- Hi, I'm chef Esdras Ochoa.
Today I'm gonna show you how to make
amazing al pastor from start to finish.
(groovy music)
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 own 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 flavor to it.
This is gonna start to blister a little bit
it's gonna change color,
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 own 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 labor-intensive,
it's very physical, it's emotional.
It takes me about 45 to an hour.
For me, personally,
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 it's very important that you 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 really 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 torch, 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 better shape
and then from there on it's the same process
until you finish all of your trompo.
Personally, I like to shave my pastor
off the trompo very thin.
Why?
Because everybody's favorite part is the crust.
The crust is the most flavorful part,
so if you shave it really thin
you're gonna have more crust component
into 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 flavor to it.
Gonna get it smokey.
This little syrup is gonna come out of it,
and then you slice it really thin.
A proper al pastor taco must have the following:
a corn or flour tortilla,
beautiful, thinly sliced, roasted, charred,
al pastor meat,
salsita 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.
(Western style music)