Opinion – Recipes from Marcão: Pork taco with pineapple is a Mexican food invented by immigrants from Lebanon

What comes to mind when we think of Mexican cuisine? Pepper certainly appears first.

There are a multitude of types of pepper in Mexico — although not everything is spicy in the cuisine of the country, which will compete for the Cup in the group headed by Argentina.

Soon after, in the imagination of Mexican food, come the tacos. But it’s not those American diner tacos, a half-moon of fried corn dough with ground beef and cheese.

The Mexican root taco is made with a soft tortilla — a flat disc of dough —. Usually the tortilla is made with corn, but in northern Mexico the wheat flour tortilla also appears in the taco.

Taco is a food that you send inside with your hands, making an envelope with the stuffing and trying at all costs not to get dirty. The effort is often fruitless.

Speaking of fruit, pineapples go all out in one of the most popular taco recipes, which also features pork, onions and cilantro.

Taco al pastor, a must-have street food in Mexico City, has an interesting history. It would have been created in the 19th century by Lebanese immigrants, who decided to sell shawarma – kebab roasted on a vertical rotating skewer – to Mexicans.

Traditional shawarma is made from mutton, hence the “shepherd” of the name. In the absence of pita bread, they started using tortillas. Then they exchanged the mutton for pork.

Finally, they introduced pineapple to break down pork fat with acidity—pineapple and pork is a combination that never fails.

To prepare tacos al pastor at home, it is necessary to make some concessions and other adaptations. Following the original to the letter is impossible if you don’t have a Greek barbecue machine in your kitchen. It would be a sin to deprive yourself of such delicious pork, so let’s grill the meat on the grill, on the grill or in the frying pan.

Another change concerns the ingredients. Pepper, for example. Mexican recipes call for “chiles” that are very difficult to find here, if not impossible.

I used a chili pepper—I’m not a fan of hellish heat— and a chipotle (smoked jalapeño) that lived in my fridge. Use whatever amount and variety of pepper you think is best. In the absence of chipotle, a spoonful of smoked paprika gives the spice a smoky tone.

Finally, a substitution that can irritate the most puristic Mexicans. Corn tortillas are difficult to find even in São Paulo (don’t even bother trying to make them at home, I say from experience), so I made my tacos with wheat ones.

They are found in any market and are much larger than the standard corn tortilla – which, for me, is more quality than defect.

Tacos al Pastor

Yield: 6 large tacos

Difficulty: medium

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons of oil.

2 tablespoons of paprika.

2 onions.

3 cloves of garlic.

1 teaspoon of salt.

1 tablespoon of cumin.

1 teaspoon of oregano.

1 chili pepper or chili pepper.

1 chipotle pepper in adobo or 1 tablespoon smoked paprika.

1 teaspoon of salt.

100 ml of vinegar.

1 bunch of coriander.

500 g pork loin steak, thinly sliced.

2 slices of pineapple.

6 wheat tortillas.

1 Tahitian lemon.

PREPARATION

1. Heat the oil with the paprika to enhance the annatto flavor. In a food processor or blender, blend the paprika with an onion, garlic, salt, cumin, oregano, peppers, vinegar and half the cilantro.
2. Let the pork marinate in this seasoning for at least 1 hour — I followed a recipe that called for flavoring for 24 hours (and I didn’t regret it).
3. Grill the meat and pineapple on the grill or griddle. Chop and mix the two. Reserve. Chop and mix in the rest of the onion and cilantro. Reserve. Lightly heat the tortilla.
4. Assemble the tacos by placing the meat with pineapple in the tortilla and, on top, the onion with cilantro. Squeeze some lemon and eat it with beer