On my recent trip to Nepal (enter here groans from people thinking that I am showing off), my lovely group of volunteers and I were treated to both lunch and dinner meals from local Nepali restaurants. After day three, when asked if we would like momos, the national snack of Nepal, the groups' common wail was often " Oh no, no more momos!
At the Little Nepal Inn, we were treated to a momo making master class. The hotel made the dough and the fillings, and it was our job to fill, fold and then eat the momo. I liked the momos, could not understand the anti-momoism and immediately got in touch with my test kitchen chef , Phyl, and requested she find a superior momo recipe and go about perfecting it.
-B
When Beth asked me to replicate a tasty treat from her latest escape and I complained that I won’t know if I hit the mark as I had never eaten a momo. This problem would have been averted if she had just invited me to come to Nepal with her, instead of pretending that she was mad that I wasn't there. Her habit of late is, when describing to me her travels, is to say "Why aren't you here with me?" The answer to that question is that she rarely tells me where she is going and rarely asks me to go with her in the first place. I'd love to swear here.
Back to what I am good at: cooking.
The MOMO is a typical dumpling served throughout Asia. In Korea it is a mandu, in Japan, a gyoza and in China, a baozi. Tibetan in origin, the dumpling was filled with meat such as goat or yak, but as it traveled west to India, vegetables, herbs and spices were included.
As a rule, the dumpling is steamed, with a dough made of flour and water. The fillings vary with different meats such as pork, chicken lamb, goat or yak as well as vegetables, herbs and or spices. In the eastern parts of Nepal, cheese, yak or otherwise, is also used. The design of the momo varies between meat and veg so that you can differentiate them when they are on the plate.
Today's fashionable momos can be steamed or fried and served with various dipping sauces. They are also served in a soup of meat broth, tomato sauce or cleverly done up with sugars or chocolate for dessert.
Stir fry is about all the Asian cuisine I can muster, so I've had little inclination, and possibly even less interest to revise this recipe to suit my taste. Instead, I’m simply going to refer you to the recipe I used: www.foodnetwork.com/nepalimomorecipe .
The directions are easy to follow and the dumplings are quite tasty, although mine are really very ugly. Two things to remember: roll the dough as thin as you can or the momo will be very doughy (and look as ugly as mine), and use cooking spray for your steamer. I was lucky that mine didn’t stick but if they had, it could have gotten ugly. Well uglier.
I will be going North Carolina rogue soon, testing and writing from a kitchen that is not mine, watching my adult children pout at the Xmas presents I didn’t get them😂
tastemade.co
yumcurry.com
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