Ema datshi is the national dish of Bhutan. When you think of "Asian" dishes, a chili cheese stew would not be the first thing that comes to mind. However, Bhutan's location at the edge of the Himalayas means an abundance of yak's milk, and therefore yak's cheese! I did not use Bhutanese farmer's/yak cheese for this recipe, although with a relatively large population of Bhutanese and Nepalese in Burlington, there are at least 3 Himalayan/Asian markets within 2 miles of me, so I probably could have found it if I tried.
A couple recipes I found suggested feta and blue cheese as substitutions, and since I had way too much of both in the fridge I figured I should use that up.
Aside from cheese, the other main ingredient in this dish is hot peppers. A variety of different peppers can be used: in Bhutan they use "sha ema" but jalapenos, Thai chilis, serranos, etc can also be used. I had a bunch of peppers that a coworker brought in from their garden. I never found out who brought them in, so I'm not sure what kind of peppers they are!
Since I was doing this one-handed (don't stick your finger in an immersion blender, kids!) I had Chris do most of the cutting for me.
The stew starts with a base of onions, which are boiled in water and oil along with the sliced peppers.
Most of the water evaporates and the peppers soften and release their spiciness into the stew.
Tomato and garlic are then added and simmered for a few minutes.
Then comes the cheese! There aren't any ground spices or salt and pepper in this dish because of the saltiness of the cheese and the spiciness of the chilis.
The cheese gets melted down and mixed in with the liquid to create a cheesy stew. Some versions are very thick, like queso dip, while some can be more like a thin soup with just a bit of cheese. This version is somewhere in the middle. I think the dish would have looked a lot better with some of the cilantro the recipe called for sprinkled on top (it needed some more color) but unfortunately I had to throw out my bunch of cilantro after my blender mishap.
Interestingly, this dish reminded me a bit of a spicy version of Fergesë e Tiranës me piperka from Albania.
I served this over some brown basmati rice, but Bhutanese red rice is popular and traditional. It definitely needed the rice to help counter the spiciness. It was just at the level of spice where it was still enjoyable, thankfully!
Recipes Used: Ema Datshi
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