Momos: the great return

Well, I'm back after too long of a sojourn from the world of blogging, cooking, and blogging about cooking. My trips and travails were great, rest assured, and I even learned a thing or two to bring back to the site. One of the most special thing to introduce are Momos: the Tibetan/Nepali dumpling. This delicious snack was available all over Nepal with a variety of fillings: chicken, buffalo, veggies, or egg. I present here the recipe for beef momos. To save (a lot) of time, you can buy wonton wrappers from an Asian grocery store to use as the shells. This makes about 50 momos. You can freeze those that you do not eat. I made this beautiful batch with my older brother.

Prepare Filling:
-In a large bowl, mix 1lb ground, lean beef (I also made a batch with turkey, lamb, etc), about 1.5 cups of chopped cabbage, 1 cup chopped carrot, and 1/2 cup chopped onion. I also added 3 diced chili peppers for some kick. Add 1 tbsp each of grated/minced garlic and ginger, as well as 3 tbsp olive oil and 2 tbsp soy sauce. Add about a tsp of salt, black pepper, and cumin, as well as any other stuff you may have lying around (turmeric, cloves, coriander, fenugreek, ginger powder, etc).-Leave, covered, for 30 minutes to marinate while preparing the wrappers

Prepare Dough:
-In a large bowl, mix about 3 cups flour with 1/2 cup water. Mix together until the flour can be managed as a ball, peeling away from the bowl. Add water/flour until consistency is right.
-On a large floured surface, roll about 1/3 - 1/2 of total flour, until pretty flat (~1/2 cm). Then, using a cookie cutter or a thin-edged glass, wider than a can of soda, cut out circles of dough. Place aside, then take the remaining edges of dough, reball and reflatten it, repeat until all dough is gone.

Prepare Momos:
-Take about a tbsp (maybe a little less) of filling and place it on one half of the dough. Fold dough in half and flatten the edges together (or make in-dents with fingernails) and place them aside.

Cook Momos:
-Steam on a steam tray (making sure there's a bit of space in-between each momo) for about 7 or 8 minutes

Prepare sauce:
-Chop about 1 cup of cilantro, as well as 1 or 2 chilis. Mix with tbsp of olive oil, tbsp (or 2) soy sauce, tsp sesame oil, and a tsp of water. Mix well
-Dip momos in sauce and enjoy!

Tips:
-If you don't have a rolling pin, you can use a clean wine bottle
-For egg filling, hardboiled egg, chopped up, works the best
-You can buy coleslaw mix for the chopped carrot and cabbage and just use that with the meat