Adobo Spice Paste (modified from Rick Bayless)

Quantity sufficient for 3, 9 lb pork butts.

2 cloves
2 bay leaves
1 tsp cumin seeds
15-20 black peppercorns

Grind in a coffee grinder. And add to the following:

1 head garlic, peeled and chopped
1 cup ground chiles (ancho, new mex, guajillos, etc)
Pinch Ceylon cinnamon
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp thyme
1 ½ tsp salt
½ cup cider vinegar

Add enough water to soften the spices into a spreadable paste.

Spread paste on butt, smoke roast butt until tender. I recommend foiling at 160* internal so that the released juices can be separated and reserved for the sauce.

Sauce for Adobo Pork

1 batch of adobo spice paste (minus water)
1 28 oz can tomato sauce
Defatted juice from 3 pork butts

Blend well.

For the sauce, instead of chile powder, I used 10-15 whole dried chiles soaked in boiling water.

Mix sauce with pulled pork, serve with flour tortillas

more info here

This message has been edited. Last edited by: j biesinger,

What do you mean by "for the sauce, instead of chile powder...etc."?

You add that to the three other ingredients of your adobo sauce prior to blending?

Also, I don't know if I can get adobo spice paste. Can I use the stuff from canned chipotles, minus the chipotles?

Sounds good. I love this style of preparation as an alternative use of pulled pork. I can't wait to try it.

1 cup ground chiles (ancho, new mex, guajillos,

I don't have those peppers ground, but I do have the whole peppers. I assume I can just take the tops of, seed them and grind them to make 1 cup ground pepper?

quote:

1 cup ground chiles (ancho, new mex, guajillos,

I don't have those peppers ground, but I do have the whole peppers. I assume I can just take the tops of, seed them and grind them to make 1 cup ground pepper?

The recipe called for whole dried chiles. I happen to have more ground than I did dried and needed to use it up. And I used whole dried ones for the finishing sauce.

for both the sauce and the paste, steep them in boiling water before processing, adding water back into the blender as needed to produce the paste.

btw, these chiles happen to come from the kensington market on a recent trip to TO. we were kicking ourselves that we didn't buy fresh tortillas to bring back for the party. we were paranoid to bring food back over the boarder, but we talked to the customs guy that cleared us and he said there wouldn't have been a problem!

quote:

What do you mean by "for the sauce, instead of chile powder...etc."?

I made one batch of the adobo paste with ground chiles that I applied to the pork and one batch with whole dried chiles (steeped in boiling water) that was blended with pork juice and tomato sauce for the finishing sauce.

quote:

You add that to the three other ingredients of your adobo sauce prior to blending?

yes, make a batch of adobo and blend it with juice and tom sauce.

quote:

Also, I don't know if I can get adobo spice paste. Can I use the stuff from canned chipotles, minus the chipotles?

there's a place in kensington market area that sells whole dried chiles. it'll cost you around 7 bucks to get enough chiles to make the two batches of adobo for 3 butts. I'll bet you could find ceylon cinnamon there as well, however if you can't find it then omit it, chinese or cassia cinnamon will be out of place here, believe me, I know. and if you don't want to take my word for it read here

Aho ok, Now it's clear.

Cool, Kensington is pretty convenient for me.

Regarding your comment on bringing tortillas home, there's a better solution if you're wanting to get fresh tortillas (which I'm somewhat surprised you can't get in Buffalo, or am I misreading that).
1) Buy Masa flour. If you don't get it in Buffalo, plenty of grocery stores here have it. It's corn flour.
2) That plus water and a pinch of salt, mixes really easily and forms a dough. You roll it into a bunch of smaller than golf ball balls.
3) Then you need a tortilla press. I bought mine in Toronto's Little India. They use them for making chapatis (Indian tortilla, if you will).

If you need more info, let me know. I'm just saying since I've started making my own tortillas, I can't look back. So easy and so good.

quote:

Aho ok, Now it's clear.

Cool, Kensington is pretty convenient for me.

Regarding your comment on bringing tortillas home, there's a better solution if you're wanting to get fresh tortillas (which I'm somewhat surprised you can't get in Buffalo, or am I misreading that).
1) Buy Masa flour. If you don't get it in Buffalo, plenty of grocery stores here have it. It's corn flour.
2) That plus water and a pinch of salt, mixes really easily and forms a dough. You roll it into a bunch of smaller than golf ball balls.
3) Then you need a tortilla press. I bought mine in Toronto's Little India. They use them for making chapatis (Indian tortilla, if you will).

If you need more info, let me know. I'm just saying since I've started making my own tortillas, I can't look back. So easy and so good.

masa=masa harina? I buy masa harina quite frequently for making tamales.

we bought a tortilla press for my sister-in-law (she's a fajita fiend), I doubt she's used it. I'll see if she'll let me "borrow" it. thanks for the tip, I always assumed they would be a bit harder to make so never got around to making them.

Buffalo is quite devoid of mexicans. we have a bit of a puerto rican and dominican population though. It wasn't until about 5 years ago that we get one of those mexican slop houses (100's of things on the menu, all number combos of taco, enchiladas, etc) but now they're like mushrooms popping up all over the place.

I'm sure you'llbe able to find the place with the dried chiles, I remember it being across the street from the jamaican meat patty shop.

I'm not sure if it's masa harina.

Go to google images and type in "maseca"...it's instant corn masa flour. Anyhow, it's very easy to make your own tortillas.
And if you've got a press to 'borrow', you're in business.

And you need a cast iron pan. But anyhow. I've used them all the time for fish tacos and have been dying to make a pork adobo. Just a different twist on the old pork shoulder.

I have maseca in my pantry.

good luck with the adobo, be sure to post your results.