Momo

Nepal's pleated steamed dumplings of minced meat and onion, served with a roasted tomato and sesame achar

Origin: Kathmandu & the Himalaya

From the journey of Wheat.

Momo came down from Tibet and became Nepali. The dumpling belongs to the great Central and East Asian family that runs from Chinese baozi through Tibetan mog mog to Korean mandu, and the usual account credits its arrival in the Kathmandu Valley to Newar merchants who traded across the passes to Lhasa and brought it home. What Nepal added was the achar, and the achar is what makes a momo a momo rather than a dumpling. Golbheda ko achar is tomatoes roasted until blackened, peeled, and ground with toasted sesame, dried chilli, garlic, ginger, and timur into a thick, smoky, sour, faintly numbing sauce. Every momo shop in Kathmandu has its own and guards it, and the dumpling is essentially a delivery system for it. A momo served without achar is regarded much as chips served without salt. The filling is buffalo in the Kathmandu Valley, which surprises visitors expecting lamb or chicken; buff momo is the standard and the default. It is mixed with a very great deal of finely chopped onion, coriander, and ginger, and kept deliberately loose, because as it steams the fat and the onion water collect in the base of the dumpling and give it a mouthful of juice. The shapes carry information. A round pleated purse is the standard steamed momo; a half-moon is usually fried; jhol momo sit in a bowl of spiced sesame broth; kothey are pan-fried on one side. Momo is now the street food of Nepal without serious rival, sold from carts and shopfronts in every town, and has spread across Darjeeling, Sikkim, and Bhutan on the same trade routes it originally arrived by.

Ingredients

Dough

400 g plain flour
0.75 tsp salt
210 ml warm water, approximately

Filling

500 g minced buffalo, beef, or chicken
300 g onions, very finely chopped
1 small bunch coriander, finely chopped
2 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1.5 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
3 tbsp oil

Achar

5 tomatoes
4 tbsp sesame seeds
4 dried red chillies
3 garlic cloves
1 tbsp fresh ginger
0.5 tsp timur (Nepali Sichuan pepper)
1 tsp salt

Method

Make the dough: flour, salt, and warm water worked to a smooth firm dough, kneaded eight minutes, rested covered for thirty.
Mix all the filling ingredients together and work them briefly with your hands. It should be loose and wet rather than compacted.
Make the achar. Char the whole tomatoes directly over a flame or under a fierce grill until the skins are blackened and split all over.
Toast the sesame seeds in a dry pan until they colour and start to pop, then toast the dried chillies for a few seconds.
Peel the blackened tomatoes and grind them with the sesame, chillies, garlic, ginger, timur, and salt to a thick coarse sauce. Loosen with a splash of water if needed.
Roll the dough into a long rope, cut it into 20g pieces, and roll each into a disc about 9cm across, thinner at the edges than the centre.
Put a heaped teaspoon of filling in the middle. Hold the disc in your cupped palm and pleat the edge with finger and thumb, turning as you go, gathering the pleats towards the centre.
Close the top by pinching the gathered pleats together and giving them a small twist. Twenty pleats is a good momo; the first dozen you make will not be.
Oil the steamer tiers well, since momo stick badly, and set the dumplings out without letting them touch.
Steam over a rolling boil for ten to twelve minutes. They are ready when the wrapper turns glossy and translucent and no longer feels doughy.
Do not steam them longer than that, since an overcooked wrapper goes slack and tears when lifted.
Serve immediately, straight from the steamer, with the achar in a bowl for dipping.

Notes

Oil the steamer generously; a momo welded to the tier tears open and loses its juice, which is the whole reward for the pleating. Keep the filling loose and do not compact it into the wrapper. Roll the discs thinner at the edge than the centre, so the gathered pleats at the top do not end up a thick raw knot. The achar is not optional in any Nepali sense and is worth making properly: char the tomatoes over a real flame rather than roasting them, since the blackened skin is where the smoke comes from. Timur is sold by Nepali grocers; Sichuan peppercorn is a fair substitute and ordinary black pepper is not.

The Gastrographer

Name: Momo
Prep time: 1 h
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 1 h 30 min
Yield: 5
Cuisine: Kathmandu & the Himalaya
Ingredients: 400 g plain flour; 0.75 tsp salt; 210 ml warm water, approximately; 500 g minced buffalo, beef, or chicken; 300 g onions, very finely chopped; 1 small bunch coriander, finely chopped; 2 tbsp fresh ginger, grated; 4 garlic cloves, crushed; 1.5 tsp salt; 1 tsp ground cumin; 1 tsp ground coriander; 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper; 3 tbsp oil; 5 tomatoes; 4 tbsp sesame seeds; 4 dried red chillies; 3 garlic cloves; 1 tbsp fresh ginger; 0.5 tsp timur (Nepali Sichuan pepper); 1 tsp salt

Mapping Culinary History

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control