Momos ( Tibetean steamed meat dumplings)
Friday, February 06, 2009
Momos ( Tibetean steamed meat dumplings)
Momos ( Tibetean steamed meat dumplings)
These delicious tibetean momos are something that i do often at home. So i think it is high time that they make an appearance on my blog!;) Just see to it that the rinsed meat has been well drained, for otherwise the juices will seep out while the momos are being steamed. But the best momos according to me were the ones sold in my hometown! There was this man in my hometown who used to make his rounds every sunday on a bicycle carrying a huge basket filled with chaios ( vietnamese spring rolls) ,homemade fish sauce( nuoc mam), momos, chicken noodles soup, meat noodles & some fresh lettuce & mint which he would give with each plate of chios that we bought, like how you buy coriander in India from the market & the lady would also give you some free curry leaves to go with!! We would buy the chios, soup , momos & sometimes the noodles too! His momos were excellent , especially the outer wrapper which used to be sort of soft & shiny! But now the chio man no longer makes his rounds, another symbol from my childhood relegated to the dusty memories bin!! At that time we never knew that fish sauce was made from salted anchovies! We used to ask him about it & he used to seriously tell us kids that he made it with horse's blood & i believed it, till i left the Indian shores!:)) Nowadays thanks to globalisation, chio( nem ) wrappers & fish sauce are easily available in my hometown!
Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 1 cup, salt to taste, baking soda - a pinch, minced lamb - 100 gms, onion - 1, finely chopped, green chilli - 1, deseeded & finely chopped, egg - 1, ginger-garlic paste - 1 tsp( adjust according to taste, for i like mine to be gingery-garlicky flavourwise), coriander leaves , chopped - a handful, oil - 2 tsp, mint leaves - 4 sprigs - chopped(only the leaves)
Method:
Take the flour, salt to taste, baking soda & knead to a smooth dough. Now add the oil ( 2 tsp) & knead till you get a smooth & pliable dough. Cover & leave aside to rest for an hour. While the dough is resting start preparing the filling. Wash the minced meat & drain it well . Now place the meat, onions, green chillies, mint & coriander leaves, egg ( yes!, break the raw egg into the filling, ),salt to taste & mix ( using your fingers) till everything is well combined. Divide the dough into eleven tennis sized balls. Dust the rolling board with a little flour & roll out each ball of dough into small discs, using as little as flour as possible to roll out the dough( the dough will be sort of elastic ,so use both the rolling pin & your hands to pat out the dough).
Spoon a little filling in the centre of each disc & shape it into crescents, or form a pouch or a crescent & pinch both the edges behind as seen in the photos. Just pinch the edges together to seal the dumplings well.To steam the dumplings:
Oil the idli steamer racks & place a dumpling in each depression & brush it lightly with oil & steam them like you would steam idlis for 10 mins. When done , remove & serve hot with chilli sauce or as a side dish with rice! Yes! that is another way to eat the momos!!;)
A cross-section of the cooked momo to show that the meat has been perfectly cooked!
After 10mins the meat will be perfectly cooked & even the outer dough covering will taste yummy . Do try out this recipe & you wont be disappointed! If you love steamed indo-chinese dumplings, you will surely love these!:)
Eat these immediately for once they are cold they become a bit hard but eaten as soon as they come out of the cooker, they are soft & juicy.
ENJOY!!!
posted by paati | 2/06/2009 05:30:00 PM 
2 Comments:
posted by paati | 10:36 PM
So good to see you again, paati! I was going to send out a search patrol for you today!
If you want more authentic taste, line the idli steamer with lettuce leaves & place momos on it & steam, serve imediately with some homemade dipping fish suce:)
paati