First of all, make the dough. If you want to make momo dough for four people, use about 2 cups of wheat flour (we don’t use whole wheat, but rather use white, all-purpose flour) and somewhere between 3/4 cups and 1 cup of water. The amount will depend on your particular flour. (You don’t have to be very exact about these measurements). Mix the flour and water very well by hand and keep adding water until you make a pretty smooth ball of dough. Then knead the dough very well until the dough is flexible. Now leave your dough in the pot with the lid on while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. You should not let the dough dry out, or it will be hard to work with.[CookingMiddle]
Filling: In Nepal, they often use yak meat, or just vegetables for our vegetarian friends. For vegetable momo filling: Chop all the following ingredients into very, very small pieces:
Two onions
Two inches fresh ginger
Two or three cloves of garlic
A bunch of cilantro
One pound of cabbage
One pound of tofu*
One quarter pound of dark brown mushrooms (I buy them dried from Asian markets)*
Two tablespoons of soy sauce
One teaspoon of chicken, beef or vegetable bouillon
For both kinds of momos, vegetables or meat, put all of the ingredients in a pot or big bowl, then add a teaspoon of bouillon and two tablespoons of soy sauce. Mix everything together very well. (If you are making meat momo’s with ground beef, you may need to use your hands to mix it up.)
Shaping the Momos: For this, place the dough on a chopping board and use a rolling pin to roll it out quite thinly. It should not be so thin that you can see through it when you pick it up, nor should it be quite as thick as a floppy disk for a computer (remember those? :-). Somewhere between those two should work out. After you have rolled out the dough, you will need to cut it into little circles for each momo. The easiest way to do this is turn a small cup or glass upside down to cut out circles about the size of the palm of your hand. That way, you don’t have to worry about making good circles of dough because each one will be the same size and shape. Now that you have a small, flat, circular piece of dough, you are ready to add the filling and make the momo shapes.
There are many, many different choices for momo shapes, and we will teach you two of the most common, the basic round momo, and the half-moon shapes.
Last Step: Steaming the Momos Finally, you should boil water in a large steamer. (Tibetans often use double or even huge triple-decker steamers, to make many momos at one time.) Oil the steamer surface lightly before putting the momos in, so they won’t stick to the metal, then place as many as you can without touching each other. Add the momos after the water is already boiling. Steam the momos for about 10 minutes, then serve them hot, with soy sauce or hot sauce of your choice to dip them in.