
Moving from my hometown to another city, I couldn't help but notice all the major and minor differences in our cultures, especially in our cuisines. Even a seemingly universal dish like momos turned out to be completely different. And much to my horror served with mayonnaise.
Here’s a recipe for the version I regularly ate at home, Tibetan Momos:
Ingredients:
For Dumpling,
- Chicken (with Bone): ½ kgs
- Onion: 250 grams
- Garlic Minced: 2 tablespoons
- Refined Flour: 250 grams
- Soy Sauce: 5 tablespoons
- Vinegar: 3 tablespoons
- MSG: 1 teaspoon
- Freshly Ground Pepper: To taste
- Vegetable Oil: as required
- Salt: To taste
For dip,
- Dried Red Chillies: 50 grams
- Tomatoes: 1
- Green Chillies: 4
- Garlic: 5 cloves
- Coriander: ¼ cup chopped
- Lime: to taste
- Salt: to taste
Process:
For the dough,
- In a bowl take the flour and salt. Mix 100mL of water and knead into a smooth dough. The dough should be firm and not soft.
- Let the dough rest for 30 minutes and knead again. Repeat this process twice.
- This will develop the gluten in the dough and make the dough stretchy.
- Once malleable, make coin-sized balls and set them aside.
For the filling,
- Place chicken in cold water in a pot and then put it on heat to make a stock.
- Once cooked, shred the meat from the bones and put the bones back into the stock.
- Chop onions and mix with salt and let it rest for 30 minutes.
- Squeeze out the water released by the onions,
- Mix the onions, garlic and shredded chicken. Season with soy sauce, vinegar and MSG. If the chicken is too dry, add some oil or minced chicken fat.
For the Dip,
- Soak the dried red chillies in hot water.
- In the meantime, roast the tomato and green chillies over an open flame. Peel.
- Blend it all and season with salt.
- Finish with a generous squeeze of lime.
Finally,
- Roll out the dough balls into a thickness of about 1mm.
- Place a tablespoon of the filling and fold into the shape of your choice.
- Steam for about 6-8 minutes. These momos do not take too long in the steamer as the chicken is already pre-cooked.
- Season the stock with salt and pepper.
- Serve the momos with the red hot momo chutney and soup.