Tacos al pastor, a Mexican classic with Lebanese roots
Are you also a fan of Mexican cuisine? Then you may have heard of tacos al pastor. This traditional Mexican dish of juicy, grilled pork, with a marinade of chile peppers and pineapple has its roots in Lebanese cuisine. Al pastor tacos are a staple dish in Mexico and every taquería owner has their own version of it. Are you curious about al pastor tacos? I gladly tell you all about it and share my recipe with you.
What is al pastor?
Al pastor literally means in the style of the shepherd. It is a specific style of cooking in which marinated meat is roasted on a vertical spit. Why does it refer to a shepherd? Shepherds in the region of Puebla, Mexico loved this style of cooking and spread the dish throughout the country. According to another version, al pastor refers to the true origin of the preparation: shawarma of lamb.
The origins of tacos al pastor
Tacos al pastor have their origins in Lebanon. After the Ottoman Empire disintegrated at the end of the 19th century, many Lebanese emigrated to Mexico. They brought their culture and knowledge of lamb shawarma with them. Thin slices of lamb were slowly roasted on a vertical spit and served in a small unleavened bun. This is the doner kebab as we still know it. Mexicans do not eat lamb and replaced it with pork. The pita roll became a tortilla. After two generations, the tacos Árabes had become tacos al pastor.
What meat do you need?
Mexican cooks prepare large strips of pork from the blade shoulder on the trompo. On this rotating, vertical spit, the pork roasts very slowly. The meat is then cut into thin slices with a large knife and baked off on a metal plate. Just because you don't have a trompo doesn't mean you can't make tacos al pastor! Roast the slices of pork shoulder on the charcoal grill and you can enjoy this classic at home.
If you don't like pork
Don't like pork? Replace it with chicken or fish. If you're vegetarian, roast portobello mushrooms or nopales, the leaves of the fig cactus. At Cosme in New York, I ate lobster al pastor. It was a great dish of roasted lobster with a tartare and cream of pineapple. You can make shrimp as well as squid al pastor. In each case, it comes down to marinating the protein and then roasting it.
The marinade.
The marinade is basically an adobo, an aromatic sauce prepared with dried chiles, garlic, vinegar and spices such as cumin, oregano and bay leaf.
What chiles do you need?
Adobo is a slightly spicy sauce that you prepare with the following chiles:
Ancho: these are dried poblano chiles, the most commonly used in Mexican cuisine. They have rather a mild and somewhat sour taste. On the Scoville scale, the ancho measures between 1000 and 1500 units. The scale is a measure of the heat level of chile peppers. It goes from 0 for a bell pepper to 2.2 million for the super-hot Carolina reaper.
- Guajillo: This chile pepper with its dark red color is quite large. It tastes rather sweet and berry-like and is slightly spicy. It measures 2500 - 5000 units on the Scoville scale. You can replace the guajillo with a cascabel.
- Chipotle: this dried jalapeño with its typical smoky flavor is the most pungent of the three chile peppers used in adobo sauce. It measures 5000 - 8000 units on the Scoville scale.
You can buy adobo sauce prepared. It usually contains whole chipotle chiles. You can incorporate the chipotle into other dishes or puree it into the sauce. You can use adobo in all kinds of Mexican barbecue dishes, with tortillas and with tacos. Also try it with your favorite bean recipe.
This is how to make your own adobo
You can buy the necessary chile peppers online. My go-to online shop for chile peppers is https://shop.westlandpeppers.com/nl/. Fresh, authentic Mexican corn tortillas can be purchased at Tortilleria Taiyari's website https://taiyari.nl/.
Ingredients for adobo
- 4 ancho chiles
- 4 guajillo chiles
- 1 chipotle chile
- 5 cloves unpeeled garlic
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 clove
- ½ teaspoon black pepper balls
- ½ teaspoon dried Mexican oregano
- 125 ml cider vinegar
Taco’s al pastor:
Ingredients for 4 persons
- 800 g pork slices from the shoulder, maximum 2 cm thick
- 125 ml adobo
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- ½ pineapple
- 1 sweet onion
- ½ bunch coriander
- 2 limes
- 12 corn tortillas
- Guacamole
- Salsa ranchera, you can find the recipe in my blog on tacos with carne asada.
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Preparation of Adobe
Remove the stems and seeds from the chile peppers. Heat a pan and dry-roast the chiles until they smoke but do not burn. Remove them from the pan, place them in a mixing bowl and pour hot water over them. Put a weight on the chiles so they stay under the water. Let them soak for half an hour. Then remove them from the water but keep the water.
Meanwhile, in the same pan, roast the spices, except the oregano. It should release an aroma, but the spices should not burn. Once cooled, you can grind them into powder.
Roast the garlic in the pan until the skin is scorched. Peel the cloves.
Combine all the ingredients in a blender and puree them into a creamy sauce. You can dilute the adobo with the water in which you soaked the chilies.
Your adobo is now ready. You can make the sauce ahead of time and keep it in the refrigerator for several days.
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Preparation of taco's al pastor
Step 1: marinating
First, brush the cuts of meat with the adobo sauce. Place them in a dish, cover and let marinate for 3 to 6 hours.
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Step 2: mise-en-place
Start by cutting the pineapple into wedges. Also remove the hard center and skin. Peel the onion and cut it crosswise into thick slices. Brush the pineapple pieces and onion slices with oil. Coarsely chop the cilantro and cut the limes each into 4 pieces.
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Step 3: roasting
Get the barbecue ready. Make sure the fire is hot and that you grease the grill with oil. Place the pork slices on the grill. After about 5 minutes you can turn the meat over. Grill for another three minutes or so. Remove the meat from the grill and let it rest.
Next, grill the pineapple and onion pieces until they show grill marks. Cut them into smaller pieces.
Now just warm the tortillas on the barbecue. Keep them warm in a cloth.
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Step 4: serving the tacos
Cut the meat into slices as thin as possible.
Place the tortillas on plates and top them with the meat, pieces of roasted pineapple and onion and with the cilantro. Arrange pieces of lime on each plate. Put bowls of guacamole and salsa ranchera on the table.
This Mexican fiesta can't be beat!
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