Momos

Finally, I am getting the momo recipes up! Several weeks ago, Max and I took a 2-hour cooking class at Sangye's Kitchen on how to make momos. It was a really fun experience. Sangye's kitchen was tiny, and his stove little more than what we had at our guesthouse (before the gas started leaking.) He was also really nice and helpful. He runs these classes twice a day, six days a week. Monday and Friday he teaches breads, Tuesday and Saturday noodle soups, and Sunday and Thursday momos.



What are momos, you may ask? They are Tibetan dumplings. They are usually filled with either vegetables, potato, or meat, but in our class we made veggie, spinach and cheese, and CHOCOLATE.


How to make momos:

The recipe makes about 70 momos. Half the recipe if you are serving fewer people.

To make the dough:

Ingredients:
1/2 kg white flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups water

Sift flour and baking powder together in a mixing bowl. Add water slowly and squeeze dough together until well-mixed. Place on a floured surface and knead for five minutes. Cover with a wet cloth and let sit for five minutes while you prepare the fillings.

Vegetable filling:

Combine the following:
1/4 head of cabbage finely chopped
1 large carrot finely chopped
1 large onion finely chopped
50 grams uncooked glass vermicelli
1 tsp garlic finely chopped
1 tsp ginger finely chopped
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
4 tbsp neutral vegetable oil of your choice

Potato filling:

Combine the following:
2 large potatoes cooked, peeled, and mashed
2 tsp spring onion finely chopped
1 tsp garlic finely chopped
1 tsp ginger finely chopped
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
4 tbsp neutral vegetable oil

Spinach and cheese filling:

Combine the following:
1/4 of a bunch of fresh spinach finely chopped
25 grams any cheese, grated
1 onion finely chopped
1 tsp garlic finely chopped
1 tsp ginger finely chopped
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
4 tbsp neutral vegetable oil

Chocolate filling!

Ingredients:
4 tbsp neutral vegetable oil
2 tbsp flour
2 tbsp sesame seeds
2 tbsp sugar
About a half cup dry hot chocolate mix (Although this is an approximation -- use how much looks good to you!)

Heat the oil in a frying pan at a low temperature and add all ingredients. Cook until golden-brown, stirring constantly. Allow to cool before filling momos.

Making the momos:

Prepare water in a steamer to steam the momos.

Knead the dough a little to soften it. Make the dough into a long sausage shape. cut into lengths as wide as 1/2 a finger. Press them down into little disks. You can kind of see here:



Roll each one out into a round shape. Now you are ready to form the momos. We learned how to make three momo shapes:





You can kind of see all three here:



The easiest way is to just put a scoop of filling in the center of each one and seal the edges with water. You could also try imitating the photos -- I remember the rolled edge was quite easy, but I have no memory of exactly how to do it!

Place prepared momos in the top of the steamer and steam for 15 minutes. They should feel pretty dry when done, rather than sticky. Serve hot with soy sauce and chili sauce! (Except the chocolate; that would be weird.)