MOMOSSSSSssssssss we love momos. My kids love momos, everybody loves momos. If we could eat one thing all day everyday it would be momos hands down no contest.
In every culture there is always that one food that seems to transcend boundaries and is adored and loved by everybody. In Asian culture it is the dumpling. Whether it is Chinese or Japanese maybe Korean or South East Asian food, you can always find some type of meat wrapped in flour that has gone through some type of steaming process.
In Nepalese culture there is momos. This particular dumpling comes from Tibet. It is a type of Tibetan dish that is enjoyed throughout Nepal and India. And my wife being Nepali, this is a beloved dish she’s enjoyed growing up in India throughout her childhood. She would always compete with her cousins about how many they could each eat. She tells me she could eat 14 momos in grade 7. This is what she calls their momo nights.
During momo nights the whole family and cousins and grandparents and aunts and uncles would all get together in the kitchen. They all had different tasks assigned in their corner of the kitchen. The wife was always in charge of rolling the dough into tiny balls for making the dumpling wrappers. How wonderful and it was a full on family event because minced pork back home was luxury.
We have continued with this tradition here at home with our kids and they love momo nights. Raiden polished off 10 momos one time and he’s 5.5 years old. Mind you he hadn’t eaten a great lunch. But our main momo Queen is little Miss K. She loves eating momos so much. She’s generally a great eater but momos are her favorite. She’s 1.5 years old and she can polish off 5 of those suckers no problem. Mmmmmmmmm momos
Ingredients
Momo (This recipe makes around 70-80 momos)
700 g of medium ground pork
2 medium size onion (dice, medium size)
2 cilantro stalks (fine chop)
2 green onion (chop)
1.5 tbsp grated ginger (if you like less ginger taste you can reduce to 1 tbsp)
2 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of Ajinomoto aka MSG (optional) (I know MSG gets a bad rap but we love it and used this growing up, we don’t use to everyday but for momos I feel its adds that extra umami flavor)
2/3 cup of crushed ice
1 pack of dumpling wrapper
Aachar (Sauce)
3 tomatoes
1 cilantro
4-5 thai chili (depends on how hot you want)
2 tsp salt
Directions
1. Mix the onions, green onions, cilantro, salt, MSG (optional), ginger, and pork in a bowl with ice. (ice makes the pork super soft and bouncy). Use a stand mixer to mix all the ingredients if you have one
We like to do this mix in the morning and leave it in the fridge to marinate.
2. Use a dumpling wrapper (not a wonton wrapper as it is too thin for momos). You can find these at any grocery stores now usually by the other Asian noodles. You can also roll out your own wrapper but we like to use the premade ones as it saves us a lot of time with Hangry kids.
3. Steam in the steamer for 15 minutes
To make Aachar
1. Put the tomatoes in a bowl & wrap with Saran Wrap. Microwave on high for 2 minutes or until tomatoes are soft.
2. Put all the ingredients in a Blender and blend Tips: this sauce you can make your own twist as well by putting crunchy peanut butter and they are so good with momos
These are the items I use in this recipe
