Picadillo and Baked Tostones Recipe

These recipes for picadillo and baked tostones are two of my favorites from Gina.I've adapted the picadillo to our taste and am sharing my take here with you - but check out the original recipe and the rest of Gina's yummy dishes, especially if you're watching your figure - her recipes have all of the calorie & fat content listed.

The players for the picadillo.

Prep your green olives by finely dicing them  -
you want about 2 tbsp of them total. Then set them aside.

Now, prep your plantains.
You'll want to peel them and then cut them into ½ inch pieces.

They're almost impossible to simply peel, so score them down one side first.
Then cut off the ends.

Then pull the peel off.
Cut into ½ inch pieces.

 Put your pieces in a bowl and give them a coat with the 2 tsp of
vegetable oil and then a healthy dose of salt.

Spray a baking sheet and them spread out your plantain pieces.
Spray the tops with the PAM (or PAM equivalent).
Put them in the oven and bake them for 10 minutes.
There will be further steps, but for now start your Picadillo.

Brown your meat over medium low heat in a skillet (that has a lid - you'll need it later)
with salt & pepper. Break up the meat with your spoon.

Once the meat is browned, add in your bell pepper, tomato,
onion, garlic, and cilantro.

You're going to let this cook a few minutes.
Make sure the heat is low enough that it isn't going to burn while you step away from it.

Now, the timer for your tostones should be beeping.
Pull the tostones out of the oven and prepare to smash them.
Apparently there is a tostone press called a tostonera but I don't have one
because I'm too cheap to buy one resourceful and figured out my own way to do this.
Get ready to see some real class here...

I grab a flexible cutting sheet and a potato masher.
If you don't have either one of these, you can do what I did in the beginning and use some
parchment paper and a can of black beans to smash the plantains.

I sandwich the plantain in between the plastic cutting board and then just press
with the potato masher. See, classy.

This is what it should look like when you're done.
Place it back onto the baking sheet but flip it over so the browner side is now facing up.

Once you have them all pressed spray them with PAM again and give them another bit of salt.
Put them back into the oven for 15 minutes.

Check on your sous chef 🙂

Now, back to your Picadillo...

Add in the 2 bay leaves and ½ tbsp of cumin.

Add in the 14 ounce can of tomato sauce and ¼ cup of water.

It's getting super yummy now.
Cover and let this simmer on low for 15 minutes.

 The timing should work out that your baked tostones will be done right before your Picadillo.
We serve this with yellow rice, but Gina also has a killer
Cilantro Lime Rice recipe that you should try.

Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!