Follow along as we make "Picadillo With Green Papaya" a delicious and healthy blue zone recipe straight from my "suegra" here in the Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica!
We get the "green" or unripe papaya right from our 100 foot tall papaya tree! Then we get to peeling and chopping to create picadillo; coming from the word meaning "to chop" or "mince" in Spanish.
A few tips on finding the ingredients: You should be able to find green papaya at your grocery store or local asian market. Order the famous salsa Lizano on amazon.com! Achiote should be readily available in the spice section and you can sub out the traditional Maggi packet of seasoning for fresh spices such as onion, garlic, cumin and coriander.
You can also sub out the green papaya for potatoes! Peel and boil until cooked yet firm so that you can chop them up with out creating mashed potatoes.
Picadillo is a typical latin dish but recipes vary greatly from place to place. We use pork in this recipe as that is the way my partner's family makes it. You can also use ground beef, fish or leave it vegetarian! Play around with it and see which way is your favorite.
Lastly, picadillo is great served as a dip or with hot tortillas or as the main course with rice, salad and avocado! Yum! Ok let's get started...
Here's what you'll need:
1 green papaya or 10 medium potatoes
Salsa Lizano to taste
"Consume" or other seasonings
2 tbsp Achiote paste
Meat of your choice - we boiled pork
4 heads of garlic
1 onion
1/2 bell pepper
cilantro coyote if available (if not add some fresh cilantro at the end)
Remove the skin from the papaya and wash well. Remember the "milk" from the skin can sting if left on your skin for a period of time! Remove seeds and then cut into long, thin slices. Give another good rinse.
Fill a large pot half way full of water, light the stove to high heat, add the papaya slices and boil for one hour with a tight fitting lid.
In the meantime you can also prepare the meat of your choice.
Once the papaya has cooked so that it is still firm yet soft, remove from heat, strain and set aside to cool.
Now, let's get to chopping! You are going to want to mince the onion, bell pepper, garlic, and meat into fine, small cubes. Then it's time to do the same to the papaya, getting it as finely chopped as you can. This is why it's called "picadillo"!
Sauté all ingredients except the papaya for about two minutes, then gently incorporate the papaya. Season a little at a time with powders, salt and Lizano tasting as you go while occasionally stirring for about 5 minutes over med/high heat.
That's it! Heat up some tortillas and serve with rice, salad and avocado! Buen Provecho and Cheers!
Thanks for making Picadillo with us! We hope you've enjoyed this episode. We'll be back to making travel videos next week for Virtual Travel Tuesday. And we hope to occasionally bring you into the kitchen with locals as they show us how to make homemade tortillas, tamales and gallo pinto! Stay tuned!
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Happy Travels!
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