Today I'm gonna show you how to make an amazing al pastor from start to finish. So al pastor is a way of making tacos. It's one of the most popular tacos, I would say, in Mexico. It's usually made out of pork and it's layer by layer with different kinds of spices, different kind of rubs. I think a taqueria is not complete unless you have al pastor tacos. Today, we're gonna make my style. So first off, we're gonna toast all these aromatics. We're gonna toast the cloves, the bay leaf, the cinnamon sticks, the peppercorn, on your high heat. Rotate a little bit and mix it up. A lot of the smoke is gonna start to pop out and that's a good sign that you're on the right track. So we're gonna put this aside. We're gonna torch our dried chiles. In this case, we're gonna use California dried chile, we're gonna use guajillo. You can deep-fry these, you can toast them, you can boil them. In this case, we decided to go with the torch. Give a little extra smokey flavour to it. This is gonna start to blister a little bit it's gonna change colour, it's gonna start to become a little crispy and that's a good sign that you're doing it properly. So, now we're gonna get all these components, mix in our vinegar, our fresh garlic, our onion, our canned pineapple. And this is a little twist, this is my version of al pastor tacos, we're going to use molasses, 'cause it goes perfect with this marinade. So, we're getting everything together, we're gonna blend it so we have a nice thick paste. (playful music) So our adobo paste is ready to go. Now I'm gonna grab my meat. Particularly, I love to use pork shoulder and I like to cut it about a quarter-inch thick, not too thick, not too thin. I wanna be able to control the fat to the protein ratio. I like to marinade piece by piece because I like to keep track of every individual piece like I know where the good pieces are at, the little pieces, the trimmings. So now we're going to build in our trompo. I love to put a pineapple at the bottom of the base because when I start to trim the blade of my knife doesn't hit the steel at the bottom. Building a trompo is very labour-intensive, it's very physical, it's emotional. It takes me about 45 to an hour. For me, it's very relaxing, therapeutic, it's really fun. It's literally like doing a vertical puzzle, if you may. Usually when we make a trompo Mexicano taco, and that's about a 30 to 40 pounder, depending on the day. Out of that trompo, you could probably get about 300 to 400 tacos. So it's very important that when you're building your trompo al pastor is that you trim as you go. So you're gonna pile it up, you're gonna have these little off the edges trimmings and you put them in their right little places, you're building your puzzle, remember, so you must trim, you pile, trim, pile. Also, the biggest reason, too, is that if you were to trim everything at the end you're gonna have a lot of leftover trims and you can't put it inside the trompo anymore, it's too late. I love to finish it off with a piece of pork belly on the top. I score it a little bit to ooze out all the fatness and all the juices out of the pork belly. It waterfalls down and trickles down into the trompo and it's super important to keep it hydrated. It's a machine and you gotta have it oiled up and nice. So I'm all finished with my trompo. Now I'm gonna take it to my trompo spit, my vertical grill, we're gonna place it there and I want it piping hot, as high as it goes. Why? Because I wanna touch, I wanna sear every single layer I wanna get a nice caramelization, you know the molasses are gonna come through, they're gonna melt and it's gonna create this crust. Combining with the chiles, the fattiness of the pork. And then I'm gonna start shaving, maybe 20 minutes after the first sear I start trimming it, giving it a better shape and then from there on it's the same process until you finish all of your trompo. I like to shave my pastor off the trompo very thin. Why? Because everybody's favourite part is the crust. The crust is the most flavorful part, so if you shave it gonna have more crust component in each part of your taco and it's gonna be amazing. We're gonna get a pineapple, we're gonna slice it and put it directly on the grill. Dust it off with a little bit of sugar. Open flame is gonna caramelize it, it's gonna give it a different flavour. Gonna get it smokey. This little syrup is gonna come out of it, and then you slice it thin. A proper al pastor taco must have the following: a corn or flour tortilla, beautiful, thinly sliced, roasted, charred, al pastor meat, salsa, of course, I think that's super important, guacamole, you gotta have onion, cilantro, and you gotta finish it with that pineapple as your final touch on your al pastor taco. You're gonna have a sweetness to it, spiciness, smokiness from the meat, fattiness, sour, and it's from a little bit of squeeze of lime at the very end. All the components are coming together to make a magical bite. And that is how al pastor is made.
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