NEW RECIPE: Picadillo

© Constantine William Spyrou

Even though I am Greek and Chinese, my favorite foods to make and eat tend to come more from the Latin American area of the world, especially from Cuba and Mexico. I've had an obsession with being able to try Cuban food, which is hard to get around where I live. Almost nowhere sells or makes Cuban food of any kind, so I decided to go for broke and try making my own Cuban dish: Picadillo.

Picadillo is a traditional Cuban stew that is made with ground beef, olives (preferably Spanish olives), and sofrito, the traditional seasoning vegetable saute used in Cuban cuisine. The basic sofrito calls for onions, bell peppers, and garlic, though you can vary it to your liking. I also used cumin and oregano for the sofrito in this recipe. Sofrito is the base of most Cuban food, so a good Sofrito leads to a good Picadillo in turn.

Cuban food isn't necessarily spicy, but it is full of flavor and is good, hearty food. This picadillo embodies that, as the combination of the sofrito, beef, and olives harmonizes together well to make a full-flavored delicious entree. 

Recipe will serve up to 6 people.

Ingredients:

3 cups Jasmine/White Rice or 2 lbs yellow potatoes, boiled and halved
1/2 large Spanish white onion, diced
1 medium green bell pepper, diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
(Optional: 1 tablespoon roasted garlic olive oil, if you have it. Not necessary.)
1 pound ground beef
3 cloves of minced garlic
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon oregano
1 1/2 cups Mexican-style Beer (Any lager or light beer is perfect for this)
1 cup Spanish olives (with pimientos), halved and thinly sliced
Salt and pepper to season

Cooking/Assembling:

1. In a large saucepan, add the olive oil at medium high heat. Add in the diced onions, bell pepper, garlic, cumin, oregano, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook for about 3-5 minutes until the onions sweat and turn translucent.

2. Add in your ground beef and season once again. Break up the ground beef into small pieces to ensure that it browns quicker and better. Cook until all of the ground beef is browned, which should take another 5 minutes.

3. Deglaze your pan with the beer, and bring up to a boil. Turn down to a simmer once you reach the boil and let the beef simmer for 10 minutes. Serve with rice or boiled halved potatoes (if you use the potatoes, stir in with the beef before serving for the traditional Cuban picadillo experience!)

The dish is very simple to make, as you can see from the small amount of steps, but packs a huge amount of flavor into each bite. The long and slow cooking allows all of the flavors of the sofrito, spices, and beef to really combine and make a stunning dish. The beef stock just adds that extra depth to the flavor, and the olives help to balance it out.

I hope you enjoyed this recipe! Let me know what you think and what you would change! If you make it at home, let me know how it turns out! Enjoy! =) 

NEW RECIPE: Duck Linguini with a Cilantro-Red Wine Sauce

© Constantine William Spyrou

For me, duck was always this seemingly luxurious, fancy, and delicious meat that I could never get my hands on without spending a good deal of money to get it. However, I have been able to try duck a couple of times, and really enjoy the wild gameyness it provides in flavor. It can go well with sweet or savory bold flavors. I've tried it in risotto, with fruit, and even smoked. It's been delicious and a real treat every single time.

I haven't been able to find a good place to purchase fresh duck breast yet, but when I do, this is one of the recipes I want to make utilizing this fresh duck. I've made the sauce for this dish at home before, and its richness and boldness should go extremely well with the duck, which can take on the flavors really well. The sauce combines the freshness of cilantro with the body of red wine. Normally, you wouldn't think of cilantro mixing well with red wine, but by utilizing the cilantro in a pesto, you can bring the two ingredients together in ways unimaginable. 

Recipe makes 4 servings.

For the Duck:

2 skin-on duck breasts

Salt and pepper to season

2 cloves of garlic

1 sprig of rosemary

1 sprig of thyme

For the Pasta and Sauce:

2 packages of linguini pasta, cooked to instructions

1/4 cup red wine (cooking red wine is best for this, but any red wine is fine) 

1/4 cup button mushrooms, diced

2 cloves minced garlic

1/4 cup fresh cilantro

1/4 cup fresh basil

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

2 tablespoons parmesean cheese

1/2 cup chicken stock

2 teaspoons cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon soy sauce

Salt and pepper to season

Cooking/Assembling:

1. Score the duck breast skins in a criss-cross fashion to create diamonds. Don't score too deep into the duck, you should not see any red meat through the score marks. 

2. Smash each of the garlic cloves to release their flavor, and rub them across each of the duck breasts. Season the duck. 

3. Add olive oil to a pan on medium heat. Sear the duck breasts skin side down to release their fat for about 5 minutes or until the skin is crisp. Add the sprigs of thyme and rosemary to the pan to help infuse the duck with their flavor. 

4. Once the skin is crisp, flip the ducks over and quickly bake in a 300 degree oven for 10 minutes. Let the duck cool and rest, then dice it into cubes. Preserve some of the rendered duck fat to be used again. 

5. In a food processor, add 1 clove of garlic, the cilantro, basil, red wine vinegar, parmesean, and some salt and pepper. Puree the mixture to form a pesto, adding olive oil throughout until you have a creamy, delicious pesto. 

6. Cook the pasta to package specifications and drain. Make sure to season the water! 

7. Add the saved duck fat to a hot pan on medium high heat. Add the mushrooms and some salt and pepper. When the mushrooms are browned, add the garlic and the duck. Combine for about 30 seconds, then deglaze the pan with the red wine. Add the pesto you made, soy sauce, cayenne, and chicken stock.

8. Let the sauce reduce for about 2 minutes, then toss in the pasta and combine well. Serve, and garnish with fresh basil and cilantro if you wish.

This dish is a unique combination of fusion by introducing cilantro into Italian cuisine and making it shine through and take the bodied richness of red wine and pesto to the next level. 

I hope you enjoyed reading this! Let me know what you think and what you would change! If you make it at home, let me know how it turns out! Enjoy! =) 

NEW RECIPE: Elk Flank Stir-fry with Chinese Black Moss

© Constantine William Spyrou

I'll admit, this isn't the most tasty-sounding recipe title or dish I've probably come up with. But when you work with strange and new ingredients, you've got to branch out and try new things. That's what came up in the Ethnic Mystery Box challenge for MasterChef, where contestants had to deal with greens, Spanish cured tuna, Chinese black moss, and other ingredients. Since I was familiar with the pickled daikon and the Chinese black moss and recognized them on the show, I decided to do a stir-fry with the elk with the Chinese black moss acting as noodles. My mom has cooked Chinese black moss before with noodles and it is literally just like a more flavorful pasta, so I do think it can work with the gameyness of the elk and the pickled daikon. We'll see how this turns out! 

Recipe makes one serving.

Ingredients:

1 package Chinese black moss, dehydrated
1/2 pound elk flank steak, sliced into strips
1/4 cup pickled daikon, diced
1/2 cup collard greens, raw
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 clove chopped garlic
1 tsp ground ginger
Salt and pepper to season

Cooking/Assembling:

1. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add the Chinese black moss and cook for 15 minutes until it is al dente. Drain, and set aside.
2. Marinate the elk flank strips in the soy sauce, garlic, ginger, salt, and pepper for 10 minutes. While that is going on, blanch off the collard greens in the slated water and chop roughly.
3. Add canola or sesame oil to a hot pan. Quickly saute the greens and toss in the marinated elk flank steak. Mix into the noodles, and serve in a bowl. Garnish with the pickled daikon.

This dish really plays to my Asian roots and is meant to be simple and homey but delicious, a more home-cook spin on taking tough ingredients and turning them into a masterpiece.

I hope you enjoyed this recipe! Let me know what you think and what you would change. If you make this, let me know how it turns out! Enjoy! =)