Fall Recipes: Seasonal Smells + Southwest Flavors

My house often smells of whatever food is in season in the valley. For a week or two every fall, it smells like roasted chiles. My husband and I bug the staff at our local farmers market well in advance of when they start roasting chiles to see which weekend we can get two bushels of chiles to skin, de-seed and put in bags for the freezer to be used all year. It’s a big job, but it pays off when I dig in the freezer in winter and fall to make the green chili stew recipe I’ve written about before, this recipe or an endless variety of Southwestern recipes that I eat all year.

From the haven of my kitchen, I can only imagine running the big fire-roasters outside during the Indian summers we have in Colorado. The big plastic bags of chiles we get are usually still hot from the giant roasting basket, and occasionally, we get impatient and burn our fingers, because we don’t wait long enough to let them steam the skins off.

The smoky, sweet and spicy aroma lingers in my kitchen for weeks. Despite wearing gloves and washing my hands often, the scent clings to my hands and arms. My students and friends often comment that I smell so good — like dinner. I just grin and reply that I think I smell like autumn in the Southwest.

Photos by Cat Mayer.

GREEN CHILE MAC + CHEESE

SERVES 6

3 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 cups roasted green chilies, diced

3 Tbsp flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cumin

8 oz cheese, shredded (I used asadero this time but have used Monterey Jack or cheddar in the past to much acclaim of my husband.)

2 oz additional cheese for baking, if desired

2 ¼ cups of milk

One pound pasta, cooked and drained

One pound pork or chicken, cooked and shredded

1. Over medium-high heat, sauté the onions in the butter and oil. When they start to sweat, add the flour to make a roux. The goal is to make a sort of béchamel as the base for the cheese sauce. Try to avoid lumps, and incorporate the flour into the fat as much as possible.

2. Once the flour is starting to brown, add the chiles and continue to sauté. You may need an additional teaspoon or two of fat.

3. Add salt and seasoning.

4. Once everything is sautéed to a hot temp, turn down the heat to medium-low or low. Add one cup of milk, stirring constantly, to make a thick sauce. Do not boil.

5. Starting with the cheese, alternate adding a quarter of each (if you use more than one kind of cheese) and the remaining milk to incorporate with the sauce. You want the temperature to be warm enough to melt the cheese but not hot enough to simmer, or the cheese may break. You may need to add a little more milk if the sauce gets too thick.

6. Once all of the cheese and milk are incorporated, add cooked pasta and shredded meat. Once everything is hot, you can eat it like this, but if you want a baked style mac and cheese, put it in a casserole dish.

7. If you want to bake your finished dish, you’ll need 2 ounces of cheese to sprinkle on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. In the last 10 minutes, add the extra cheese to the top, and bake until the edges are golden.

SHREDDED PORK FOR TACO/BURRITO FILLING

SLOW COOKER

2 pounds pork shoulder or pork butt roast

2 jalapeños, diced

1 whole onion, diced

1 orange, quartered, or half a cup of orange juice

2 bay leaves

1 tsp Mexican oregano

1 whole dried chile guajillo

2 tsp cumin

1 tsp salt

FRY FINISH

2 tsp cumin

1 tsp chili powder

Pinch of salt

Pinch of garlic powder

1. Cook eight hours on the low setting in the slow cooker. Remove bay leaf, orange rinds and dried chile. You can eat them like this or finish them to be more like street tacos (you may want to adjust the seasoning).

2. To finish the pork, pan fry with the cumin, chili powder, salt and garlic powder. Pan fry until the edges are crispy.

3. Serve on tacos with lime, avocado and cilantro, or use in other recipes. It also makes a good start for pulled pork sandwiches.

Originally published in the Fall 2023 issue of Spoke+Blossom.