Quick Mexican (Picadillo)

Serves 4

8oz mince (should be half beef, half pork, but who cares?)
1 tablespoon malt vinegar
1 onion
1 clove garlic
1 green pepper
chillis (2 mild ones, or more if you prefer)
1 chicken stock cube
1 potato
18 pimento stuffed green olives (but I use whatever olives I have in the house – they can be left out if you don't like them, but chop them small, and you won’t notice they’re there)
2 tablespoons flaked almonds
2 tablespoons raisins
3 tablespoons tomato puree

Put vinegar on the meat with a little salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar. Leave to stand.

Dice the potato into 1cm cubes, and boil for about 10 minutes.

Dice the onions, garlic, pepper and chillis. Heat some cooking oil (olive or ground nut or sunflower). Saute the onions etc for a few minutes. Add the meat and stir until browned.

Add all the other ingredients including the cooked potato and about half a pint of hot water. Simmer for about 15 minutes.

Serve with white rice.


By the way, do you have problems getting rice right? It seems to work pretty well for me, and although I'm not sure what the magic factor is I can tell you what I do. Rice in pan with a pinch of salt; add plenty of boiling water (none of this equal quantity malarkey); bring back to the boil quickly, then reduce heat, put a lid on at an angle so the steam can escape; leave it alone for the time it says on the packet; drain and serve. I always use basmati rice if I can (because I read somewhere that it is lower GI than other rice), but normal long grain works as well.