Picadillo Sa Pipino (Cucumber Soup)

Picadillo, pronounced Picadilyo in Filipino is a Hispanic or any Latin American dish made with seasoned ground beef. It is not any different in the Philippines where it is a dish made from ground beef or ground pork, called “giniling”.

There are varieties of dishes called Picadilyo and this is only one of them. Any dish cooked like this with ground meat is called Picadilyo, either dry or brothy, with or without diced vegetables such as potatoes, upo squash, chayote squash, etc.

Ingredients:

1/3 or 1/2 lb. ground beef or ground pork
3 to 4 cups water
2 cloves garlic minced or crushed
½ med. Onion minced or diced
1 medium size tomato diced (optional) but will taste better)
2 tsp. Patis (fish sauce) optional
1 large cucumber peeled, seeded and diced

Salt and Pepper to taste

Sauté the garlic in 1 TBS oil until fragrant then stir in the onions and cook until transparent. Add the tomatoes, press while stirring. Add the ground beef and stir and press to break up the meat. Cook until no longer red. Add the fish sauce if using, add 1 cup of water and simmer for a few minutes. Add the rest of the water. Let boil and simmer on med.-low heat covered for about 5 minutes. Add salt to taste and the black pepper then the cucumber. Simmer until the cucumbers become semi transparent.

Skim off the floating oil or fat, taste and adjust the seasoning. Add a ¼ tsp. MSG if desired. Some people add diced tomato when sautéing but some don’t so it is optional.

You can make Picadilyo with diced potatoes, which is the most popular variety in the Philippines. It is also a popular dish with the Mexicans (Hispanics in Texas) except it is not soupy and they add cumin in it. Likewise, you can use chayote squash, upo (long squash) or zucchini. Just cut them in cubes like the picture above.

I love ground beef or ground pork that I always keep a supply in the freezer. There are many good dishes I can make with them. They are so versatile.