Ema Datshi Recipe: Taste of Bhutan

We are back from Bhutan but the smell of fresh air still lingers on. Walks up and down the hills, on the narrow mud trails, through the jungles have left aching legs but blissful spirits. Back in India, we were going through the pictures, when the picture of our going gaga over this one Bhutanese dish popped up, salivating our tongues with the mixed taste of cheese, mushrooms and chilies. We are talking about Bhutanese national dish called Ema Datshi (Ema: Chilies, Datshi: Cheese) and Shamu Datshi (Shamu: Mushrooms). We had both these dishes all the time with red rice.

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Datshi dishes had become our favorite option in vegetarian section followed by fried momos. We wished for a miracle to happen and strike across a Bhutanese restaurant in Bangalore, however some miracles were destined to be man-made. After quick research about the recipe, grocery shopping, we were all set to set table for a Bhutanese dinner. We decided to go for Shamu Datshi and rice. The recipe is easy and quick.

What we need for Ema Datshi?

• 1 bowl of mushrooms
• 3 cloves of garlic, smashed and chopped
• 1 sliced onion
• 1 sliced tomato
• 3 chilies with seeds removed and cut along the rib
• Oil, salt and pepper

How to prepare Ema Datshi?

Heat the oil; add garlic and mushrooms to it. Add 1 cup of water to it. Let it boil. Add tomatoes, chilies and onions. Let the mixture boil for 2 minutes. Add cheese and salt (we used Amul cheese) and let it simmer for 2 minutes, only till the time cheese is molten. You can add pepper according to your taste also.

Have it hot with white rice or red rice. And to add to the delight and go back in memory lane, we served the food to ourselves in the wooden bowl we got from Bhutan. Don’t remember the taste, color or smell because we just dug deep in the bowl and ate our hearts out humming the Bhutanese song we had heard on all our bus journeys.

Enjoy your Bhutanese Delicacies.

Happy Exploration !!