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

Groomed Hamburger

I like my hamburgers to be a little interesting. A plain beef patty just doesn't do it for me. I had a bit of beef left over from my stir fry, so I decided to mess around with a seasoned hamburger.
Prepare:
-1/4-1/2 lb of beef, defrosted
-finely chop anything that piques your interest. I did a small chili pepper, a small clove of garlic, a bit of onion, and some fresh cilantro-mix herbs into patty, and add a splash of Worcestershire sauce (I added a bit of soy sauce and some garlic salt), and mix well. Mold into a ball
Cook:
-Preheat your grill and throw the patty on (I don't have a grill and in Australia they have this weird mini-oven as part of the oven that functions as a grill)-Cook for about 5 minutes on each side, or until the inside is the color that you like
Tips:
-Really, the hamburger can extend as far as your mind/kitchen allows. Mixing in basil, chives, oregano, parsley, etc would all work well. As would perhaps tomato or pepper, or a nice hard cheese
-I'm not sure about the egg-issue. I think the burger may benefit from an egg in the mix, but I didn't find mine lacking.
I enjoyed mine with some cheddar, tomato, cilantro, and a spicy cilantro/chili pepper sauce, with roasted pumpkin and sweet potato on the side.
Update:
-I just made an amazing batch: finely diced green onion leaves and chili pepper, hot pepper powder, garlic salt, 1 egg, and some diced fresh mozzarella. They were great.

Beef and Noodle Veg in Black Bean Sauce

This is just a nice miscellaneous stir-fry, with a black-bean undercurrent. This is a salty, savory dish so make sure to enjoy with a nice Gin n Tonic or such.
Prepare:
-Chop up some veggies, most veggies work pretty well in a stir-fry. I'd say mandatory are onion, garlic, pepper, and broccoli. For black-bean sauce, I would also consider Bok Choy to be requisite. I also had some carrot, zucchini, cauliflower, chili pepper, and green onion.
-Brown the beef in a separate pan and drain: you don't want all the fat getting in your glorious stir-fry.-Get the sauces and other additives ready. A stir-fry should be stir-fried quickly, so you don't want to be fumbling with caps and lids and sauces. I use: black-bean sauce, a bit of stock powder, oyster sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, salt, pepper, and some ginger.
-If you're not using fresh noodles (I just used the ones that came in my Shin Ramyun pack, as I used the base for something else) make sure you boil and drain them ahead of time.
Cook:
-Heat the wok up first, get it nice and hot... a bit below the highest setting.
-Drop a bit of olive oil in and some crushed garlic
-Throw in the vegetables, making sure to stir often
-After a minute or two, add all your additives
-Add noodles and beef-When it's almost done, add all the greens that are quick to be cooked (leaves of Bok Choy and the green ends of the green onion)
-Serve it up, garnish with a generous amount of cilantro. When I made mine, it came off a bit too salty and overpowering, so I added a bit of honey and that smoothed it out quite well.