Wednesday, May 5, 2010

tacos al past or tacos al present

Tacos al pastor are my number one favorite thing to order in Mexican restaurants. I've been meaning to learn how to make them at home for a while now, but when I originally looked up the recipe there was all this talk about shawarma and cooking the meat on a spit with intermittent layers of pineapple.  I'm not ready to invest in my own spit quite yet.  I was able to find a couple of other recipes that did not require such a purchase, and I blended the two recipes to make this creation.  It consists of marinating a fatty piece of pork (shoulder or butt, loin would probably work too) and then slow cooking it at low heat on the stove top or  in a crock pot.

The meat was a little spicy, but not too spicy, and had lots of different delicious flavors that combined to make one delicious flavor spread amongst many different tacos.  top each little taco with your fixings of choice: cilantro, lime, onions and even jalapenos if you have them.

and happy cinco de mayo everybody!


TACOS AL PASTOR
Marinade:
1 large white onion, chopped coarsely
1/2 can pineapple chunks and all juice from the can
1/2 cup orange juice
1 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup guajillo chile powder
8 garlic cloves, halved
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 small chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
2 teaspoons adobo sauce from the chiles

Meat:
1 2-3 pound pork shoulder, cut into 1 1/2 inch chunks.

For serving:
Fresh cilantro
lime wedges
chopped white onion
chopped fresh jalapenos

Blend all marinade ingredients in a food processor or blender.  Pour into a bowl with the meat, stir to cover the meat and marinate for two hours or overnight.  After the meat has marinated, place meat and marinade into a large pot on medium-low heat, add remaining pineapple chunks and cover.  Cook for about 2.5 hours or until meat is tender.

Serve on warmed corn tortillas with a sprinkling of cilantro, lime, onion and jalapenos.