03-01-2008, 11:20 AM
That restaurant looks yummy, but...
Yesterday, for attempt #2, I once again tried one of my Comidas Mexicana favoritas! Pork al Pastor. There are lots of variant recipes, but I found one that seemed fairly reasonable awhile back. Usually - at the most superior taquerias - the al pastor is cooked on an upright electric rotisserie. I don't have one of those, so I used my Weber rotisserie. 6 pieces of boneless pork roast marinated in the magic ingredients for a little over a day, spitted alternately with fresh pineapple circles and cooked for about 2.5 hours. Made a baste of orange/pineapple juice, veg oil and the 3-C's: clove, coriander, cumin.
The tips of the pork roasts got fairly charred - and they were the best part. With the upright ala taqueria rotisserie, you just carve off the cripsy bits from the outside. With the weber, I couldn't really do that. So I only got a hint of what I really wanted, which is the crispy, sweet-from-pineapple-juice bits. The flavor was fairly spot on though. When I cook up some leftovers for lunch, I'll probably crisp them up in a pan to see if I can approximate the yumminess.
All in all, I think I just don't have the tool to make this really work. I'll have to head over to Tacos Morenos in SC soon for a refresher tasting.
Yesterday, for attempt #2, I once again tried one of my Comidas Mexicana favoritas! Pork al Pastor. There are lots of variant recipes, but I found one that seemed fairly reasonable awhile back. Usually - at the most superior taquerias - the al pastor is cooked on an upright electric rotisserie. I don't have one of those, so I used my Weber rotisserie. 6 pieces of boneless pork roast marinated in the magic ingredients for a little over a day, spitted alternately with fresh pineapple circles and cooked for about 2.5 hours. Made a baste of orange/pineapple juice, veg oil and the 3-C's: clove, coriander, cumin.
The tips of the pork roasts got fairly charred - and they were the best part. With the upright ala taqueria rotisserie, you just carve off the cripsy bits from the outside. With the weber, I couldn't really do that. So I only got a hint of what I really wanted, which is the crispy, sweet-from-pineapple-juice bits. The flavor was fairly spot on though. When I cook up some leftovers for lunch, I'll probably crisp them up in a pan to see if I can approximate the yumminess.
All in all, I think I just don't have the tool to make this really work. I'll have to head over to Tacos Morenos in SC soon for a refresher tasting.