Tacos al Pastor de Gregorio

Continuing on my recipe spree, last October, I made a variation on Tacos al Pastor for a friends birthday. I did a whack of research and came up with this variation of a Mexican classic.

Tacos al Pastor

• 10 Pasilla Chiles
• 10 Mexico Nuevo Chiles
• 10 Ancho Chiles
• 5 Pasilla Negro Chiles
• 5 Mulato Chiles
• 2 Pablano Chiles
• 1 to 3 Chipotle Chiles (preferencia)
• 1/2 Large Sweet yellow onion minced
• 5 to 10 cloves Garlic (preferencia)
• 250 ml Packed yellow sugar
• 500 ml cider vinegar
• 500 ml stock (low sodium beef, chicken, veggie whatever is available, water in a pinch)
• 250 ml pineapple juice (un-sweetened)
• 125 ml orange juice
• 3 limes juiced
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 5 tablespoons mexican oregano
• 1/3 of package of achiote
• Salt and black pepper to taste

• 2 days before you want tacos make the marinade/ salsa
  
  
  Toast all the dried chiles and remove the seeds and stems. Roast the Pablanos and make Rojas. In a large pot heat a tablespoon of oil, sweat the minced onion, add the tomato paste, and garlic. To the pot add the cider vinegar, sugar and the lime juice. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Turn down the heat to medium, add the toasted dried chiles, cook until soft. Add the rojas and chipotles. With an immersion blender start pureeing the chiles, add the stock to thin the mixture. Add the pineapple and orange juice and blend until smooth. Add the Oregano and achiote and blend again. Simmer until all the flavours have melded. If the salsa is too thick, thin with either pineapple juice or more vinegar (if the salsa seems too sweet use vinegar, if it too tart/sour add some pineapple juice.) Add salt and pepper to taste. Let cool overnight.

• 1 day before
  
  Take a couple of kilos of pork/lamb shoulder steak, butt steak or beef flank
  steak and coat well with the marinade.  Message the marinade into the meat
  well. Every couple hours move everything around making sure the meat
  absorbs the marinade ( add more marinade if things are dry).


• Day of the tacos.
  
  Remove all the excess marinade from the meat, scrape it clean if necessary (this will
  be very messy). If you are using lamb or pork, in a pan cook the meat
  over high heat until the meat is medium rare ( we are cooking it again later so
  even rare is ok). For beef bbq/grill it to the desired doneness cut
  across the grain and serve. For the lamb and pork, to get a better
  texture, slice the partly cooked meat into thin slices across the grain.
  In a wok on high heat, add a bit of corn oil, lard, or shortening something
  with a high smoke point. Stir fry the meat until cooked, don’t be afraid
  to get a little crispy on one side to simulate the meat being cooked on a
  trompa (rotisserie)

Server with you favorite taco fixings and grilled pineapple.  This will make a mess, but it tastes good.

More Later....
G