Shamu Datshi

Ingredients

The mushrooms

• 600 gmushrooms
• wild or cultivated
• see the notes
• sliced thickly

The cheese

• 250 gdatshi
• Bhutanese soft cheese
• or feta and mozzarella
• mixed, see the notes
• crumbled

The rest

• 6green chillies
• split lengthwise
• or to taste
• 2onions, sliced
• 4garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 tablespoonsbutter or oil
• about 200 ml water
• salt

To serve

• Bhutanese red rice
• or plain rice
• ezay chilli relish

Directions

1. Adjust it to your own tolerance. It cooks in about twenty minutes. Brush the dirt off with a cloth. Do not soak them in water at all. Slice the mushrooms fairly thickly. Thick slices hold their shape. Cut from the tip toward the stem. Leave the stem end of it attached.
2. Leave them in for the full effect. Melt the butter in a heavy pot. Add the sliced onion into the pot. Cook it for about five minutes. It should soften without browning.
3. Add the crushed garlic to the pot. Give it about one full minute. Add the sliced mushrooms to the pot. Stir them through the melted butter. Let them cook gently in the butter.
4. Add less water than you might expect. Add the split chillies to the pot. Pour a little water into the pot. Add only enough to make a sauce. About two hundred millilitres is right. Add more later only if needed. Cover it and simmer it gently. Give it about fifteen minutes.
5. Take the pot right off the heat. Crumble the cheese over the mushrooms. Crumble it rather than adding it whole. Scatter it across the whole surface.
6. Cover the pot and let it stand. Give it about five full minutes. Stir it all gently just to combine. Stir it just enough to mix it. A few gentle turns of it is enough. Oil separates out on the surface. Taste it and then adjust the salt.
7. Taste before adding any at all. It often needs none whatsoever. Add a little water if too thick. Serving it is always done hot. Ladle it over Bhutanese red rice. It keeps two days refrigerated.

Technique

• Wild mushrooms must be correctly identified: several deadly species closely resemble edible ones, cooking does not destroy their toxins, and some cause organ failure days after eating. Misidentification kills people every year, which is documented and serious. Do not gather them yourself unless you are genuinely expert — books and apps are not sufficient and local expertise is what is needed. Buy from a reputable seller, or use cultivated mushrooms, which work perfectly well here and carry none of that risk.
• Take the pot off the heat before the cheese goes in and let the residual heat melt it under a lid for five minutes. Cheese boiled hard splits and goes rubbery as the proteins tighten and squeeze out the fat, giving a greasy stringy mess — that timing is the whole technique.
• Clean the mushrooms by brushing or wiping rather than soaking, since they are mostly water already and soaking adds more, which floods the pan and stops them browning entirely.

Substitutions

• Feta mixed with a little mozzarella approximates datshi, the feta giving the sourness and crumble and the mozzarella the melt; no substitute is genuinely the same, since datshi has a particular character, and the atlas records that rather than pretending they match.
• Bhutanese red rice is the traditional partner, nutty and slightly chewy; plain rice works as a substitute, and have plenty of it since the rice cuts the chilli and balances the rich cheese.

Variations

• The finished sauce is grainy rather than smooth and should not be stringy at all — that is entirely characteristic of datshi rather than a fault, so do not try to make it smooth. Stir it only a few gentle turns, since vigorous stirring breaks the mushrooms and makes the cheese stringy.
• Split the chillies lengthwise from tip toward stem leaving the stem attached, which holds them together in the pot and releases their heat gradually; scrape the seeds out for a milder dish. Wear gloves, since capsaicin transfers readily to hands and then to eyes.
• Slice the mushrooms thickly, about a centimetre, since thin slices collapse into the sauce, and add less water than you might expect — mushrooms release a great deal of their own.

History

The mushroom version of Bhutan’s datshi family, best in the monsoon when wild mushrooms reach the markets.

Frequently asked questions

What is Shamu Datshi?

Shamu Datshi is a main from Bhutan: mushrooms stewed in melted local cheese with chillies, ladled over rice. The mushroom version of Bhutan’s datshi family, best in the monsoon when wild mushrooms reach the markets.

How long does Shamu Datshi take to make?

Shamu Datshi takes 20 minutes of preparation and 25 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes serves 4. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Shamu Datshi?

Yes, within limits. Feta mixed with a little mozzarella approximates datshi, the feta giving the sourness and crumble and the mozzarella the melt; no substitute is genuinely the same, since datshi has a particular character, and the atlas records that rather than pretending they match. Bhutanese red rice is the traditional partner, nutty and slightly chewy; plain rice works as a substitute, and have plenty of it since the rice cuts the chilli and balances the rich cheese.

What is the most important thing to get right in Shamu Datshi?

Adjust it to your own tolerance. It cooks in about twenty minutes. Brush the dirt off with a cloth. Do not soak them in water at all. Slice the mushrooms fairly thickly. Thick slices hold their shape. Cut from the tip toward the stem. Leave the stem end of it attached.