




Spice it up.

The recipes on this Web site are not all that spicy. They would be considered mild - call it “one pepper.” I like my food hotter. Not “four peppers” mind you, but at least a two or three pepper count on a scale of one to five (five being too hot for almost anyone).

There is a tomatillo salsa recipe that I prepared for a television segment a few years ago and the producer told me that the network felt that the recipe was too spicy. “Too spicy?” I replied.“No, it can't be.” So we made a version and had the crew of about ten people give their opinions. This would have been what I felt was a two and a half pepper rating. The results were about even. 3 said it was hot enough or could be hotter, 3 said it was about right and 4 said it was too hot.

I have modified the recipes in this book to be a “one pepper” spiciness. If you double the spice (peppers, chili powder, cayenne, hot sauce, etc.) it will be a two, triple will be about a three, etc. I generally tell people to start with the printed recipe and go slowly.

By the way, the spice doesn't add a significant amount of calories usually but in a dish where there are more complex flavors like a Melon Salsa the higher heat may obscure the other flavors.