Momo Making at the Brooklyn Brainery!
Kat and I took our second Dumpling making class, this time we traveled to Nepal and Tibet, land of the Momo. Travel of course was in in figurative terms, as the journey consisted of going to Prospect Heights and not the Himalayan range. But this was literally our very first experience with Momo's and we didn't know what to expect.
The Wonton/Dumpling class we took in June provided us with a great background and jumping off point, the folding instruction Diana Kuan provided came in handy here. But moreover as the previous class used ready made wrappers it gave us a tactile example of how thin we needed to get the dough.
As with the Wontons/Dumplings there are three elements to the Momo, the dough/wrapper, the stuffing and the sauce. Our instructor, Tyler, provided us with the stuffing and the sauces and we were in charge of the dough and stuffing the parcels.
The dough making was fun, there were three of us at our table, me, Kat and a nice woman also on a dumpling quest. We had one bowl with the flour measured out and all we had to do was add salt and water. Our goal was to get the dough to the consistency of tortilla masa, which apparently that means dry but not flakey. So I kneaded and Kat poured the water, and with my hands in the bowl I regressed into elementary school. After we split the completed ball of dough in three, we each rolled it out into as thin a plane as possible. This seems to be the key to the endeavor as we found out when eating the results.
The stuffing was rather simple and we had two kinds, veg and non veg. The vegetable stuffing consisted of sautéing onions, garlic and ginger in a neutral oil with coriander, cumin, garam masala, salt, pepper and chili powder, once soft they then coat and infuse the shredded raw cabbage and carrots. The same spices were used in a dry rub for the chicken. Tyler, our instructor, told us that it didn’t need to be marinated and just pan fried the meat immediately, after it cooled he shredded it for us to pack into our discs of dough. But if I were doing this at home, with chicken, I’d let the flavors seep in for a tad longer, taking a page from the Zuni Café method of chicken preparation. I’d also consider using a gamier meat, apparently water buffalo is traditionally used in momo making. My local butcher's on Smith Street Los Paisano’s does carry Bison/Buffalo meat and that could be a close approximation, although beef is probably just as close. Lamb, goat, pork are all good choices. But out of left field could be ostrich, which is a good beef and perhaps therefore buffalo alternative.
As far as the sauces went they were fairly simple, a tomato masala and a coriander (cilantro) chutney. However the masala had a secret kick to it which was red wine vinegar (not sure how authentic that is). And the chutney was far more mellow than what you would find served along side a samosa. And as antithetical as it sounds I am going to say that's because it contained tomatoes. While tomatoes are acidic they also provide a round flavor to things and perhaps they mellow out the fresh and therefore sharp coriander? In any regards I loved the tomato masala, it had heaps of turmeric, serrano chili (which added a gentle kick, in fact while eating it I forgot that there were loads of chili's added to it) and salt.
At the end I had two gripes with the class as a whole. One was our instructor, while really sweet, earnest and skilled as a chef, kept referring to the region as Southeast Asia. This is a major pet peeve of mine, perhaps because I am from the region, which is in fact South Asia. I think he should have known better having traveled to Nepal, but I also find that this is a common mistake made by completely well intentioned, open minded folks, it is confusing, after all Southeast Asia is just down the way, you know southeastward. I was tempted to correct him and Kat dissuaded me, rightfully so, no need to be bitchy when he was trying his best. But the other issue is that due to the size of the class and the space on the stovetop we didn’t get to eat our own momo’s. All the momo’s were gathered and steamed and then distributed amongst the tables afterwards. I am for the most part happy to share with the collective, but the results were slightly mixed because the doughs were so variable. The key to the momo, as Tyler emphasized was dough thickness. It’s a conduit to whatever is inside. Our table did a great job of rolling nice thin circles, however all the steamed momo’s we were served were packaged in very thick encasements. Which caused two issues, one they were tough to eat and two they weighty and we filled up rather quickly. I’m guessing though that momo dough is supposed to be slightly thicker than wontons, as we’re dealing with a colder climate and a heartier food. But that’s just me hypothesizing.
I posted the photos initially on Facebook and a college friend informed me that he’s off to Nepal in a month. I asked him to photograph some authentic momo’s for us. So hopefully I will get to post and present those here.
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