With fall bringing the first chill, then frost and time to cozy up to a nice warm fireplace, I thought you would like some of my favorite fall dishes.  Most take long simmering which brings wonderful aromas.  Also, to remember the spice and zing of green chiles--we are placing our Green Chile Powder on sale at 25% off.  This is a huge discount as powdered green chile is difficult to make and beware it is HOT!  Many have told me they use it more as a condiment (even carrying it in their purses for sprinkling on boringly mild dishes at restaurants) to sprinkle on foods such as you would salt or pepper.

One of the dishes that seems like the rite of fall is Carbonnades, which I discovered many years ago.  It is credited with being Belgian and is totally delicious and wonderful.  You brown squares of beef and roast them with beer and onions until browned and oh so wonderful and then top them with fluffy dumplings.  I admit--not  a chile in sight--but you can sprinkle on some green or red chile powder to pep the dish up and let each guest determine their own desire.

Old fashioned pot roast done Texas style is mighty hard to top.  Amazingly--you roll the chuck roast in Gordon's Rub and roast covered  very slowly about 1 hour a pound.  You must have at least a 3 1/2 pound roast for it to work and it must be choice or better grade with a good amount of fat marbling.  The juice the roast produces is totally wonderful---spicey and great for cooking veggies in.

Our November 8 - 10, 2019 full participation weekend cooking school still has some half price openings.  It is a gloriously beautiful time to come to Corrales and New Mexico with the purply blue skies, golden cottonwoods dotting the area and red chile ristras draping from many a portal.  In the class you will learn the very favorites of New Mexican cuisine.  For complete menus and to register just click this link.

Our Balloon classes last week were a hoot and a holler--especially the Tamale roll where we had a chock a block full class of people from all over the US--inlcluding Alaska!  We made 4 kinds of tamales--including dessert tamales.

In the Red Chile Fiesta, we made 2 kinds of chili, Red Chile Enchiladas, and one of my favorite desserts--Red Chile Chocolate Cupcakes--I am giving you the recipe here-- 

CARBONADES WITH DUMPLINGS

A special stew-like casserole that is tremendous for early fall days, after a football game or leaf raking or other rigorous outdoor activity. It’s a splendid follow-up for a beer keg party too. (It uses up stale beer very well.) There are several tricks to assure marvelous flavor which I’ve tucked into the directions. A critical one is to crisply brown the outside of the beef cubes, a few at a time, to create a rich brown sauce. You can either freeze a whole casserole ahead or prepare it a day or several hours before and leave it simmering while you’re out. This great stew originated in Belgium.

Temperature: 325°F

Cooking time: 3 hours or more

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

½ cup or more cooking oil

½ cup flour

4 pounds lean roasting beef such as round, arm, or rump cut into 1-inch cubes

6 large onions, thickly sliced

2 garlic cloves, finely minced

¼ cup dark brown sugar or molasses

½ cup dry red wine

? cup chopped fresh Italian  parsley

1 Tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped, or 2 teaspoons dried leaves, crushed

1 Tablespoon salt or to taste

Freshly ground black pepper

1 pint beef stock (fresh, canned, or beef bouillon)

1 quart beer or 2, 12-ounce bottles or cans plus water 

1. Heat oil in large heavy frying pan and brown floured beef cubes a few at a time until each is well browned. A medium-high heat works best. Add more oil if necessary.
2. As cubes are browned, place in bottom of 6-quart or larger Dutch oven or other heavy casserole with a tight-fitting cover. Lightly brown onion slices.
3. Preheat oven to 325°F. Add onion slices to top of casserole. Add garlic, sugar, half of wine, herbs and seasonings.
4. Pour off excess oil, then deglaze frying pan with the beef stock and add to beef-onion mixture. Stir casserole together lightly and skim off extra oil.
5. Add beer and cover casserole. Bake until meat is tender—at least 2 hours. Add remaining half of wine and cool, if planning to freeze. 

freezing hints: Package in rigid cartons or a very large bowl. Thaw stew, if frozen, overnight or for a day in the refrigerator. 

6. To serve, bring carbonades to a simmer while preparing dumpling dough. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Do not freeze with dumplings. If you wish to freeze leftovers, freeze the dumplings separately from the carbonades. 

maximum recommended freezer storage: 3 months 

DUMPLINGS

1 1/2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons fresh or 1 tespoon dried, minced chives

2 Tablespoons  fresh minced parsley

2 Tablespoons soft butter

½ cup milk or enough to make soft dough 

1. Mix dry ingredients together, then cut in butter, being certain butter is well distributed. Then add milk and stir just to make a soft dough, adding more milk if needed.
2. When stew is at a bubble—but only simmering, never boiling—add dumpling dough by first rinsing a metal tablespoon in hot stew, then dipping out a spoonful of batter and holding batter-filled spoon in stew just long enough to release dumpling. Repeat until all batter is used. Make certain stew is barely bubbling.
3. Cover tightly and cook for 15 minutes without peeking. Test to see if dumplings are done by pricking with a tester or fork. If no dough clings to tester—serve it up! 

Serve with cold beer, a simple vegetable, and light salad. The cooking pot is the best serving container for the stew as it will maintain heat best—critical for fluffy dumplings.

  POT ROAST

This pot roast benefits from using a dry rub, which has been popular in Texas for some time. They impart flavor and are easily applied. Brisket is very easy to cook this way and becomes quite juicy and amazingly fork tender--in fact a fork almost drops through the roast.  

Yield: 10-12 servings
Temperature: 425 F, then 200 F

1, 5-6 pound beef brisket or chuck roast, trimmed of excess fat, leaving at least ¼ inch layer
¼ cup ground black pepper*
¼ cup ground medium-hot chiles*
2 Tablespoons salt*
1 ½ Tablespoons garlic powder*
1 large Spanish onion, sliced ¼ inch thick
Minced parsley (optional)
Crushed pequin chile (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 425 F. Trim brisket and bring meat to room temperature. Create a rub*, by mixing black pepper, ground chile, salt, and garlic powder together. Then sprinkle rub onto the top and sides of the meat, using a large spoon, then rub in with your fingers. Turn and sprinkle with the rub mixture and rub in. The rub should be uniformly spread in a thin layer over all sides of the meat.

2. Place in a large roasting pan that has a tight-fitting lid. Top meat with onion. Close any steam vents. Roast 30 minutes. Then reduce heat to 200?F and roast 1 hour per pound or until beef is fork tender. Do not peek for the first three hours. The brisket cooks in its own juice and will not need any added liquid.

3. When the meat is done, let it stand at room temperature about 20 minutes with the lid removed to allow roast to absorb some of the juice and to stabilize before carving. If desired, before carving, garnish the top with minced parsley and sprinkle of pequin chile. Serve with the pan juices and your favorite barbecue sauce, if desired.

*Or, use Gordon's Rub instead, omitting the starred ingredients.

See the entire archive of Southwest Recipes for more ideas about cooking with chiles.