Ingredients

• Dough for wrappers:
  • 3 cup All-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon oil
  • 1 cup water
  • Pinch of salt
• Filling:
  • 3 cups assorted vegetables (spinach, cauliflower, carrot, green peas,
  • daikon, red pepper, green pepper), finely chopped
  • 1 cup onion, finely chopped
  • 1/2 cup green onion, finely chopped
  • 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
  • 1 teaspoon garlic, minced
  • 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced
  • 1/2 teaspoon timur
  • 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
  • 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 3 fresh red chilies, minced
  • 1 cup Nepali cheese (paneer), roughly crushed
  • 2 tablespoon clarified butter
  • 1/2 teaspoon fenugreek
  • 1 tablespoon water-flour mixture (thickening agent)
  • Salt to taste

Instructions

Dough:
In a large bowl combine flour, oil, salt and water. Mix well, knead until the dough becomes homogeneous in texture, about 8-10 min. Cover and let stand for at least 30 min. Knead well again before staging the wrappers.

Filling:
In a non-stick pan heat clarified butter, splitter fenugreek until it turns dark. Add chopped onions and sautee until just slightly light brown. Add turmeric, garlic, ginger, and chilies. Fry for 30 sec. Put vegetables and stir-fry until slightly soft. Do NOT over stir-fry the vegetables. Salt and pepper the vegetable mixture. Add cheese, green onions and cilantro, mix well. To solidify the vegetable mixture, add one tablespoon of flour-water mixture. Mix the mass over until thickened. Transfer the vegetable filling into a bowl. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour to allow cooling.

Assembly:
Give the dough a final knead. Prepare 1-in. dough balls. Take a ball, roll between your palms to spherical shape. Dust working board with dry flour. On the board gently flatten the ball with your palm to about 2-in circle. Make a few semi-flattened circles, cover with a bowl. Use a rolling pin to roll out each flattened circle into a wrapper.

For well excecuted MOMOs, it is essential that the middle portion of the wrapper be slightly thicker than the edges to ensure the structural integrity of dumplings during packing and steaming. Hold the edges of the semi-flattened dough with one hand and with the other hand begin rolling the edges of the dough out, swirling a bit at a time. Continue until the wrapper attains 3-in diameter circular shape. Repeat with the remaining few semi-flattened dough. Cover with bowl to prevent from drying.

For packing hold wrapper on one palm, put one tablespoon of the filling mixture and with the other hand bring all edges together to the center, making the pleats. Pinch and twist the pleats to ensure the absolute closure of the stuffed dumpling. This holds the key to good tasting, juicy dumplings.

Heat up a steamer, oil the steamer rack well. This is critical because it will prevent dumplings from sticking. Arrange uncooked MOMOs in the steamer. Close the lid, and allow steaming until the dumplings are cooked through, about 8-10 min. Take the dumplings off the steamer, and immediately serve. To serve, arrange the cooked MOMOs on a plate dressed with an ample amount of hot tomato achar (recipe follows).

Submitted by: Tulsi Regmi