Curry Spice never says no to an invitation in your kitchen to eat what you cook well. So when Manashi Nath Crasto, the delightful Assamese coworker told me about her homemade Momos- I was on!
Manashi lives with her husband Michael and his family in Bandra. They live in the Goan part of Bandra in a traditional Goanese house with a lovely Mangalorean tiled roof.
It was very kind of Manashi and Michael to have me over and cook Momos. So it turns out that at some point Michael actually ran a Momo catering business from home and so I got to taste their expert momos. Of course folding a momo required a lot of practice and it seemed like everyone was out of practice except for Michael's mom. Quickly my young hosts caught on and we were on our way to making momos. There is no hard and fast rule about the shape so we went ahead and had some fun with it.
Momos are actually really simple but time intensive (mostly the prep).
Simply put- steamed Tibetian dumplings eaten along the entire Himalayas.
You probably need an hour to prep and really just 20 minutes to cook momos. They are a delicious, healthy snack and so much fun to eat in a group.
All I can say is that I love Momos.
INGREDIENTS
For the wrapper:
2 cups Flour (white) makes around 20 momos
1 cup Water
1 tsp oil
For the Vegetarian filling:
2-3 Onions Minced (the more the onion the better the brothiness of the momos)
2-3 Green chilies minced
4-5 cloves of large garlic minced
2 inches of ginger root minced
Half a cabbage minced
1 Carrot grated.
For the Non- Veg Momos:
1 chicken breast diced
2-3 onions minced
2-3 Green chilies minced
4-5 cloves of large garlic minced
2 inches of ginger root minced
For the seasoning of the momos filling:
Salt
1 tsp blk pepper
1 tsp white pepper
2-3 generous dashes of soysauce
1 pinch of ajinomoto
1 tsp oil
1. Mix the wrapper ingredients to make a firm dough.
2. Break into 3/4 inch diameter balls
3. Cover with a damp cloth and set aside.
Prep the filling. Everything should be finely minced.
For the Chicken filling:
Rolling the dough to create small circular wrappers for the momos
Now we are ready to stuff and fold the momos. We experimented with many ways of wrapping the momos. Particularly we tries the half moon shapes and the bundle shapes and kept them separate for the vegetarian and the non- vegetarian momos.
The bundle shape for the veg momos
Prepping the momo's steamer. The steamer is multilevel aluminum container. The first layer is filled with water and the momos are placed in the next layer. Slightly rub oil on the base so that the momos don't stick to the second and third layer. The perforated surface allows the steam from the boiling water to rise and steam cook the momos. The chicken momos should be cooked longer till the chicken is all cooked and the skin is translucent. It takes around 20 - 25 minutes. The vegetarian momos take around 15-20 minutes.
The chicken momos should be cooked longer till the chicken is all cooked and the skin is translucent. It takes around 20 - 25 minutes. The vegetarian momos take around 15-20 minutes.
We ate these babies so fast that I forgot to take a final shot of the momos. These should be eaten hot and can be served with hot sauce, schezwan sauce , soy sauce, siriacha, aachar, fish sauce.
Add some chicken or vegeatable broth and eat it like dumpling soup with minced scallions in the broth.
Each bite the momos break in the mouth and the onions flavour the filling with a sweet and salty brothiness.
So here is a shot of the momos I found online.
P.S. The Mangalorian roof tiles that I fell in love with. Each tile was from a different mill and were made around mid 19th century. How cool
Thanks once again Manashi and Michael and Michael's mom and dad to spend time to show me how you make Momos. It is such a simple, healthy & tasty snack. I could totally binge on Momos!
I love this song by Papon. He has his dad's incredible musical talent. I had the good fortune of listening to him once in a party. And he does have a lovely voice.
