I was excited to cook Nepalese food as I love it and am lucky enough to be able to enjoy it locally fairly often. There's a good amount of Nepalese families in the Burlington area, so plenty of Nepalese restaurants. If you ever visit the Burlington farmers market, make sure to get some momo.
Momo are Nepal's version of steamed dumplings, and what I decided to make. Of course I made a vegetable dumpling, filled with carrot, cabbage, and onion, along with cilantro and a mix of spices like coriander, ginger, and turmeric.
I started with a simple dough made from flour, water, and a touch of oil. At the same time I made the dough pictured above which is a yeasted dough for steamed bread called tingmo. This bread is actually associated with Tibetan cuisine, which I felt I should represent at some point. Since Nepalese and Tibetan food are similar, I figured this was a good time. So, I mixed up that dough and let it rest while I prepared the tomato chutney that is fairly ubiquitous with momo.
The chutney starts with cooking onion, garlic, ginger, and hot peppers together. I actually had a small amount of leftover "momo sauce" from a local company so I just added it to the veggies while they were cooking.
I then added a can of diced tomatoes, sesame seeds, and salt.
Once everything was cooked down and the flavors had a chance to mingle, I blended it all up with my immersion blender in a sauce perfect for dipping dumplings.
Since I was making three recipes at once (and had to roll out and fill all the dumplings by hand) I didn't have a lot of time to take pictures of the process. The method for shaping the tingmo involves dividing the dough into pieces then shaping and rolling each piece into a rectangle. The rectangle is then rolled up into a coil. My dough looks a bit dry in the picture above, but it turned out okay.
The rolls are then added to a steamer basket the same way you would cook steamed dumplings or bao. Look how nice and fluffy! Steamed bread is such an overlooked food in western culture. It has such a nice consistency and flavor and it's one of my favorite things from the Tibetan restaurant we used to live down the street from. It's perfect for dipping in soup or eating sopping up the last of the chili oil or chutney on your plate.
I also ended up with not too many great pictures of the momo and chutney due to running back and forth among three recipes in my tiny kitchen. The momo turned out okay, with the wrappers being a little too chewy and possibly being steamed a bit too long, but the flavor was good. I was very pleased with how the tingmo turned out, especially since it looked like it was going to be very dry. I think I will stick with ordering Nepalese and Tibetan food in the future, since I have so many options near me, but it was still fun to explore in my own kitchen.
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