Some Like it Hot - Bhutanese Chilli Cheese

I have always considered chillies to be a spice used for flavouring and not the main body of a dish.  How wrong I was!  Having been to Bhutan and eaten their national dish 'Ema Datse' I am now a convert to eating chillies as a vegetable.

We loved the variations of this daily dish and I looked forward to recreating it at home.  I am not a chilli connoisseur and am restricted from being able to buy a particular variety. I have made do with a variety pack from my local supermarket which has a combination of both red and green chillies.

While on holiday our guide talked us through how to make it and then I resorted to my guru Google to read other people's attempts. The recipes I found used 1/2 lb chillies which seemed an excessive amount to me.  The first time I made it I used 10 chillies which our guide informed me was too many for two people.  He advised 5 chillies so I have now amended the recipe. The first recipe I read used an equal quantity of cheese to chilli and this seems like a good rule to follow.  As with all my recipe interpretations it will often change on a daily basis but the basic principles are the same.

So this is my version of Chilli Cheese:

Ingredients
5 large chillies (weigh them to calculate how much cheese)
Feta cheese and gorgonzola (if you want it richer then put in as much as you like and to                                                 hell with the weighing!)
1 onion, sliced
handful cherry tomatoes, quartered, or 2 whole tomatoes cut in to wedges
handful sliced mushrooms
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
3/4 cup water
2 tsps olive oil
1/2 tsp coriander

Method:

• Slice the chillies length ways into strips and deseed to your preference of heat.  I like to leave most of the seeds other than perhaps one, but I do like it hot. Boil the chillies and onion in the water with 2 teaspoons of oil for 10 minutes.
• Add the tomato, mushrooms and garlic and simmer for 2 minutes.

• Add the crumbled cheese and simmer for 2 minutes
• Add the coriander and cover, turn off heat for 2 minutes.

Serve over rice and enjoy. I have made this weekly since our return and as with most of my recipes it is already evolving.  Yesterday I added sliced peppers and left out the mushrooms. If you have no other vegetables it's just as tasty with only chilli and onion. 

As in life, there are no rules ... just try it and see what works for you.

I wish I had the choice of chillies that abound in Bhutan and when I look at the meagre packets of dried chillies available in the supermarket I dream of being back in the markets of Thimphu:

Let me know how you get on with livening up your taste buds