What to do with... jalapeños

A friend of mine runs her own little organic farmville on her rooftop, and as the jalapeños were ready for harvest and plentiful, she was kind enough to give me a few, which in HK really is a treat as they are very hard (if not impossible) to come by. I used them to make and old favourite Cuban dish of mine - picadillo, which is essentially a mix of ground meat (beef most of the time, but there also exist pork versions) with green bell peppers, some sort of chilli peppers (jalapeños are perfect), onions, tomatoes, garlic, green olives, oregano, bay leaf, cumin seeds, vinegar (I used white wine vinegar but simple cristal alcool vinegar is fine as well) and capers.

Chubby Jalapeños, HK grown!!

Jalapeños, sliced. See how thick the flesh is, which is characteristic of this variety of chillies.

I served the dish with another caribbean dish - black beans and rice. Again, there exists many versions of this dish (some use black beans, some pigeon peas, black-eyed peas or chickpeas). This recipe is from Wendy Rahamut's excellent cookbook Caribbean Flavors and is the Cuban version of the dish, made with bay leaf, black pepper, brown sugar, oil (I used olive oil, not very Caribbean but at least healthy...), garlic, onion, cumin, chicken stock and ground coriander seeds.

Sous-vide green bell peppers, to serve the rice in. Packed using the "human vacuum" technique patented by the Elves ;-)

Picadillo à ma façon with black beans & rice (from Wendy Rahamut's excellent cookbook "Caribbean Flavors")

Piccadillo (serves 3/4)

1 pound ground beef

3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

1 medium onion, thinly chopped

1 green bell pepper, deseeded and sliced in ¼ inch strips

2 jalapeño peppers (or more to taste)

4 medium tomatoes, peeled, deseeded and cubed

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

2 cloves

½ tsp freshly ground black pepper

½ ounce capers (nonpareils)

2 ounces pitted green olives in brine, sliced

¼ cup white wine vinegar

1 cup beef stock

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp neutral oil (corn or rapeseed)

·       In a large pot, heat the oil and fry the meat until it starts browning slightly. Remove the meat from the pot, leaving the oil in, and fry the onion until translucent (do not let it brown).

·       Add the garlic, bay leaf, oregano, cumin seeds, cloves and black pepper and fry until the spices are fragrant.

·       Add the tomatoes, bell pepper, jalapeños, olives and capers and stir-fry for a further few minutes.

Finally, add the meat, vinegar, beef stock and salt. Bring to a boil, cover and let simmer for at least 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

·       Serve with steamed rice or any Caribbean rice cookup (black beans & rice, pigeon peas & rice etc…)