Momos at Home

Whisk the flour and salt together in a large bowl. Add the oil ans crumble the flour. Slowly add the water and mix them together in a bowl and once it sorta comes together, but is still sticky, tip the mix onto a clean, lightly floured surface and knead. Keep adding just a sprinkling of flour and continue kneading until the dough just crosses the threshold of not being sticky.

Roll it into a nice ball and place it in a lightly oiled bowl, and cover it with a damp towel. Allow this to rest for at least 30 minutes.

In a small bowl, add the cabbage and carrot together and sprinkle them with salt. Allow this to rest for 5-10 minutes. This will make all the water leech out and you can squeeze and drain out the rest.

Mix with the cabbage and carrots the rest of the ingredients for the filling, the green onions, ginger, garlic, pork, salt, pepper, soy sauce, and rice vinegar. Mix well and set this aside while you make the momo wrappers.

Put the dough back onto a clean, lightly floured surface and knead it a couple of times. Roll it into a long snake and cut it into small equal pieces. So, I’ve tried this in many different ways and the one that seems to work for me is to take a small lime sized piece of dough, roll it as thin as possible, no matter how big it gets and use one of my ramekins to cut it into shape. Then I take each individual circle and thin out the edges with a light roll of my pin.

Continue with the wrappers until you finish the dough. You can stack the momo wrappers on a plate, one on top of another, but be sure to sprinkle some flour in between to make sure it does not stick. If you don’t end up using all of them, you can always put them in an airtight container and freeze them.

Keep all the things you want within your reach, the plate of wrappers, the filling with a small spoon, a cup of water to help you bind, and a lightly oiled plate to keep the folded momos. So, you keep a momo wrapper flat on your less dominant hand and add a small spoon of filling to one side, dab just a little bit of water along the edge and gently move the wrapper to cradle it in your palm. With your dominant hand, fold the wrapper over the filling but instead of sealing it, pleat them. Use your forefinger to make the pleat and use your thumb to hold the fold and seal it. Continue until you have the number of momos you want.

To cook them, place the folded momos in a steamer and cook them for 8-10 minutes.

I like a little crunch, so I pan fry them with just a touch of oil until they get a little golden brown. Then I add about 1/4th cup of water, close and cook until all the water has evaporated.