Carolina: “Bienvenidos” I’m Carolina Laxa Mcbride welcoming you to Sue?os, the Spanish word for dreams. It’s here that culinary awakenings combine rich Mexican flavors with the colorful d?cor that’s reminiscent of a Frida Carlo painting. And I’m looking forward and dreaming about tasting some authentic Mexican Cuisine right now.
So let’s go behind the burner and meet the chef. We’re here with Chef Sue Torres. What are you making for us?
Sue: Tacos al Pastor. So here we have our dried up a guajillo, ancho, chili d’arbol, some paprika and cumin.
Carolina: All right. This is your secret chili powder, right?
Sue: Right, and some ground up onion and garlic. I’m going to just mix that all in together. I like to use blended oil and you want to slowly incorporate the oil to make it almost like a paste.
Okay. I like to trim off a little bit of the skin here, the fat. And you can make ketchup on this if you wish which is this skin, kind of fried in its own fat. It’s just really nice. The reason why I take off some of the fat and want to leave some on is because I want the meat to get the flavor of the chilies. I want it to be directly on there.
Carolina: So it’s important to leave some fat on.
Sue: You want to leave definitely some fat on. I think that this is enough. Put our pork in the bowl with our chili mix. And then before I put it in the oven, I chop up a pineapple and put a little layer of pineapple at the bottom and a little layer on the top.
So I like to do a nice pineapple salsa to go on top of the pork. We’ve cut off one end of the onion. We want to leave intact the core end because this core is holding all of the layers of the onion which will make it very easy for you to chop into a beautiful dice. So with your knife, you want to go down not completely to the end, just making thin slices. Now, you want to make a good slice or two in keeping your fingers far away from the knife, and then you can come down and make a nice even dice.
So this is a Serrano chili and we’re going to slice this up really fine and toss it in there. It’s going to give it a little bit of a bit.
Carolina: That is very hot.
Sue: I could see that your eyes are tearing. A tip for that, when you have chili and spices and it’s too hot on your mouth, milk, dairy—any kind of dairy. It’ll be really good for you. Sour cream, a little glass of milk, whipped cream, ice cream. It will tone down.
Carolina: It just upsets the fire that I’m feeling in my mouth right now?
Sue: The fat is solid and the dairy product will actually coat the chili. And then nothing like a little fresh squeezed lime juice. And, most people would take a lime and cut it right down the middle to squeeze out the juice, but it goes against the segments. So, here is the middle of my lime and I want to go a little bit to the right, maybe half of an inch to the right at the center and make one slice here. And then, we’re going to cut this big piece into two. So we’re going to squeeze the fresh lime.
Carolina: Look at this. What are we eating?
Sue: These are tacos al pastor. This dish is originally from Quebec.
Carolina: This pork is great with your spices combined. Delicious, fantastic, but also like you said, the pineapple salsa gives it that fruity flavor. And all combined, it gives you one kick in your mouth when you’re eating it. Here’s a toast to you. Thank you so much, Chef Torres.
Sue: Thanks for coming to Sue?os. We’re happy to have you.
Carolina: Behind the burner, members can take advantage of our special promotions to enjoy custom blended spices prepared by Chef Sue Torres.
Stay tuned on “Behind the Burner” where we give you the tips, tricks and techniques that are light in the culinary world on fire.
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