Ezay is what sits beside everything. Bhutan grows chillies as a vegetable rather than a seasoning, and ezay is where the surplus goes: pounded in a mortar with tomato, onion, garlic and a crumble of cheese into a rough paste that is spooned onto rice, momos, noodles and anything else on the table. Every household makes it differently and most make it fresh, because it does not keep and is not meant to. The name of the journal this recipe comes from is To Zowa Sho, which means come and eat, and that is roughly ezay’s function: it is the thing that turns a plate of rice into a meal someone offers you. Thingey, the wild Sichuan pepper that grows on the hillsides, gives the backing numbness under the heat. There are as many versions as there are valleys. In Punakha, tree tomatoes go in when they are in season. The women of Nobgang make one they call ezay nyergu, built on nine ingredients, and claim it as their own.
INGREDIENTS
- 30 g dried red chillies
- 2 medium tomatoes (finely chopped)
- 1 red onion (finely chopped)
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 tsp ground Sichuan peppercorns
- 60 g feta (rinsed and crumbled, or cottage cheese)
- a large handful of coriander (chopped)
- 2 spring onions (finely sliced)
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tsp salt
- juice of half a lime
METHOD
- Soak the dried chillies in hot water for 20 minutes until pliable, then drain and chop them roughly. Wear gloves.
- Pound the garlic, the soaked chillies and the salt in a mortar to a coarse paste. Stop well short of smooth.
- Work in the ground peppercorns and the oil.
- Tip into a bowl and fold through the tomato, onion, spring onions and coriander.
- Crumble the cheese over and turn it through two or three times so it stays in visible pieces rather than dissolving.
- Sharpen with the lime juice, taste for salt and serve at once, alongside rice, momos or anything else on the table.