Tibetan Momos

I first tried momo in Tibet served steamed over broth and eaten with yak butter tea. It was rare to find vegetarian momo in Tibet.

In Nepal vegetarian momo are easy to find and are filled with spinach, mushrooms and sometimes paneer. They are steamed or fried and served with a spicy dipping sauce. These went down a treat at our recent Nepalese Fundraiser in support of Global Action Nepal. The crowd especially enjoyed them with our Bhang Ki pickle, made from roasted hemp seeds, cumin and lemon.

Dalai Lama’s Tibetan Momo

Dietary: Vegan

Serves: 8

Ingredients:

Pastry

• 200g white plain flour
• 200g wholemeal flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 100ml water to mix to a soft dough

Filling

• 1 tbsp sunflower oil
• 1 bunch spring onions, finely chopped
• 1 green chilli, finely chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2cms fresh ginger root, grated
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 100g shitake mushrooms, finely chopped
• 200g cooked potatoes, roughly mashed
• salt & freshly ground black pepper

Shamdur Dippping Sauce

• 4 tbsp shoyu
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

Method:

1. First make the pastry. Mix the flours together and add the bicarbonate of soda, making sure there are no lumps in the bicarbonate of soda. Mix well and then slowly add cold water a little at a time. Use your hands to form into a soft dough. Set aside.
2. To make the filling lightly stir-fry the spring onion, chilli, ginger and garlic in the sunflower oil.
3. Add the cumin and nutmeg then the mushrooms and stir-fry for a couple of minutes.
4. Add the potato and mix well, take off the heat. Season to taste.
5. On a well-floured surface, roll out the pastry out to the thickness of ¼ cm and cut out about 16 x 10cms circles. Take a large teaspoon of the filling & place in the middle of each pastry circle. Fold the circle in half making a half moon shape. Pinch the edges together firmly so that none of the juices can escape when cooking. The idea is to get the Momo to sit up, so that the pinched edge will be uppermost. Squash the Momo down onto its base so that it looks like a mini pasty.
6. Steam in a bamboo steamer, remember to brush a little oil on the bamboo to prevent sticking.
7. Mix together all the ingredients for the Shamdur dipping sauce.
8. Eat the Momo piping hot with Shamdur dipping sauce and hemp seed chutney.

Tips:

• If you don't happen to have a bamboo steamer, you can also deep-fry the momos until crisp.