I’ve really tried lately to simplify things in hopes of keeping my head above water long enough to make strides in this crazy chaos of life. Naturally, cooking is an area that can spare some serious minutes. I tend to start mulling over dinner ideas early in the day pondering either what we have on hand and how I can turn it into something fabulously edible, or, I am daydreaming about the random idea to strike my fancy. Both scenarios can end up swallowing up my whole day and night and leave us eating dinner at 10pm with a pile of dishes to boot. So my newer goal, in addition to clearing out pantry and freezer, is to practice restraint in kitchen efforts while still producing good food. It is a good challenge, and bound to help create some great results. But with me as the only voice to curb me, this does not always work out. And thus was the case with my home attempt at Tacos al Pastor.
Now there are folks who are wild for these popular mexican tacos, people who hunt high and low for the perfect balance of crispy, sweet, tender meat. Me? I had only watched the meat turn slowly in a handful of taquerias or spent hours admiring this painting while sitting in El Farolito in San Francisco’s Mission District- typically our first lunch stop every time we visit. Not long ago I stumbled across the blog, Denver on a Spit, which seemed to be devoted to tacos al pastor. I read the reviews and the line up trying to locate one near my husband’s shop so we could try them out. Somehow we had still yet to visit any. Then I read Laura Shunk’s review of Taco Mex and was once again feeling the necessity of traveling out East Colfax. And again we had not made time for the journey. But then finally last week I opened the freezer to plan the next meal and pulled out a pork shoulder and decided I’d tackle it myself.
Traditionally, the pork is sliced thinly, marinated, stacked and cooked on a vertical rotisserie just like Shawarma. Apparently this method was brought to the city of Puebla, Mexico anywhere from the ’20s to ’60s (depending on the source) by Lebanese immigrants. The marinade is a mixture of red chilies, achiote, vinegar, and spices and the meat is cooked with a pineapple on top. The enzymes in the pineapple tenderize the meat as it cooks. The outer, crispy bits of meat are sliced thinly onto corn tortillas and topped with bits of the pineapple, cilantro and onions and salsa. It could be nothing but divine.
When our friends moved to Madison they gave us a brand new rotisserie they had been given but never used. We had set it up once for a chicken, noting that the instructions say everywhere to NOT take the “Set it and forget it” slogan literally. How disappointing. I figured this rotisserie was not quite rotating in the right direction, but had to work and set out reading a variety of posts from a Weber Grilling Forum and the Barbecue! Bible Website board (Steven Raichlen’s site). It seemed the consensus was that the pork should be cut in thinner pieces, flattened, marinated, and then stacked with pineapple slices. At that point some people had tried it on a rotisserie, some had simply stacked it over coals. All agreed that the whole stack should be chopped and tossed lest you miss the best little crispy end bits.
So I set to work slicing and pounding the pork shoulder. Finding a few hunks of pork belly in the mix, I realized I had frozen this shoulder when I bought the meat for the thai sausage a while back. Not wanting to deal with a separate preparation for the belly at this time, I decided to flatten it as well and add it to the mix. I used the following marinade from this site and let the pork soak up the love for another day.
3 California chiles
1 ancho chile
1 guajillo chile
1 cascabel chile
1 chile de arbol
1 bay leaf
3/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup pineapple juice
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
3 teaspoon sea salt
1 clove garlic
3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon Mexican oregano
(1/4 teapsoon cumin optional)
1/4 teaspoon seasoned achiote paste
1 onion sliced thin
1 onion chopped
1 bunch cilantro chopped
5 pounds boneless pork butt (with substatial fat cap)
2 Limes
1 pineapple, peeled, sliced into 1/2-inch thick slices1. Combine 5 cups of water, the chiles and the bay leaf in a pot and bring to a boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand until softened, about 5 minutes. Drain mixture, discard the bay leaf and remove and discard the stems and seeds of the chiles.
2. Place the softened chiles in a food processor with the orange and pineapple juices, vinegar, cinnamon, sea salt, garlic, salt, pepper, garlic salt, oregano, achiote paste and half the onion. Puree until smooth.
3. Cut meat into 4-5 even chunks. Pour the marinade into a large resealable plastic bag, add the meat and toss to coat. Refrigerate 24 hours.
4. Slide meat onto spit alternating with pineapple and onion slices. Cook until pork is ALMOST done to your liking…
5. Shovel some hot coals directly under meat and cook until edges begin to crisp.
6. Slice meat and pineapple off and cut into 1/2 in. chunks. Serve with corn tortillas. Garnish with chopped onion and cilantro. Squeeze a lime wedge over taco before eating ….
I then threaded the meat, pineapple, onions, and belly onto the rotisserie, running out of room with about a third of the meat left. So I decided to try just grilling the remaining meat topped with pineapple.
It took a bit of tending to flip the pork and grill the pineapple, but the results were pretty good. Meanwhile, the rotisserie was busy spinning in what could have easily been a method to forget, but being a nervous sort who follows directions on anything that can explode or burst into flames, I checked on the spinning meat often. I also found it pleasantly mesmerizing and soulful….
Over the next couple hours I checked the meat, reattached some smaller bits that had fallen off and began taking small bits and the occasional pineapple off when it started to char. I also set about prepping the remaining condiments. This involved chopped onion (which I had briefly rinsed to cut the edge) mixed with cilantro, sliced avocado (because eating any taco without avocado feels so, so wrong), a mix of cheese and some salsa. The salsa I made my quickly charring some tomatoes and jalapenos from our garden with a couple garlic cloves. I blended the mixture with lime juice, cilantro, salt and pepper and a chipotle pepper with some adobo sauce. It was smokey and fiery and I thought it would be perfect with the sweet pineapple.
Once the meat was done, we chopped it and the pineapple, tossing together what seemed like a good balance. I had researched tortillerias and found a number of good reviews for a place called Tortilleria Cuauhtemoc on South Federal. As it was just a block from Avanza where I’d be getting the dried chiles and achiote paste, I figured it was easily worth checking out and I was not disappointed. The tortillas were still warm when they were handed over and were just two bucks for a good sized stack. I immediately realized I could never, ever be happy with supermarket torts again- even if we only buy the local ones.
The assembled tacos looked and smelled amazing. And other than worrying I had used too much pineapple juice- thereby making the meat a tad mealy- I thought they were pretty rockstar. Our guests seemed to eat them up too and when I was explaining about my concern with the pineapple juice, one of their kids said, “be better than this? not possible.” And that was worth the efforts.
