Bhutanese Chilies & Cheese: Ema Datshi

Bhutan, pronounced "boo-tawn," is a country located in the Himalayan Mountains. When India was a colony of Britain,* Bhutan was heavily tied to British foreign policy, but it remained independent in domestic rule. When India gained independence, which resulted in Pakistan becoming a separate country,** India assumed the same role in foreign policy with Bhutan, until Bhutan finally achieved total control of its own affairs. The people of Bhutan LOVE hot chili peppers, so don't be surprised by the amount of chilies used in this dish, which is a stew and it is one of the national dishes of Bhutan. You can certainly tone down the heat some by using fewer chilies, or by substituting bell pepper for some of the hot chilies, but to be quite honest, if you don't like much heat, this dish is not for you, and it IS SUPPOSED TO BE HOT. I use a mixture of green and red chilies. The first time I made this, while I love chilies, I thought I would likely have to call the fire department to extinguish the fire in my mouth, but it wasn't nearly as hot as I had thought it would be. Cooking chilies often reduces some of the heat, and that's what happens with this dish, but it IS HOT. When seeding and slicing hot chilies, use rubber gloves to protect your hands. In Bhutan they tend to use homemade yak cheese, but I checked with my neighbors, and nobody had a yak; so, after looking over some 20 recipes for this dish, I found that a mix of blue cheese (I like Gorgonzola piccante) and feta works well, but I've used cheddar or Muenster as the second cheese too. I'm hoping by the next time I make this dish, someone nearby will have a yak. 
  
Ingredients:

2 inch piece of ginger, chopped
2 cups hot green or red chilies (or mixed), seeded and cut into lengthwise strips
1 1/2 cups sliced onion strips 
zest of 1/2 lemon, grated
juice of 1/2 lemon  
1 teaspoon ground or crushed Sichuan peppercorns (or ground black pepper/crushed peppercorns)
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper (or sweet paprika for no heat)
1 cup chopped fresh tomatoes, they can be juicy (or use tomato puree)
1/3 cup water (if needed, or use less than 1/3 cup)
1/3 cup mixed pieces Gorgonzola cheese and feta cheese
2 tablespoons vegetable oil + 1 tablespoon butter (or 3 tablespoons ghee/clarified butter)

Heat the oil/butter in a skillet or sauce pan, then add the ginger and the ground turmeric and saute for just a minute or so. Reduce the heat to low, then add the onion strips and saute gently for about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent browning. Add the chili peppers and saute a further two or three minutes, again stirring to prevent browning of the ingredients. Add the lemon zest, peppercorns and ground cayenne pepper. Cover and cook over very low heat for about 20 to 30 minutes, or until the chilies and onions are softened, but not mushy. Add the tomatoes, lemon juice and water (if needed). Cook another 5 minutes (still very low heat), then cover and cook 5 more minutes. Add and stir in the cheeses, cover again until the cheeses melt; stir to mix everything well. The dish should not be like soup, but rather it should just have some flavored liquid. Serve with rice. "Traditionally" this dish is served with red rice in Bhutan. You can find red rice in some supermarkets, or grocery stores with products from the Indian Subcontinent. For Clevelanders, it is available at the West Side Market (I'm sure other places have it too, and there is actually a little grocery store operated by a Bhutanese family not terribly far from me here in Cleveland). You can also use brown rice, or white rice.    

* In the times of British Colonial India, the areas comprising modern Pakistan and Bangladesh were part of India.

** Pakistan became a separate country with two separate and distinct geographical regions about a thousand miles apart comprising the nation. By the early 1970s, the eastern region became the separate nation of Bangladesh.

I had the Chilies & Cheese with red rice ... 

WORD HISTORY:
Mother-This word is distantly related, through Indo European, to "maternal," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English from French. It goes back to Indo European “mater/mehter," meaning "a female who bears offspring," and the offshoots of Indo European have given similar words to most of the modern European languages. The Old Germanic offshoot was “moder,” which then gave Anglo-Saxon “modor,” which then became "moder." The modern spelling with "th" didn’t evolve until the 1500s. The basic form is used throughout the other Germanic languages, as German has “Mutter,” Low German Saxon “Moder” (also "Mudder" in special cases), Dutch has “moeder," Danish has "mor," but also "moder," Swedish has “moder,” but also "mor," while Norwegian has “mor” (the "mor" forms are simply contracted forms) and Icelandic has "móðir" (essentially =mothir). Frisian once had "moder," which then became various forms in Frisian dialect (moer, Muur, Mooter), but modern West Frisian, the largest of the modern Frisian dialects, has "mem." Whether this is some form of the earlier "moder," or a development like English "mum" (British English), "mom" in American English (both from "mamma/mama/momma/mommy"), I don't know.