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Thoughts on Cooking Up a Mexican Fiesta
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Personally, I'd ditch the mini-trompo presentation for the al Pastor, as it's a PITA, doesn't work all that well, and actually kinda misses the point. The times I've tried it have resulted in some innovative new profanity, and crisping most of the meat up on the plancha anyway, so why bother? So now I just use Kenji's recipe/technique, which seems like a lot of effort, but really doesn't take much hands on time at all. Plus, you can make it ahead of time, so all you need to do is slice it up and crisp it on the plancha. Bonus drinking time.
The tinga reheats well, and is arguably better the next day anyway, so you're good there.
See, all you've got to do now is cook some steaks and heat up tortillas. More bonus drinking time.
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I agree it really comes down to your comfort level in handling the balls in the air for delivering the level of quality food you want to do for your guests.
Unless you are delivering for a bunch of fellow Pitmasters, I think everyone is going to be pretty blown away by your tacos al pastor presentation and not really question the details of the rest of the meet beyond yummy. I frequently recall that many of the meals we consider utter failures are eagerly eaten by our guests.
If you think your audience will actually find it cool to watch you serve and plate three meats off the grill at once, I dunno, maybe reconsider.
Or you can just invite all of us next time and we can ooh and ahh over your deft performance.
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Don’t forget the Mexican rice! Here’s one to try:
You won’t be disappointed in this, and this is authentic as it gets - Mexican fried rice! - Click here to see the full recipe!
But here’s my easy fave:
Los Barrios Family Mexican Rice
★★★★★
Mexican/Tex-Mex, Rice, Corn & Grains, Sides
Ingredients:
3 tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon chicken base
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
1½ cups white rice
½ cup vegetable oil
½ green bell pepper, or poblano, chopped
½ onion, chopped
2 cups HOT water
Directions:
Place tomatoes, garlic, chicken base, and salt in blender. Purée until smooth. Add the water, blend thoroughly.
Heat the oil in a large skillet and add the rice. Toast the rice until it begins to brown. Add pepper and onion and sauté until vegetables are tender.
Pour the tomato mixture into the skillet with the rice and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the two cups of HOT water, stir well , cover and simmer 10 minutes. Reduce heat, allow rice to cook 5-10 minutes longer or until rice is tender and all liquid is absorbed. [TAKES LONGER!] Fluff with a fork and serve.
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Great looking menu, and 7 is not many folks to cook for to be honest, so this should be a relaxing cook. I probably would have pared it to two meat choices, but regardless - that Blackstone griddle/range ought to come in handy for prepping a lot of this. You've got plenty of tools and be sure to get some pics of the results for us. Curious to see which of all your cookers you choose to make this meal happen.
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Thanks, that does look great and yes, looks like I could get everything ready the day before and then just finish in a skillet the day of.
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Personally, I would opt for cooking the day of, and if you time it right, all will be ready at meal time.
For the beef (carne asada), I think you could do this on your griddle easily, along with any veggies such as peppers and onions, and slice the flank or skirt steak at meal time. For the chicken tacos you could marinate it and cook on the flat top as well. Griddles are great for taco stuff in my opinion. I like boneless skinless thighs for this, more than breast meat.
For the al pastor, I suggest the skewer approach and just cooking over charcoal on your Keg or another grill. I've done that for shawarma lately several times, and then carved the meat on the cutting board. It worked VERY well, and I was able to rotate as I carved from the skewers, and get a bit of the outside char into each piece of meat.
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I do my Al Pastor in a bread pan. Pineapple is roasted with Al Pastor drippings. You can make this a day or two ahead to save some time. Then you just chop it up and heat it up on a griddle. It comes out very good, just not the visual presentation as on a rotisserie.
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For the chicken, look at Troutman's Chicken Tinga recipe which seems like it could be done before hand
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