Cook with me - Vegetable MoMo (✿◠‿◠)

Hello everyone! how have you all been?

 To those of you who don't know what 'MoMo' is? It is a Nepalese version of 'Dim Sum', 'Mandu' or 'Gyoza'. Buff, pork, chicken, lamb and veg are main variety of momo in  Nepal. You'll find it in every restaurant's menu in Nepal. Different places have different ingredients and their own way of making it. They also sell it as a street food. So if u don't fancy going to expensive restaurants then street food stalls also sell them which are cheap and but not always yummy -.-;

Today I'm going to show you how to make veg momo. Lets get started! shall we? :D

Gather vegetables which you prefer except the ones which contains lots of water or becomes purée when cooked eg: potato, pumpkin, zucchini, etc. Cabbage is needed to make veg momo. I used whatever was available in my kitchen, 1/2 pointed cabbage, 2 medium sized carrots, 1 medium size onion (white or red doesn't matter) and few mushrooms. I also added one tube of soft tofu to add flavour. This is the amount of vegetables made around 30 pieces. 

Now lets start with cutting vegetables.

Shred cabbage and carrots and dice onions and mushrooms finely. Grate small piece of ginger. Now heat a non-stick pan, add 2-3 tbsp oil (sunflower or vegetable), let it get hot and fry tofu first. Then add mushroom and cook for 2-3 mins. Add cabbage and carrots. Stir fry for about 4-5 mins then add onions and ginger. Cook for 1 min and then add spices - salt (to taste), momo masala (2-3 tbsp) and cumin powder (1-2 tbsp). Stir fry for 1min or until it is not watery but don't over cook. Remove from heat. Let it cool completely before using it. It took me about an hour or two to cool completely.

Then, if you like, make a dough of flour or get ready made 'Gyoza skin'. It can be found in any oriental supermarket ت 

I was feeling lazy to knead a dough so I de-froze one packet of gyoza skin. In case you knead a dough make sure u knead enough to make 30 small balls. Roll it out with rolling pin and make it just like gyoza skin.

If you have pot to cook momo just like below, coat it lightly with oil so that when taking out cooked momo it dosen't stick to the bottom. I hate it when it sticks to the bottom. ಥ_ಥ

Heat the bottom part of the pot filling above half with water and boil it. Now, lightly coat the edge of goyza skin with water to make it adhesive. You don't need to do this if used the homemade dough.

Scoop little bit of stir-fried vegetables and put it in the center of the skin and start to wrap it from the edge and create pleats. Put the tightly sealed ones inside the cooking pot and arrange it nice and properly until one pot layer is completely filled.

If you feel hard to pleat then just coat all the edge with water and join them like below making  C shape. Again arrange it properly in another layer of the pot until filled completely.

Now put all layers on the top of the boiling water pot and steam it for 15-20 mins, changing positions of the layers once. If  you don't have this pot, you can simply heat water in one saucepan, when it starts to boil add 1 tbsp oil and drop momos one at a time and cook it for 15-20 mins as well. Drain it and serve with chutney.

When cooked properly it comes out like this. Serve hot and with your favourite chutney.

And now you have successfully learned how to make veg momos. It's ideal when your friends are vegetarian and you want to cook something for them. I don't know if it is considered vegan though. You can cook chicken, pork, beef and lamb momo in similar way. Just skip the stir frying part. Mix minced meat with onions and ginger with spices, wrap them up in gyoza skin, steam it and done. Try different vegetables or meat and enjoy your delicious new dish! Happy cooking!! 

~Kkeut~

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