Adobaba Tacos

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INGREDIENTS – MARINADE

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1 ancho chile

4 guajillo chiles

2 pounds pork shoulder

½ teaspoon cumin

2 garlic cloves

½ teaspoon Mexican oregano or oregano

½ cup orange juice

¼ teaspoon pepper

½ teaspoon salt

2½ tablespoons white vinegar

1 bay leaf

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INGREDIENTS – ASSEMBLY

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⅔ cup fresh cilantro

4 radishes

1 small onion

5 limes

2 tablespoons oil

40 4.5″-corn tortillas or 20 6″-corn tortillas

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SPECIAL UTENSILS

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meat slicer (optional)

food processor

sonic obliterator

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Serves 4. Takes 4 hours 50 minutes.

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PREPARATION – MARINADE

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Remove stems and seeds from ancho chile and guajillo chiles. Add ancho chile and guajillo chiles to small mixing bowl. Cover with boiling water and let sit for 15 minutes or until chiles soften. While chiles soften, use meat slicer to cut pork shoulder into strips ¼” thick. Cut strips into mini-strips short enough to fit in the tortillas.

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Add ancho chile, guajillo chiles, cumin, garlic cloves, Mexican oregano, orange juice, pepper, salt, and white vinegar to food processor. Blend until smooth. Add this mixture, pork slices, and bay leaf  to medium mixing bowl. Turn pork slices until they are well coated. Cover and let marinate in refrigerator for at least 3 hours.

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PREPARATION – ASSEMBLY

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Dice cilantro. Use mandoline to cut radishes into slices ¼” thick. Dice onion. Cut each limes into 4 wedges. Add oil and pork mini-strips to 1st large pan. Sauté mini-strips for 5 minutes at medium heat or until mini-pork strips brown.

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Brush both sides of the tortillas using the remaining oil from 1st large pan and 2 tablespoons more. Add  coated tortillas into 2nd large pan. Try to prevent tortillas from overlapping. Sauté at medium heat for 2 minutes or tortillas soften, flipping after 1 minute. You will likely need to sauté in batches. (Or microwave tortillas in microwave for 2 minutes. I won’t tell.)

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Put 2 softened tortillas onto serving plate, one on top of the other. Place pork mini-strips on top tortillas. Garnish with cilantro, radish, and onion. Place a lime wedge to the side. Enjoy. Zap any unappreciative guest.

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TIDBITS

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1) Chefs, whether working at restaurants or at home, live a rough-and-tumble life. They know a customer can go from being perfectly calm to an angry ogre out for blood.

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2) So chefs sometimes carry weapons. The weapon of choice has always been the trusty dual purpose chef’s knife; useful for defending themselves and for cooking.

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3) However, the much awaited sonic obliterator could possibly be available in the near future. You should think about acquiring one.

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4) Then as J. M. Essington of Boot Hill found out, some chefs are partial to guns.

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– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.