes by in your neck of the world)

Yes, when I first started making it some thirty years ago or so, it was indeed to stuff chiles, for Rellenos, or en Nogada. But one day, after the stuffing was done, I had some chips handy and shoveled in the cup or so of picadillo I had left over.

And so a legendary (in our family anyway) dip was born.

I do think the dip idea sounds good. I'd probably want to throw some doble crema in it and gild the lilly

Honestly, I don't think you'll like it as well as without it. The crema would kinda dilute the spicy meat mixture, and give it a completely different texture, too.

Although, who knows...

If you try it, get back with us and let us know.

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Edited July 19, 2010 by Jaymes (log)

[Chris Hennes]

The other day I barbecued a pork shoulder that I had rubbed down and marinated with an achiote paste and pineapple juice marinate, sort of simulating the flavors of tacos al pastor. After a LONG smoke over mesquite it was well past dinner time when it was ready (hell, it was almost breakfast time, who am I kidding?), so I just chilled it and popped it in the fridge. (Incidentally, we had picadillo on chips for dinner last night because the AC died and I didn't want to cook.)

Today I finally got around to eating some of it: I made some tortillas, shredded some pork, and served with a hard Mexican cheese (don't know what kind) and the Sun Dried Tomato Guacamole from "Fiesta at Rick's". That is a mighty fine pork shoulder, if I may say so myself, probably the best I've ever made. The tacos were not bad at all: