On the menu,

Bhutanese Ema Datshi with Rumali roti and an eggless custard. Yes once again back with my series of International vegetarian recipes (boy, it has been hard to find out vegetarian recipes from a lot of the countries, I mean I can always adapt them, but still..). My series has been going really slowly because of my really odd working hours. Preparing to try out new recipes has been hard especially if it involves things I usually do not have on hand.

Here is really tasty recipe from Bhutan, even though it is originally a vegetarian dish, I altered it to my taste and the consistency I wanted.

Ema Datshi, modified from here

Ingredients

6 large anaheim peppers, roasted
3/4 cups water
6oz. Feta cheese
2 tsp. vegetable oil
11/2 cups diced tomatoes (I used half of a 32oz can)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp ginger
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
a pinch of hing
1/2 tsp. fresh cilantro leaves, chopped

Method
Roast anaheim peppers (I broiled them for about 15 minutes, let them sit in a zip lock bag for another 15- removed their skin and chopped them into chunks).
Heat oil in pan, add cumin, fennel seeds, and hing and cook for a few seconds (do not let them burn).
Add the onions and saute until translucent. Add ginger and garlic and cook for a few minutes. Add tomatoes, turmeric powder and cook down on medium heat. Turn the heat off, grind half of this mixture in a blend. Add it back to the pan and cook for a minute or two.
Add the peppers and water. Let it cook for about 10 minutes.
Just before turning the heat off, Mix in the feta cheese and cilantro. Serve hot


An authentic touch would have been to serve it Bhutanese red rice but instead I served it with rumali roti. The rumali rotis were not exactly the way they should have been. I adapted the recipe for the rotis from here. I followed the video link for the procedure, well I did not follow this quickie recipe properly, missed a few steps- may be that is why my rotis were not rumali!


For my rotis, I had
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup barley flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
salt to taste
Milk to knead


What in the world should this dessert be named as?

Ingredients for the custard-  2 servings
1 tbsp ghee

2 cups milk

2 Tbsp chickpea flour
2 Tbsp sugar or jaggery
handful of chopped pistachios

Method

Roast the chopped pistachios in ghee, set aside.

Roast the chickpea flour in the same ghee until it is toasted – it becomes slightly darker and emits a lovely roasted aroma. Add the milk and mix well, ensuring that there are no lumps. Add the sugar and boil gently for 5 minutes or until it thickens to a custard consistency. Add the pistachios. Let is set (takes about 5 to 10 minutes)

For the dessert, I did alternate layers of eggless custard, crumbled pistachio macarons (well these are my first attempt at making macarons-it was disastrous!) and eggless mocha pastry cream (followed this recipe to the T). 

Judgement: I must say this was a satisfying meal. Loved the saltiness of feta cheese in Ema Datshi, loved the dish overall (BIG THUMBS UP!). Rotis did not turn out so great (Tarla Dalal says this is hard one to make- so it is not me afterall, or so I would like to think). The dessert was amazing with just the right amount of sweetness. I must confess to being  literally full to the top- could not even get up after this meal.