Bhutanese Ema Datshi with Hot Green Chilies, Yak Cheese Stew and Red Rice

Wash and cook the rice: rinse the Bhutanese red rice in cold water until the water runs faintly pink. Place in a heavy pot with 600ml fresh water, the salt and the ghee. Bring to a boil, reduce to the lowest heat, cover tightly, and cook 35-40 minutes until the grains are tender but still have a slight chew. Off heat, rest 10 minutes covered, then fluff with a fork. The rice should be a deep russet-pink with a nutty fragrance.

Ingredients

• For the ema datshi (serves 4):
• 300g (10 oz) fresh long green chillies — Bhutanese ema or Hatch green chilies; substitute Anaheim, Hungarian wax, or jalapeño for less heat
• 200g (7 oz) yak cheese (datshi) — substitute crumbled Cypriot halloumi, mild feta or mozzarella + 2 tbsp cottage cheese
• 1 medium yellow onion, sliced into half moons
• 4 garlic cloves, lightly crushed
• 1 medium ripe tomato, sliced into wedges
• 2 tbsp Bhutanese yak butter — substitute ghee or unsalted butter
• 1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns, lightly cracked (optional, Bhutanese border touch)
• Salt to taste (be careful — cheese is already salty)
• 250ml (1 cup) water
• 1 tsp Bhutanese chilli powder (ezay) for finishing — optional, only if you like extra fire
• For the red rice:
• 300g (1.5 cups) Bhutanese red rice (Thimphu valley red) — substitute Camargue red rice or short-grain brown rice
• 600ml (2.5 cups) water
• 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
• 1 tsp yak butter or ghee
• To garnish:
• 2 spring onions, finely sliced on the bias
• Small handful fresh coriander leaves
• Lemon wedges (optional, modern Thimphu touch)

Instructions

1. Wash and cook the rice: rinse the Bhutanese red rice in cold water until the water runs faintly pink. Place in a heavy pot with 600ml fresh water, the salt and the ghee. Bring to a boil, reduce to the lowest heat, cover tightly, and cook 35-40 minutes until the grains are tender but still have a slight chew. Off heat, rest 10 minutes covered, then fluff with a fork. The rice should be a deep russet-pink with a nutty fragrance.
2. Prepare the chillies: slice the green chillies lengthwise into long quarters — Bhutanese tradition leaves the seeds in for full fire, but you can scrape them out for a more approachable version. Cut each long quarter into 5cm batons.
3. Slice the cheese: cut the yak cheese (or halloumi substitute) into 1cm cubes. If using feta or mozzarella, crumble roughly. The cheese should be in chunks substantial enough to soften but still be recognisable in the finished stew.
4. Build the stew: in a wide heavy saucepan, place the sliced onion, crushed garlic, tomato wedges and chilli batons. Add the 250ml water and bring to a boil. Reduce to a brisk simmer, partially covered, for 8-10 minutes — the chillies should soften but retain some bite, the onion should turn translucent, and the tomato should melt into the broth.
5. Add the cheese and butter: scatter the cheese cubes evenly over the chilli broth. Drop in the yak butter (or ghee) in spoonfuls. Sprinkle in the cracked Sichuan peppercorns if using.
6. Cover the pot and let the cheese soften over the lowest heat for 4-5 minutes — do NOT stir during this phase. The cheese should slowly slump into a creamy molten mass without breaking. Stirring too early causes the cheese to ball up rubbery.
7. Gently fold once or twice with a wooden spoon to combine the cheese with the chilli broth into a creamy white stew flecked with green, garlic-amber and tomato-red. The sauce should coat the back of a spoon. Taste — add salt only if needed (most cheese is salty enough). If you like extra fire, dust in a teaspoon of Bhutanese ezay chilli powder.
8. Serve immediately: mound a generous portion of red rice on each warmed plate. Spoon the ema datshi alongside (Bhutanese custom is rice-on-one-side, stew-on-the-other, not over the top). The fiery stew should pool slightly into the rice.
9. Garnish with sliced spring onions, a few fresh coriander leaves, and a lemon wedge on the side for modern Thimphu palates. Eat with the right hand, kneading a small ball of red rice between your fingertips and dipping into the creamy chilli-cheese stew — the Bhutanese eating ritual that has not changed in 400 years.
10. Ema datshi (literally 'chilli cheese') is the unchallenged national dish of Bhutan and possibly the only national dish in the world where the principal vegetable is also the principal heat source. Bhutanese cuisine treats green chillies as a vegetable rather than a seasoning — locals eat them by the bowl, raw, dried, smoked, pickled and stewed. The dish originates in the high-altitude valleys of Paro, Thimphu and Bumthang, where Bhutanese yak herders developed datshi cheese from yak milk and matched it with the abundant summer chilli harvest. The fourth Druk Gyalpo (King) Jigme Singye Wangchuck reportedly ate ema datshi at nearly every meal, cementing its place as the most beloved food in the kingdom. The dish is served at every gho-and-kira festival, every dzong reception, and every household across Bhutan from breakfast to dinner. Visitors to the country are gently warned by their guides that 'a meal without ema datshi is not a Bhutanese meal' — and the heat level served to foreign tourists is considered, in Bhutanese eyes, comically mild. Pair it with cold buttermilk (the Bhutanese cooling trick) and a cup of suja, the salt-butter yak tea of the high Himalayas.