Momos - Chinese Dumplings

On my holiday to Kullu valley I got to eat momos in a Chinese restaurant. That was my first time. Momos are dumplings stuffed with either meat or vegetable filling. It goes well good with the red chili dip plus drinks like watermelonade. The word ‘Momo’ is pronounced with the same ‘o’ sound as in ‘Nemo.’

In my kitchen we make momos once in a month as it is fun…just like any other group activity. It requires kneading, rolling, chopping, grinding, packing, and steaming. Being vegetarians, we make vegetable momos. For filling I’ve used different veggies which make it slightly different from authentic Chinese momo. Authentic vegetable momo filling comprises of onions, broccoli, potatoes. You can also fry momos but I prefer the steamed version as it is low fat and steaming makes momos soft and juicy.

 

Ingredients for the dough (For ten momos)

All purpose white flour (Maida) 1 small cup

Water ¼ cup

Salt

Ingredients (for the vegetable filling)


Finely Chopped Cabbage ¼ cup

Finely Chopped Carrot ¼ cup

Finely Chopped Bell Pepper¼ cup

Chopped Button Mushroom¼ cup

Sweet Corn Kernels ¼ cup

Finely Chopped Green Chilies 2 to 3

Finely Chopped Garlic 2 cloves (*optional)

Salt

Oil 1 tea spoon

Ingredients (for the red chili dip)


Red Whole Chilies 10 in number

Vinegar 2 tea spoons

Garlic 4 cloves

Salt

Directions

For making the momo dough

Knead the dough by mixing flour, salt (use less salt as you’ll be using it again inthe filling) and water. Go easy on the water. You can always add more ifrequired. Knead the dough until the dough is some what in between flexible andtight. Also make sure that there are no lumps. Cover the dough and leave it for ½ hour in the refrigerator.

 

 
For making the filling


Heat one tea spoon of oil in a skillet and sauté all the vegetables.
You don’t have to cook vegetables thoroughly. Add salt. Be careful while adding salt. Vegetables like carrot and cabbage have some natural salt present in them. Cook till all the water evaporates. If you are making the chili dip, then avoid adding garlic to the filling. Keep the filling aside to cool.



 
For making the chili dip

Soak whole red chilies in warm water for one hour. In a blender, add soaked chilies, salt, vinegar, garlic, and water. Blend it to a fine paste. Use the same water in which chilies were soaked.



Shaping the momos (easiest part)

Step 1

Using a rolling pin, give small balls of dough a circular shape. Keep the wrapper thin. If required powder the rolling pin with flour. To make things easy, you can even use a jam bottle’s lid to give a perfect circular shape…that’s what I do.

Step 2

Add a tablespoonful of filling in the center of wrapper. Make pleats of the wrapper’s edges and bring it to the center. Pinch it slightly so that it seals properly. Now it would look like a sack.

Step 3

Steam momos in a generic steamer untill the skin becomes some what translucent. There are different varieties of steamers available in the stores with different tiered pans fitting into one another over an empty bottom with a lid. Though the best I find is the idli steamer. Oil the pan before you place momo so that it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan.

Do you feel like throwing a momo party at home?