Ema datshi

Ingredients

• Green chillies — large, milder variety400 g
• Datshi or feta cheese300 g
• Onion1
• Garlic5 clove
• Tomato1
• Butter30 g
• Red rice — to serve350 g
• Saltto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Quarter the chillies lengthways. The seeds stay in; in Bhutan they are not removed.

   12 min

2. 2

   Put the chillies, sliced onion, garlic and tomato in a pan and add water to the same level.

   5 min

3. 3

   Bring it up and cook ten minutes, until the chillies soften.

   12 min

4. 4

   Crumble the cheese in, drop the heat and leave it two minutes; it should begin melting on its own.

   4 min

5. 5

   Stir it into a creamy sauce, add the butter and salt cautiously; the cheese is salty.

   5 min

6. 6

   Serve with the red rice Bhutanese cook to a slightly sticky texture.

   8 min

About the dish

Chilli here is the main ingredient by weight rather than a seasoning. Whole pods are quartered lengthways and simmered — the dish is very hot by any standard.

Datshi is the local fresh cheese of cow or yak milk, crumbly rather than stringy. It does not pull into threads but melts into a creamy sauce; feta comes closest.

There is almost no oil, spice or onion in the classic version. Everything is built on water, and the flavour rests on heat, salt and milk fat alone.

Worth knowing

• — Do not boil the cheese. Over a high flame it separates into grains and oil, and the sauce cannot be brought back.
• — The heat is set by the variety of chilli rather than the quantity. The Bhutanese version is genuinely fierce, and milder varieties are a legitimate adaptation worth naming as one.
• — The same principle works with potato — kewa datshi — and mushrooms — shamu datshi. The cheese base is identical.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

380 kcal

Protein

16 g

Fat

24 g

Carbs

26 g

More from Bhutan

• Jasha maroo — Chopped chicken in a thin broth with ginger, garlic and chilli. Bhutanese everyday cooking.