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Chile Addict Mark Stevens' Favorite Recipes

© Judy Howle

Born and raised in the tropical climes off of NJ Garden State Parkway Exit 109, 43 year old Chile-head Mark Stevens was not always a lover of hot and spicy food. When a local Mexican restaurant opened during his twenties he was introduced to mildly spicy cuisine. Mark says, "It was not until I needed to lose weight for health reasons in the early 90s that I discovered the truly versatile and addicting qualities of chile peppers! I had to reduce my caloric intake but did not want to feel deprived in my snacking and eating habits. I needed something that I could snack on that would ideally be low calorie and low fat, but would leave the definite impression that I had eaten something substantial. Rice cakes would obviously not fit the bill!"

Mark started out with pepperoncini and hot cherry peppers and worked his way up to the more robust varieties. He soon developed a taste for many regional and international cuisines such as Southwestern, Cajun, Thai and Indonesian and began to experiment with hot sauces, salsas and any other interesting uses of the pungent pods. "I started reading literature devoted to peppers such as Chile Pepper Magazine, any of the great books by Dave Dewitt, and one of my personal favorite books: "Peppers" by Amal Naj."

Mark was an early subscriber to the Chile-Heads Mailing List in the mid-90's, which is devoted to all aspects of chile peppers, from growing, harvesting, preserving as well as cooking and recommending hot and spicy restaurants. "Soon members of the Chile-heads mailing list, which has almost a thousand subscribers worldwide, began to host what were to be known as "Hotlucks," which were simply Potluck style dinners where hot & spicy foods were featured. I've attended Hotlucks over the last 5 years in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. During this time I was able to meet in person so many people who previously had only been known as text on the screen."

Mark created his own website devoted to spicy cuisine. Be sure to visit =Mark's Remarkable Website at http://www.exit109.com/~mstevens/hotlink...
Here are some of Mark's favorite recipes:

"It was while I was in New Mexico that I noticed that a popular local dish using the local green chiles was featured at nearly all the area restaurants. It was a green chile with chicken and vegetable soup. I made a version of it when I got home, but thought the substitution of Chipotles (smoked jalapenos) for the green chiles would give it more of a kick as well as adding a nice smoky note."

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