Tacos de Adobada/Tacos Al Pastor

[PVPAUL]

So, after sitting on the sidelines for at least a year I’m getting ready to jump into making “Al Pastor” tacos. While I understand that taste is a preference and that coming out of the gate one will likely be  tweaking the recipe. For this post. .I’m questioning the quantity of “Achiote Paste” in this specific recipe. I see that “Troble” in his initial post mentioned adjusting the sugar on future cooks. Also, I researched the quantity of “Achiote Paste” on a pretty large number of recipes on the web and I don’t see any that use as much as this recipe. In researching the flavor profile of “Achiote Paste” I see peppery and bitter associated with this. Like making beer there is a balance between sweetness and bitterness. 

I’m wondering if any of you out there who have made this recipe have decided to cut back on the Achiote paste or have increased the sugar content to offset the bitterness? If yes I would appreciate your feedback. 

My plan is to cut back on the Achiote Paste to start with and to just taste and adjust until it seems like I have the flavor profile that is pleasing to me.

Thanks, 

PS, just including a picture of the meal we cooked ast Friday - Chicken and Mole Enchiladas, Cheese and onion Enchiladas, Mexican Frijoles y arroz…..everything is homemade including the tortillas and mole (made 9 gallons of mole the weekend before). The plates are simple peasant type my dad had made in El Salvador in 1976…..I treasure these. 

 

[tony b]

13 hours ago, PVPAUL said:

.everything is homemade including the tortillas and mole (made 9 gallons of mole the weekend before).

Dude, that's a shit-ton of mole sauce!

[C6Bill]

Love the plates !!!!

[PVPAUL]

Hey @tony b, yes it is a shit ton. We have a family recipe that we multiply X10. We used a total of 14lbs of dried chiles (3 types) along with a bunch of other ingredients. A lot of prep work leading us to cook day. We started at 9am and finished up at 5:30 and pretty much worked straight through. We use mole in a number of recipes including enchiladas, tamales, pozole and chicken and mole. I make this with my cousin and we split it in half and this last us about 12-18 months. It turned out a little sweeter than previous batches and I’m attributing this to fresher sweeter currents than in the past. We package it up in hermetically sealed barrier freezer bags in 2&4 cup sizes. Mole works great for saucing up chicken wings cooked with sunny side up eggs! 

Adios,

[EGGARY]

 

[tony b]

17 hours ago, PVPAUL said:

Mole works great for saucing up chicken wings cooked with sunny side up eggs! 

That sounds EGGcellent! 

[tekobo]

On 4/25/2023 at 1:50 AM, PVPAUL said:

I’m wondering if any of you out there who have made this recipe have decided to cut back on the Achiote paste or have increased the sugar content to offset the bitterness? If yes I would appreciate your feedback. 

 

Hi Paul.  I don't like bitterness at all but I do not find this marinade or achiote at all bitter.  I always do the recipe as per @Troble's video and as I noted in an earlier post here.  The overall amount of marinade is significant and I find that I use what I need and then freeze the rest for using another time.  Works really well that way as it saves the effort and mess of making this up each time you want to do a cook.  

[PVPAUL]

Thanks much @tekobo . I have all of the ingredients so I’ll post results and pics to the forum / thread once I make this. 

All the best,

[Troble]

@PVPAUL - as @tekobo said I wouldn’t mess with the recipe too much, the quantity is a lot but you can save it as she suggested. It also depends how much you’re cooking. I’m usually doing 8-9lb cut of meat so you need a lot of marinade. I’ve played around with other recipes over the years and md er thought they had that “authentic” flavor that I get from tacos in Tijuana. This is as close as I get

for cross reference though you can always check recipes from Rick Bayless he’s the best American chef I know who cooks Mexican food and my palate aligns with his. He’s got a few but here’s one of his note the paste to meat ratio 

https://www.rickbayless.com/recipe/tacos-al-pastor-at-home/

Edited May 7, 2023 by Troble

[tekobo]

A friend's son is coming home on holiday from his job in Spain and made sure my husband and I would invite them for an evening of cocktails and food before he chose his dates and booked his flight.  Flattering but that also came with the burden of figuring out what to cook.  I  have always loved the intensity of flavour that the Spanish manage to extract from minimal ingredients and wasn't sure what would impress her.  That was until I came back to the forum and saw this thread.  The die is cast - the princess will dine on tacos al pastor!

[Troble]

@tekobo I haven’t made this since January 2022 and I’ve been itching for it. I believe I’ll make it this weekend 

as a point of reference I was able to go down to my spot in Tijuana last month for the first time since 2019 and I may or may not have eaten 7 adobada tacos 

[tekobo]

Getting set here.  I made up a new batch of marinade yesterday.  I previously tried to "whisk" the achiote and made a huge mess of myself and the kitchen.  This time I chopped it up and stuck it in the blender with the rest of the sauce.  The blender had to work hard to process it all but it did a good job and the marinaded meat is now waiting in the fridge.  Hope to get it on in about an hour and a half.  When I told our friends that I would be making al pastor they were very pleased.  They said their son's girlfriend would be impressed with his "connections".  Not sure how cooking al pastor gets you up the social ladder but I'm not complaining!

 

 

[tony b]

Yep, achiote paste is worse than turmeric for staining everything it touches!

 

[Poochie]

I just bought my first "block" of achiote paste yesterday.  Any tips for using it would be appreciated. I'm guess what Tekobo said about the blender or a food processor would be the way. 

[jonj]

@Poochie, make careful note of how small @tekobo cut up the half block before putting it into the blender. It is hard to turn it into a sauce, but well worth the effort.

[Troble]

@tekobo waiting to see finished pics! I have decided to do this as my big Memorial Day cook this year so I’ll take notes of tips you might have from this cook. 

 

[tony b]

23 hours ago, Poochie said:

Any tips for using it would be appreciated.

Wear gloves. This stuff stains like nobody's business.

If I recall, (I haven't done this recipe in a long time), if you warm the paste up in the microwave briefly, it gets easier to work with. 

[Troble]

@Poochie you can cut it up into smaller pieces but just letting it it in the liquid and dissolve a bit before you whisk it will also help a lot

[tekobo]

@Poochie, all of the above are good pieces (ha!) of advice.  I found the blender the easiest way to process it all.  I was a little worried that the blender might be permanently stained by the mix but it washed off no problem at all.

@Troble this continues to be a winner with anyone who eats it. Here's the picture before I sliced it up to crisp up.  The pineapple had cooked well and we sliced that up and included in the tacos as we ate.  Yummmy.  The other spike had six chicken thighs on it (just in case the new girlfriend didn't like pork).  I marinaded that in the roadside chicken mix posted elsewhere on the forum.  That was a winner too.  

Colourful sides.  The crispy chicken skin was also a hit.  The new girlfriend turned out to be a real foodie and told me not to bother with re-frying the beans as a Mexican friend's mother had just served them boiled and they were great.  So I did as she said and she was right.  I just seasoned with black salt and some Japanese pepper.  Missing from the picture is the obligatory jug of green crack sauce from @Troble Peruvian pollo recipe. 

We finished with pink gooseberry clafoutis.  I took my eye off the ball and they got a bit burned but the up side was that meant that the outer part of each "muffin" acted as a cup for the gooey contents.  A good time was had by all.  And Oli showed his love for his new girlfriend by sharing the last piece of crunchy chicken skin with her. 

References:

 

[Troble]

Looks pretty perfect to me @tekobo nicely done