Tacos al Pastor

Adriana makes her Tacos al Pastor from pork which has been marinated and cooked in a special chile colorado sauce.  The meat is placed in a tortilla and garnished with a bit of sautéed pineapple.

Restaurant and home preparation methods are different.  Restaurants usually cook the meat on a vertical rotisserie spit much like a Greek gyro.  This is impractical for typical home cooking.  Restaurant style cooking is show in this picture story.

Adriana shows us a typical home method with excellent results.

The meat is thin strips of pork shoulder or loin.

The ingredients for the salsa are:

2 ancho chiles

10 huajillo (or pisilla) chiles

(The exact number and ratio of the chiles is unimportant.  Use what you have.)

2 garlic cloves, pealed

1 T cumin

8 cloves

½ onion

1 C white vinegar

Liquid from a can of pineapple

Adriana begins by breaking each chile to shake out the seeds.  All the salsa ingredients are blended together until smooth.

The strips of pork are well coated with the salsa.

At this point, some cooks will cover the meat and leave it to marinate in the fridge overnight.

Because of the press of time, Adriana let it stand on the counter for about an hour before beginning a slow cook.

After the meat had cooked for about a half hour, she added two sliced onions and covered the pan to simmer for another half hour until the meat was tender and the onions well cooked.

While the meat was cooking, she prepared the pineapple by dicing it into small bits and then sautéing in a bit of olive oil.

With the meat done and the pineapple ready, it was time to assemble the tacos.

Adriana dredged each tortilla in a bit of lard before laying it on a comal to reheat.

She chopped the meat into a small dice.

As the meat was spooned onto a warm tortilla, a sprinkle of pineapple was added.

I added a squirt of fresh lime juice to mine just before eating.  Very good lunch!

At this point my camera's battery failed.  When I returned home I discovered why the overnight charge had failed -- the charger was not plugged in.

Another damn senior moment. :-)

Anyway, you know what a taco looks like.