Cuban Beef Picadillo

It's time to try another offering from Williams-Sonoma's "What's for Dinner" 30-Minute Meals feature! Today, we're investigating the Cuban Beef Picadillo.

This dish appealed to us because of its straightforwardness and the number of potential serving methods. The recipe claims it can be served over rice, in tortillas, or over spaghetti. (Yeah, that last one didn't sound awesome to us at first, either!)

The recipe begins with an onion, sauteed for 4 minutes. To that, the ground beef is added and browned for 8 minutes, taking care to break up the clumps. The recipe instructs you to separate and discard any fat, but our beef was lean enough that the fat content was negligible.

Next, the spices and garlic are incorporated and cooked for 1 minute. After this, the remaining ingredients are added and brought to a simmer.

Williams-Sonoma's chefs claim that 15 minutes was enough to reduce the mixture to a "stew like" consistency, but it took us almost double that. Our canned tomatoes may just have been extra juicy, or we may not have had the heat turned up enough - either way, we'd caution you to leave a little extra time for preparation. After all, if you finish early, there's no harm in leaving it on low heat a little longer!

We thought this recipe was good, but not great. Because of the seasonings and the currants, the finished product had a slightly sweet (but not too sweet) taste. You guys know us well enough now that you can probably predict our refrain: We want more kick!

If we make this again, we're likely to add a dash of cayenne, and we may also throw in some chopped olives and diced bell peppers for more texture. The salty flavor of the olives, we think, would balance out the sweetness particularly well!

And one final note about serving: Our original plating was with tortillas, which was good but, due to the subtle flavor and liquidity, a messy, mushy combination. We found a winner when we served it over steamed white rice, and, having tried it, we actually can see it being served successfully over pasta. (We know, right?!) It just goes to show, sometimes it's nice to keep an open mind.

Cuban Flank Steak with Peppers and Tomatoes

We're so enamored of slow-cooker recipes that the other day at the grocery store, we picked up a copy of Cuisine at Home's special publication called "Slow Cooker Menus". Unfortunately, Cuisine at Home's online content seems to be for subscribers only, but we were able to find some of them posted on a blog called The Dinner Dish, and that's how we're going to share them with you!

Our first attempt from the menu guide was Cuban Flank Steak with Peppers and Tomatoes (Cuisine at Home Specials, "Slow Cooker Menus"). We selected this dish because of it's long cooking time - some of these recipes only take 3-4 hours, which is great, but not for us and our 9-hour or more workdays. We also thought it sounded festive, colorful, and different from our normal fare.

The prep work for this dish took us about 20 minutes, which was a cinch because we made sure to wake up a little early. First we chopped the vegetables, and as you can see, there's quite a bit to chop. If you want to reduce your workload, you can always substitute 2 cans of drained diced tomatoes for the chopped Roma tomatoes. (Nothing drives us crazier than chopping tomatoes!)

Once the vegetables were chopped and laid at the bottom of the slow cooker, we seared the meat. Thoroughness isn't a big deal here, so you can take 3-4 minutes for each side and call it a day. We added the meat to the slow cooker, then deglazed the pan by adding beef broth and bringing it to a boil while scraping up the drippings with a spatula. We then added that liquid tastiness to the slow cooker, which we then set on LOW for 7-8 hours.

One recommendation we offer is that you take your shower after handling the peppers! Mrs. Yuppie did the chopping and, despite washing her hands approximately 13 times before noon, spent half the day accidentally rubbing her eyes, then screaming incessantly. A coworker eventually offered up a great alternative to the post-prep shower - use hand sanitizer after you chop the peppers. According to him, the alcohol in hand sanitizer instantly removes the sting - and Mrs. Yuppie can vouch for that!

When we returned home, we found a delicious smell awaiting us, and meat that was so tender that shredding it required no effort at all! A bowl and two forks were all we needed; we didn't even work up a sweat. The meat was absolutely delicious, and the accompanying vegetables packed some unexpected heat. We served our dish with mashed sweet potatoes, as recommended by the magazine article.

As we mentioned, there are some ways to make this dish even more low maintenance than it already is. Apart from calling in reinforcements on the tomatoes, you can also do absolutely all of the prep work the night before, load up the slow cooker insert, and stash it in the fridge until morning.

We love this dish for its ease of preparation, punchy flavor, and walk-right-into-the-kitchen-and-grab-yourself-a-plate completeness. That's why we're making it a Yuppie Test Kitchen favorite!

Try it this month and let us know what you think in the comments!