Momos — Beloved Recipe for Tibetan Meat or Veg Dumplings

Tap an ingredient or step to check it off.

1. 1Step 1: Mix the flour and water very well by hand and keep adding water until you make a pretty smooth ball of dough.
2. 2Step 2: Knead the dough very well until the dough is flexible.
3. 3Step 3: Leave your dough in the pot with the lid on while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
4. 4Step 4: Chop all the following ingredients into very, very small pieces: two onions, two inches fresh ginger, two or three cloves of garlic, a bunch of cilantro, one pound of cabbage, one pound of tofu, one quarter pound of dark brown mushrooms.
5. 5Step 5: For meat momos, add one pound of ground beef, which replaces the mushrooms and tofu in the vegetable recipe.
6. 6Step 6: For both kinds of momos, put all of the ingredients in a pot or big bowl, then add a teaspoon of bouillon and two tablespoons of soy sauce.
7. 7Step 7: Mix everything together very well. If you are making meat momos with ground beef, you may need to use your hands to mix it up.
8. 8Step 8: Place the dough on a chopping board and use a rolling pin to roll it out quite thinly. It should not be so thin that you can see through it when you pick it up, nor should it be quite as thick as a floppy disk for a computer.
9. 9Step 9: Cut the rolled dough into little circles for each momo. The easiest way is to turn a small cup or glass upside down to cut out circles about the size of the palm of your hand.
10. 10Step 10: Alternatively, pinch off a small ball of dough and roll each ball in your palms until you have a smooth ball, then use a rolling pin to flatten it into a circle, making the edges more thin than the middle.
11. 11Step 11: For both shapes, put one circle of dough in your left hand, and add a tablespoonful of filling in the center of the dough.
12. 12Step 12: With your right hand, begin to pinch the edge of the dough together. You don't need to pinch much dough in the first pinch — just enough to make a small fold between your thumb and forefinger.
13. 13Step 13: Continue pinching around the circle little by little, keeping your thumb in place, and continuing along the edge of the circle with your forefinger, grabbing the next little piece of dough, and folding and pinching it down into the original fold/pinch being held by your thumb.
14. 14Step 14: Continue folding and pinching all around the edge of the circle until you come back around to where you started and then close the hole with a final pinch. Make sure you close the hole on top of the momo.
15. 15Step 15: For the half-moon style, hold the flat circular dough in your left hand and put a tablespoon of filling in the middle of the dough.
16. 16Step 16: Fold your circle of dough in half, covering over the filling.
17. 17Step 17: Press together the two edges of the half circle so that there is no open edge in your half circle, and the filling is completely enclosed in the dough.
18. 18Step 18: Start at one tip of the half-moon, and fold over a very small piece of dough, pinching it down. Continue folding and pinching from the starting point, moving along the edge until you reach the other tip of the half-moon.
19. 19Step 19: As you are making your momos, have a non-stick surface and a damp cloth or lid handy to keep the momos you've made from drying out while you're finishing the others. You can lay the momos in the lightly-greased steamer and keep the lid on them, or lay them on wax paper and cover them with the damp cloth.
20. 20Step 20: Boil water in a large steamer. Oil the steamer surface lightly before putting the momos in, so they won't stick to the metal, then place as many as you can without touching each other.
21. 21Step 21: Add the momos after the water is already boiling.
22. 22Step 22: Steam the momos for about 10 minutes, then serve them hot, with soy sauce or hot sauce of your choice to dip them in.