People who love to cook, often bond over this mutual interest. I have some friends who enjoy cooking and food as much as I do and we are always at each other’s homes sharing meals or swapping food when we “accidentally” make too much. Recently we decided to form a cooking club so we can each learn from one another. It is a bonus that we all come from different ethnic backgrounds and so are able to cook a wide array of foods from around the world.
Our first cooking adventure took us to Nepal as we learned to make Momos, a Nepali dumpling often served at family gatherings and as a street food. Our hosts come from Nepal and had the prep work done before the rest of the crew arrived to help with the actual making of the momos. We had so much fun mixing up the filling and getting little tips on the ingredients while we sipped on wine, beer or scotch and gabbed our way through the process. We rolled some of the wrappers out with a pasta machine (#5 setting) using a 3 inch round cookie cutter, and rolled some by hand to get the full experience. The most fun of course was eating the fruits of our labor. The momos are served with a relish called “achaar” that has a base of roasted tomatoes. Below I’ve shared some photos and a video of our adventure. The recipe follows. I estimated the recipe as my friend makes it the old fashioned way (without measurements), or what is referred to in Hindi/Marathi as andaaz. Though my friend made the dumpling dough from scratch, this recipe calls for store bought thin dumpling wrappers as the dough is not easy to perfect. If you make these momos please let me know if it needs any adjustment or if you do something different.
Momos
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground turkey (you can substitute ground chicken, lamb, goat or beef. Traditionally made with goat)
- 2 Tbsp finely chopped Chinese chives
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 inch piece fresh ginger, finely grated or chopped
- 6 scallions finely chopped
- ¼ head cabbage, finely chopped or ground in a food processor
- ½ Cup chopped cilantro
- 2 Thai bird or green chiles finely chopped (optional)
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 1 tsp salt or to taste
- up to 1 cup of water
- thin, round dumpling wrappers
Directions
- Fill a large pot with a steamer insert with enough water so as not to touch the insert and bring to a boil on high heat. Reduce to simmer.
- In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except the water and mix well.
- Add water 1 Tbsp at a time and continue mixing until the meat mixture is fairly loose and wet. You should not be able to make a firm meatball with it.
- Cook a tester meatball in a pan and taste for seasoning.
- Adjust seasoning if needed and remix thoroughly
- Add 1 Tbsp of meat mixture onto a dumpling wrapper and roll per the video above to form the momo.
- Place momos in the steamer basket until filled
- Steam momos for 10-12 minutes until cooked
- Serve hot with tomato achaar (recipe follows)
Tomato Achaar
Ingredients
- 4-6 Roma tomatoes roasted in oven until skin is slightly charred
- 1 Cup Cilantro leaves and stems
- 3-4 Thai or green chiles (adjust for heat preference)
- 4 Cloves garlic
- 1 tsp Szechuan peppercorn
- 1 tsp salt (or to taste)
- 2 tsps roasted white sesame seeds (optional)
Directions
- Place all ingredients in a blender and grind to a fine puree
The Persnickety Palate 