Momo (Nepali Dumplings) Recipe

This is the most popular dish in Nepal. Might I dare to say, it’s a national food of Nepal. Nepali dumplings are unique in its own way. It’s more spicier with juicy filling of ground buffalo meat. It’s served with a spicy tomato achar (sauce). There are few types of tomato achar that is served with momos. In my last post, I shared a recipe of a jhol achar, which is most common in Kathmandu. Or you can make a simple tomato achar (Golveda ko achar) that I’ve posted few months earlier in my blog.

It’s also served with a side dish of chicken soup broth made with chicken bones.

You can rarely find a Nepalese who doesn’t like momos. As one of my Instagram friend said (quote) ‘it’s stamped in our DNA and I cannot agree more.’ (Do check my Instagram @mrsgrg2014 to explore Food gallery and videos).

We eat momos almost every week, be it family gathering or just a snack or dinner. It’s easier to make if you use premade store bought wrappers or skin. It can be found in Asian grocery stores.

However, I prefer home made wrappers. It’s bit time consuming and need a bit more labour but the end result is worth the time and effort.

If you are trying you hands on making momos for the very first time, I suggest use premade wonton skin. As there are lot of elements required to make momos, you just don’t want to be too overwhelmed. However, if you choose to make your own wrappers, make it a family affair and get everyone involved.

Here’s my recipe for Momos. I made this for my family gathering. This recipe yields about 120 momos with homemade wrapper. Please reduce the quantity of spices and other ingredients in half or quarter to suit your need. Also you can tone it the spicier as per your liking.

If you end up with too many momos, don’t worry. You can always freeze them, it lasts for a month. When cooking frozen momos, don’t defrost it. Put it straight in the steamer on top of boiling water and steam for 15 minutes. You can enjoy steaming hot momos in no time.

Ingredients (Yields 120 medium sized momos)

For Wrappers or Skin
1 and half kilos of plain white flour
1 litre of Water (adjust water quantity as required)

Sift flour into a big bowl. Make a well in the centre and add water. You can use fork or fingertips to slowly mix flour with water. When it all comes together, get your hands into it. Mix and until it all comes together and knead it into a smooth dough.

Tips: If dough is not coming together and very flaky, add more water little bit at a time, until it knead into a ball. If the dough is too watery of soft, add bit more flour to make it a soft but firm dough. When dough is ready, it should leave the side of your bowl and hands too.

Cover the bowl with a wet towel or a cling wrap and set aside. This helps to soften the dough and making it flexible and elastic to work with. Leave it for at least half an hour or more. Do not let the dough dry out, or it will be hard to work with.

For Meat Filling

2 kilos of chicken mince (use beef or pork or buffalo meat as per your preference)
1 bunch of chives finely chopped (or you can substitute with few sprigs of spring onion or scallion)
1/2 of medium sized onion finely chopped
1/2 cup of chopped coriander (cilantro)
2 tablespoons of ginger paste
2 tablespoons of garlic paste
1 tablespoon of shallot paste (optional)
2 tablespoons of cumin powder
1 tablespoons of coriander powder
1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder
1 tablespoon of garam masala powder
Chilli powder as per your taste
Salt as per your taste
200 ml of Water
1/2 cup of mustard oil (or vegetable oil)

Put meat in a large bowl, add all the ingredients, spices, water and oil and mix well with mince meat. Set aside.
Note: You can add finely chopped cabbage to the mix to make it more juicier if you are using lean chicken mince.

Making Momo Wrapper

Take a handful of dough and roll it into a ball. Dust the flat and dry (clean) kitchen bench with flour. Place the ball on the surface and flatten it with a rolling pin. Roll it out quite thinly.

When it’s as thin as desired, get a round shape cutter and cut out as many as you can.

Repeat the same process to make as many wrappers as required.

Shaping Momos

Here comes a tricky bit. There are few shapes you can make.

For round shape momos: place a spoonful of mince mix in the centre of the wrapper. Hold the wrapper on your left hand . Pinch one side of the wrapper for first crease with your right thumb and index finger. Then just pinch and stick second crease with your index finger. Continue pinching around the circle little by little, keeping your thumb in place, and continuing along the edge of the circle with your index finger. When you come a full circle, stick the end together to seal the momo.

Oh how I wish I could load the video. So much easier to show a demo. However, I’ve seen a video floating around showing how to shape dumplings. If this is your first time making momos, please do check out the video. Here’s the photo of wrapped momos.

The hard part is over. Now this is a easy.

Steaming Momos

In a momo steamer, boil water on the bottom pot. Grease the top container (one with small holes) with oil. Place the momos until the container is full ensuring momos are not touching each other.

Place this container on top of the boiling pot and cover with lid. Steam it for 10-12 minutes on a medium heat.

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Serve hot with a jhol achar or tomato achar.

Please do try it. It’s best served hot on cold winter days. Happy Cooking.

Jamie Oliver’s Morrocon Style Lamb Burger

I have been craving for a good, juicy burger for a while. As I don’t eat beef, it’s difficult to find a place where I can get a yummy and juicy burger to satiate my cravings.

When I came across this recipe, I was super excited as I love Jamie Oliver and his recipes.

I was going to make this burger for my Christmas bbq that I organise every year but I dropped the idea thinking it will be too time consuming. I was so wrong. This recipe is so easy and quick to make. I was bit skeptical about using yogurt sauce, but it turned out amazing. The only thing I will do differently is not add lemon juice to yogurt sauce. As yogurt is already tangy and sour, the lemon juice made it tangier. However, the combination of Moroccan spice rub on lamb and the mint salad is amazing.

I didn’t have any pomegranate and edible flowers so I didn’t use it. Also as the original recipe said Zaatar powder, I added thyme and sumac powder instead which are the main spices that make Zaatar mix.

Here’s my take on Jamie Oliver’s Moroccan Style Lamb Burger.

Ingredients (serves 3)

750 grams of Lamb mince

3 burger buns
3 tablespoons of plain yogurt
1 tablespoon of Harissa paste
1/2 tablespoon of olive oil
1/2 tablespoon of lemon juice

Spice Rub
1 teaspoon black peppercorns whole
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 garam masala
2 sweet smoked paprika
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon sumac powder
Salt as per taste

Salad mix
1/2 shredded iceberg lettuce
Handful of fresh mint, leaves picked
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1 tablespoon virgin olive oil

In mortar and pestle, pound the spice rub to make a coarse powder. Set aside.

Take the lamb mince and divide into 3 equal balls. Roll the mince patties to smoothen it. Then flatten it into 2 cm thick patties. As I wanted to make it a big, juicy burger, I made 3 patties of approximately 250 grams mince. Lay out a grease proof baking paper (or a tray) on a kitchen bench. Put the patties on the paper and pat it with the spice rub ensuring both sides are covered. Set aside.

For the sauce, in a bowl add yogurt and mix Harissa paste, lemon juice and olive oil. Set aside.

Heat the grill pan on a medium heat. When hot, spray with olive oil. Add lamb patties. Cook on your barbecue or in a griddle pan for 6 to 7 minutes each side ( came out medium) or until done to your liking.

To assemble burger, lightly toast the buns. On the bottom bun, put the grilled patty.Add mint salad on top of the patty. Spread some yogurt sauce on the crown and cap it off on top of lettuce. I served it with some homemade hot chips. Enjoy

Chatamari (Nepali Pizza)

Chatamari is a rice crepe topped with savoury ingredients mainly mince meat (buffalo) and egg. It’s a very popular newari dish. It can be found in many local newari eateries. It’s very delicious and easy.

Chatamari are traditionally made for a puja. When you make it for puja (performing rituals by worshipping and praying to hindu god), it is just plain rice crepe with no toppings.

There are few different ways to make rice flour batter. Some use plain rice flour and water, others use black lentil paste or eggs to make pliable and smooth.

This is very easy to make and so very tasty.

Here’s my version of Chatamari
500 grams Lamb mince
1 small onion finely chopped
2 teaspoon of cumin powder
1 teaspoon of coriander powder
4 cloves of garlic and a knob of ginger crushed into a paste
1 teaspoon of chilli powder
1 teaspoon of garam masala
Salt as per taste
1/2 cup of chopped coriander

In a bowl, put mince meat and add all the listed ingredients and mix well. Set aside

For Batter
2 cups of rice flour
Pinch of Salt
Dash of cumin powder
1 egg
2 cups of water or enough to make a batter that is not too runny or too thick and pasty. To make the right consistency check if batter coats the back of the spoon.

Add all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add water and whisk it. Add egg and whisk it through the mix.

Heat non stick pan on a low heat. When pan is hot, grease it with some oil. Pour a ladle of batter and swirl around to make a round crepe. Cook the crepe for 1-2 minutes until the looks set.

Top it off with mince meat covering the crepe. Crack egg on top and season with salt. Cover it with heavy lid (traditionally we use lid made of clay which looks like cover of tagine) and let it cook for on a gentle heat for 6-8 minutes until the egg and meat is cooked.

Serve hot and enjoy this delicious dish.

Sheesh Kebab

This is a very easy recipe of a sheesh kebabs. We had an indian night for dinner yesterday and I made this recipe along with palak (spinach) paneer and spicy potato dry curry. It was an instant hit with hubby and family as they all loved eating restaurant dish at comfort of your home.

As a new mom, I’m looking for easy meals which takes less time to prepare and cook. We used to go out for dinner every weekend before our lil one came to our life. Since baby’s birth we have had no time to go out. Sometimes when we do manage to go out for dinner, it’s hard with the little one. They want to be fussy or cry when you are about to eat. I do hope once baby is bit older, we may be able to claim our old date nights back.

I’m a stay at home mum. I love food and nepali food is always my first choice. But I’m bored of eating same food everyday and I was craving for all these different cuisines, my palate is so used to. So I thought why not make it at home. It’s better, fresher, and cheaper and you can enjoy it while watching your favourite re-run of ‘Friends’ on Telly.

Also I had to come up with an inventive way of making mince exciting as my fridge is stocked full of it. I don’t like cutting meat and hubby is busy with Bub so we bought mince for lazy cooking days. So here’s one of many variations of mince dish that’s so quick and easy to make and taste delicious.

I’ve also decided that we will have a theme dinner night once a week so it’s exciting to plan and cook dinner and share and enjoy with your loved ones.

Please try this recipe, it’s very easy.

Ingredients ( serves 4 person)
500 gms of lamb mince
1 tbspn ginger paste
1 tbspn garlic paste
1 tbspn of red chilli powder
1 tbspn of garam masala
1 tbspn of ghee or butter
1 small onion finely chopped
Salt as per taste
1/2 cup fresh coriander finely chopped
8 skewers ( soak it in water for 1-2 hours before use)

Garnish
Pinch of chilli flakes
Pinch if chat masala powder
Lemon wedges

Place lamb mince and all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

Grease hands with oil and grab 50 gms of mix and shape it like a sausage. Insert the sausage in the skewers. This mix will yield 8 skewers.

If you have a grill or tandoor, grill skewers for 5 minutes on each side and it’s ready to be served.

As I used oven on grill settings, please follow the instruction below.
Preheat oven on 220 degrees for 5 minutes.
Line all the skewers on the greased tray and place it in the oven. Turn the skewers after 5 mins and cook it for 5 more minutes.

It’s ready to be served on skewers or you can take it off the sticks and cut sheesh kebabs into 2 inches in a slanting way.

Sprinkle kebabs with some chat masala powder and chilli flakes. Serve hot with lemon wedges or raita dip if you like.

Chula (Mince meat curry)

This is my all time favourite mince curry that can be prepared in hurry. I love curry called chula as it’s so tasty with rice and easy to make. It used to be my favourite dish when I was a kid. Whenever my mom had to impress me or pamper me, she would bring buffalo mince meat and make this beautiful curry. It never failed to please me after eating a thaal (plate) full of rice and chula.
In Kathmandu, buffalo is the main meat that people consume on daily basis. I’m an avid buff meat lover. You can make so many dishes of buff meat. However I’m here now so I can’t get my hands on buffalo meat easily.
I make this chula curry with chicken mince. I’ve tried with lamb but it turns out really fatty. I’m not much of pork lover so chicken is ideal for this recipe I’m about to share.
It takes 15 mins to prepare this dish. I do this curry when I’m too lazy to cook other protein as I can’t be bothered cutting it or I’m in hurry.

Here is the recipe:

Vegetable oil
5-8 fenugreek seeds
1 large onion
2 bay leaves
1 stick of cinnamon
500 gms chicken mince
1 tablespoon (tbspn) of garlic paste
1 tbspn of ginger paste
1 teaspoon (tspn) cumin powder
1 tspn coriander powder
1/2 tspn chilli powder
1/2 tspn turmeric powder
1 tspn garam masala
Salt as per taste
1/4 of green peas
1 med size tomato
1/2 cup of water or chicken stock
1/4 cup of chopped coriander to garnish

Marinade chicken mince with half of garlic and ginger paste and a tspn of oil. Leave it on the side for 5-10 mins. It will tenderize the meat and retain the moisture.

In a pan, heat 2 tbspn of vegetable oil. When the oil is hot, crack fenugreek seeds and cook it until it turns black. Add onion and fry until golden brown. Throw in cinnamon stick and bay leaves to infuse the onion. Add all the other spices and cook until it leaves the oil. Add chicken mix and mix well. Ensure the mince is mixed well so it doesn’t have any lumps. Cook it for 2-3 mins to make sure it’s not over cooked. Add 1/2 cup of water or chicken stock, tomato and peas and cook it for another 3 mins. Turn off the heat, garnish with coriander. Serve with steamed rice.