Momos and I go back a long long way. Right from the days M and I were dating, our Sunday evening dates would invariably be in a small shop on Elgin Road, which housed all the momo joints of the city, called Orchid. We used to sit there for hours, devouring one plate of momos after another, trying out the range of momos they had to offer. It was in a few years from then that like the chaat-waalas, momo stalls started cropping up in every corner of the city and as is inevitable, the quality went downhill, universally. One of the main reasons for this was that the traditional momo making had slipped out of the hands of those who held the original recipe ( Nepalese, Tibetans and North-Eastern Indians) and was now being made wholesale. In Delhi, for instance, momos are not anymore made by the person who sells it. It is usually made by one large vendor who then supplies it to smaller vendors across the city. And of course, we shall not even go into frozen momos and ready to steam momos…they are, well…better left unspoken about.
So given this plight, I decided to try my hand at momo-making and while I should, right at the start, put it upfront, I cannot recreate the taste of what I used to eat, I would still like to believe, my momos have that extra flavour because of that extra dash of love.
Ingredients:
Momo wrappers: You could buy the readymade wraps, like I do often. Else you could make them yourself.
1. 2 cups of flour
2. Vegetable oil
3. Water
4. A pinch of salt
5. A pinch of baking powder
For the filling:
1.1/2 kg Mutton or chicken mince- washed and drained
2. Onions: 1 large or 2 medium finely chopped
3. Coriander/Parsely: a large bunch, finely chopped- you could do without it also if you dont want a punch flavour
4. Green chillies: 4-5 finely chopped
5. Ginger: Finely chopped
6. Garlic: about 7-8 medium cloves, finely chopped
7. 2 tbsps of white oil
8. Light Soya: a dash
9. Chicken cube or tom yum cubes: 1, optional
10. Pepper: 1 tbsp
11. Salt: To taste
Sauce:
1. Dry red chillies: A handful, soaked in water
2. Garlic: about 3 large- grated
3. Vinegar: 2 tsps
4. Oil: 1 tbsp
5. Salt: To taste
Utensil:
You will need either a steamer or a pressure cooker to cook the momos
Process:
1. For the momo wrappers, mix all the ingredients together and roll into a dough
2. Keep in mind the dough should not be sticky and also not too dry
3. Let the dough rest for about half an hour and then roll out into small circles
4. The small circles should be thin but also ensure you maintain a consistency so that they don’t split when being stuffed with meat
5. In a another large bowl, mix the minced meat and all the ingredients together
6. Ensure that the mixture is not runny but is sticky to the fingers
7. Take a small wrapper in your hand, wet it with water around the edges
8. Spoon about 1 large tbsp of meat in the middle of the wrapper
9. Fold in the edges to make it any shape of your choice. This is the easiest thing to do if, like me, you cannot get the shape of the momos you desire
10. For the sauce, whiz all the ingredients together in a blender, till you get a slightly runny consistency. I prefer doing it with a mortar-pestle, but both work ok
11. If you are using a steamer, add water to the bottom pan of the steamer
12. On each of the layers above, add oil to the utensils so that the momos dont stick to the pan once done
13. Add 6-7 momos per layer and steam for about 15-20 minutes
14. Serve with the sauce
Cook, eat and feed 