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Aaron Harvie's Smoked Pork Neck Tacos with Guacamole, Lime and Coriander

The greatest thing about firing up your smoker for a day of cooking is the ritual, cooking the BBQ is almost as much fun as eating the food!!!

For this recipe I thought we’d have some fun with the whole pork and apple thing... its pork marinated in apple juice, injected with apple juice and cooked over apple wood. I’m salivating just thinking about it. If you don't have a smoker, don't stress, this recipe works well in the oven as well... just don't add the wood chips to your oven or the fire department will be over your house well before its time to serve dinner!!! 

Serves: 10 Makes: 20 Tacos 

Ingredients

Smoker 1 bag apple wood chips 10 lime leaves Enough wood for 4-hours of cooking 1 marinade injector 1 spray bottle 

Pork 4 tbsp molasses (plus extra for glaze) 500 ml apple juice 2kg pork neck 4 tbsp soy sauce 

Guacamole 3 avocados, pitted with flesh scooped out 4 garlic cloves, crushed juice of 11⁄2 limes hot sauce to taste sea salt and cracked black pepper, to season 

Everything Else 2 red onions, thinly sliced 3 bunches coriander, roughly chopped (stems reserved) 1 bottle of Mexican hot sauce 5 limes (quartered) 20 flour tortillas 

Method

1. For the Pork... Add molasses and 50ml apple juice to bowl and combine. Add pork neck and coat well. Refrigerate for 3 hrs. Divide the remaining apple juice into two portions. Place one half apple juice in a glass to be used with marinade injector. 
2. Place other half apple juice in spray bottle with soy sauce. After 3hrs place pork on a wire rack in a foil baking tray. 
3. For the Smoker... (About 2 hrs into the marinade) Boil a kettle. Add apple wood chips to a bowl with lime leaves and coriander stems. Pour over enough boiling water to cover wood. Reserve. Start a fire in your smokers main chamber (we are using direct heat) and feed until coals ash over. Bring smoker to 100 ̊C. 
4. For the Pork... (After it has marinated) Place the pork on the foil baking tray onto one of the racks in the smoker. Grab a handful of the wet apple wood and distribute on coals. Close smoker and cook for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, open smoker and inject pork with apple juice in multiple locations. Spray pork with apple juice. Add a handful of wood chips and repeat process every 30 minutes until the pork has cooked for 3 hours and 30 minutes, ensuring your fire does not drop below 100 ̊C or rise above 120 ̊C. When the pork is done give it an extra spray with apple juice and a final glaze with molasses. Remove from heat and rest for approx. 30 minutes. 
5. For the Guacamole... (while the pork is cooking) Add the avocado to a mixing bowl and mash into a paste with a fork (I prefer to run it through a potato ricer for a smoother finish) Add the garlic, lime juice and hot sauce and combine. Taste and season with sea salt and cracked black pepper then set aside in the refrigerator. 
6. To Finish... Heat a dry, cast iron skillet over medium heat until hot (If you don’t have a cast iron skillet you can use a normal frying pan) and add the tortilla. Cook until ONE SIDE is mottled and slightly blackened. When done, remove from the pan and wrap in tea towel to keep warm. Repeat this process with the remaining tortillas. Slice meat into at least 20 portions (you may have left overs, yay!). 
7. To Serve... Add a generous spoon of guacamole to the tortilla. Top with smoked pork, a splash of hot sauce and a squeeze of lime. Add a few onions and a sprinkle of coriander and get ready for the sounds of a very happy Barbecure!!!