Picadillo with Dried Fruit

This recipe was submitted to me from a reader and it turned out to be wonderful! Thank you Jo for sending this to me. It is a Latin American dish called Picadillo and it can vary depending on which country's recipe you use. I am not sure where this one comes from but it is delicious!





Lets gather some ingredients...




It looks like a lot of stuff but it is a very easy dish to make.




Start by cutting up your shallots or onion.




Next, tackle your garlic. Here is a great video if you aren't real sure how to peel and chop garlic. I know a lot of you guys could do this in your sleep, but I really hope to help some new cooks learn something.




Chop up your dried apricots, or whatever dried fruit you might like.




You don't need to do anything to your raisins, except resist the urge to eat them all while you are cooking.




I used Bison for this but you may use whatever ground meat you'd like, or even fake meat crumbles if wanted to have it vegetarian.




Get the meat, shallots and garlic going in a pan for about 10 minutes.




While that is cooking, cut open your lime and set it aside. You can also open up your tomato sauce. I actually didn't have a large enough can of tomato sauce so I supplemented with some V8 I had in the fridge.




Add in the chili powder, salt, oregano, cinnamon and hot sauce.




Next add the remaining ingredients and simmer for about 30 minutes.




You can continue to add a little water if it looks like it is drying up a bit. Stir it every once in a while as well to really get the flavors all combined. Once you can't take the delicious smell anymore, serve it up!!!




I served it with a little bit of rice and was stuffed! You can also serve the leftovers on a roll like a sloppy joe. Speaking of, thanks again, Jo, for the great recipe.