Momo Dumpling for Beginners

Over the past few weeks, after taking up posting about my kitchen adventures more publicly, Nirmal and I have received so much love and encouragement from all of you! It has helped me conduct my time in our home kitchen with more enthusiasm than usual.

After one such Instagram recipe story, one of our friends from Penn, Manashree, reached out to me asking if I could teach her how to make a momo. To be honest, I had never really tried making them at home, except for when I casually learned how to fold them from a Bengali chef at Taftoon in Mumbai. So I took this up as a project and scoured through available recipes online. I definitely missed picking up fresh dumplings from our local store, so I was certain – I needed a good recipe to recreate when the craving hit!

There are 3 essential parts to a dumpling – the cover, the filling and the folding. It is so versatile that almost every culture in the world has their own version of dumplings. Xiao Long Bao/Wonton (China), Gyoza (Japan), Maandu (Korea), Momo (Nepal and Tibet), Manti (Turkey) Ravioli/Tortellini (Italy) and our very own Modak, Samosa and Pitha (India) are just a few variations that I can recall. Generations of humans have successfully managed to wrap their favorite regional fillings into a skillfully crafted dough and unknowingly created a unifying dish that all of us from around the globe can not just relish but categorize as comfort food.

In this process of wanting to teach my friend, I tried out a recipe from Bong Eats which used a 50% hydration dough. The momos came out slightly dry and the covers were spotty after steaming, likely because of being under-hydrated. I used refined bleached flour – Maida, and have come to realize that it is a more thirsty flour and can require more water than a standard recipe. Hence I began a quest to test for the perfect hydration percentage.

Under-hydrated dough – has white spots after steaming

Momo Dumpling Cover: Dough variations

IngredientBatch ABatch BBatch CBleached Flour/Maida (gms)5050 50Salt (gms)111Baking Powder (gms)0.50.50.5Warm Water (ml)253035Hydration 50%60%70%ResultToo DryJust RightToo Moist

The dough with 60% water came out perfectly soft, malleable and withstood the weight of the filling and steam. It was easy to fill, fold and enjoy!

Please Note: If you use unbleached flour, please know it requires lesser water. I would stick to 50% hydration or 50 ml warm water to 100 gm flour ratio for this option. I wouldn’t recommend wheat flour for this recipe.

Recipe for the Perfect Momo Cover:

Ingredients:

Maida (Bleached Flour) – 100 gms or 0.8 cups Salt – 1gm or 1/4th tspBaking powder – 0.5 gm or 1/4th tspWarm Water – 60 ml

Directions:

• Combine the dry ingredients in a container – flour, salt, and baking powder and give it all a cursory mix.
• Add in the exact amount of water in 2 parts while bringing the dough together.
• After adding in all the water, our objective is to just slowly combine all the flour so we don’t have any rough bits sticking to the sides of the container. Gently pressing down the dough and sweeping it against the walls will help.Please Note: Control all your urge to add in any additional water or oil at this point. It seems like a tough dough to begin with but rest assured, it is going to form a beautiful dough by the end of these steps.

• At this point, when our dough is homogenous but dry and unshapely, we’ll need to bring it down to a clean surface and continue kneading for 7 minutes.

• At this point, rub just a dab of oil onto the surface of the dough and cover it in a plastic wrap – so as to not allow any passage of air. Let it rest for an hour.
• At the end of an hour, divide the dough into smaller parts. This recipe should roughly yield about 12 dumplings. With the help of just a touch of flour, roll them out to thin sheets, maintaining a circular shape – It is perfectly fine if you choose to cut out a round shape with a stencil. Store all the rolled out sheets of dough under a sheet of plastic or paper to avoid any contact with air.

Filling:

Ingredients

• Finely chopped:Ginger – 1 tsp

• Garlic – 3/4th tsp

• Coriander Stems – 1 tsp

• Green Chili – 1/2 tsp

• Spring Onion/Scallion/Green Onion – 1/4th cup

• A Protein of your choice: Crumbled Tofu or Minced Chicken or ground Shrimp – 125 to 150 gms or 1 cup

• Salt – 3/4th tsp

• Shredded Cabbage – 1/4th cup (optional)

• Shredded Carrot – 1/4th cup (optional)

You can absolutely choose to make the filling with no protein. In this case, increase the quantity of shredded cabbage and carrots to about 200 gms. Rest the filling after combining for a few minutes to allow the shredded veggies to become soft – so it’s easier to fill in the dumpling.

I have intentionally kept the seasoning of the filling to a minimum – We ate one too many strong and spicy dumplings during the recipe testing. The result was our realization that we prefer them to be delicately seasoned – without too many chillies or black pepper.

Pièce de Résistance – The Folding

In keeping with the delicate theme, I recommend placing no more than three quarters of a teaspoon of the filling into the cover. This definitely allows for easier folding but also makes for the perfect bite. I once read that a dumpling should never be bigger than 2 average bites, and I wholeheartedly agree with that. A small dumpling cooks more evenly since all its’ sides are evenly exposed in your steam cooker.

Dab a bit of water around the edges of the cover and fill them with about 3/4th spoon of the filling.

Bring in sides of the dumpling closer together and in a repetitive motion, pleat one side of the dumpling by pushing and folding while pinching the other side on the pleats.

For a better quality video of the folding, please refer to our Instagram video. Once all your dumplings are folded, cook them in a food steamer for 21 min. I made ours in an idli cooker. Retrieve the momos and enjoy with a side of your choice! We kept it simple and ate ours with some soy sauce and mirin (sushi vinegar).

Big thanks to all our friends for pushing us to cook more and share more! Please check out Manashree’s music channel. Her voice will brighten up your day!

Tags: #quarantine, dumpling, dumpling-for-beginners, indian-momo, quarantine-cook