Tacos al Pastor Recipe
Dinner for Two
This recipe makes 30 to 40 street size tacos, enough for two adults or one very hungry one.
Ingredients
The following ingredients might be hard to find depending on where you are in the world, I am based in the UK and I order them online from my friends at MexGrocer:
35 g of Guajillo Chillies
35 g of Ancho Chillies
1 dried Chipotle chilli (about 9 g), if not available you can use canned chipotle chunks.
Achiote paste (20 g)
30 to 40 Street taco size Corn Tortillas (Placeras)
The following ingredients you can hopefully find at your local supermarket:
1 kg of boneless pork meat (shoulder, loin, fillet, etc.)
½ onion (about 70 g for the marinade, I prefer red onion but use whatever type you have)
1 large red onion (this one is to be chopped and served with the tacos)
Several slices of pineapple without the core (fresh prefered but canned will work)
½ cup fresh orange juice (120 ml)
¼ cup distilled white vinegar (60 ml)
3 Garlic cloves
Lime wedges
The following ingredients have approximate measurements but once you are mixing them in the blender please start with very little amounts and add accordingly, some will depend on your own taste but please be very careful with the Ground Cloves as I have ruined the dish once by putting too much of it.
½ teaspoon of Marjoram
½ teaspoon of Oregano
¼ teaspoon of Cumin
¼ teaspoon Ground Cloves. (very important to the recipe but be careful because if you put too much this will overpower all the other flavours and this is all you will taste).
Salt to taste.
Black pepper to taste.
Preparation
IMPORTANT! I highly recommend that you wear gloves (Amazon sells ready-to-touch-food latex and non latex ones) at least the first time you attempt this dish as some of the ingredients might cause a reaction if you touch your face, eyes, etc. (trust me, mistakes happen, lol) and/or will permanently stain anything they come in contact with, namely the marinade we are about to make.
Let’s do this! In a pot, start boiling just enough water to cover and soften the chillies for 5 minutes, we are going to then use some of this water to balance the consistency of the marinade so make sure you have enough left after the boil.
While you wait for the water to boil, start deveining/deseeding the Guajillo, Ancho and Chipotle (if you are using the dry one) chillies. You can use scissors to achieve this quickly, cut the stem side off and cut the length of the chilli to easily remove all the insides, if you are not wearing any gloves, make sure to wash your hands after this process, you can thank me later, lol.
Once the water is boiling, place all the chillies you just prepared in it and boil them at high heat for 5 minutes until they are soft, once this happens put the pot with the chillies to the side and let it rest.
Chop 1-2 slices of pineapple (about 120 g) in small chunks to make it easy to blend with the rest of the ingredients. Make sure to remove the core.
Get your blender ready and start adding the following:
The Chillies you boiled (without the water, keep the water for later)
The chopped Pineapple
Achiote paste
Garlic
Onion
½ Cup of fresh Orange Juice
¼ cup distilled white vinegar (60 ml)
½ teaspoon of Marjoram
½ teaspoon of Oregano
¼ teaspoon of Cumin
¼ teaspoon Ground Cloves.
Salt to taste.
Black pepper to taste.
Add some of the water that you used to boil the chillies at ½ cup batches until the desired consistency is achieved.
Blend on high for 4-5 minutes, we are looking for a consistency similar to Ketchup (our mix won't be as smooth but the thickness/density should be similar or a little bit more runny is fine, you don’t want it too runny). If your mix is still too thick then just add some water from the boiled pot or you can always add a little bit more of orange juice but be careful as this will add flavour and acidity too.
We need to rub steaks with the marinade, for this step I use a large freezer ziplock bag but you can use whatever you have available, just make sure that if you use anything that is not made of glass it might get stained so choose accordingly. Place the steaks inside the ziplock bag and pour the chilli marinade from the blender into the bag, close the bag tight and rub the steaks with the marinade until every single bit of the meat is covered (give it a good shake and rub for a few minutes), open the bag a bit and let all the air out, close it back and make a tight-ish roll with the bag so the meat is covered with the marinade, leave the bag on the fridge for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight as the marinade will penetrate further into the meat.
On the day that you are going to cook the meat, grill or fry some slices of pineapple, once that is done chop them into small chunks and put on the side.
Finely chop some coriander and red onions and set aside.
Depending on your setup, have one frying pan/skillet to cook the meat and a pancake pan/regular frying pan to heat the tortillas.
Fry each steak for about 2-3 minutes per side ensuring every bit of meat is cooked, raw pork is extremely dangerous so make sure you cook every steak all the way through. Once all the meat is cooked, place it on a large chopping board and start cutting it into small chunks (similar size to the picture at the top of the recipe).
Return the meat to the grill/frying pan at the lowest heat (or no heat if the pan is still hot) to keep it warm. Start heating the tortillas in the other frying pan, you can do them in batches and keep them warm inside a clean folded kitchen cloth.
Place four to five tortillas on a plate (if your tortillas break easily you will have to double up) put a good serving of meat on each one, top it up with the chopped onion, coriander and pineapple, put some of your favourite hot sauce (you can get a variety of these online at mexgrocer or make your own), lastly finish it up with a squeeze of lime and salt to taste.
Here comes the best part, eat 15 -30 tacos with a few beers and enjoy life! =)
I hope you enjoy these tacos! If you have any comments, suggestions or find any mistakes on this recipe please comment below.
