Momos are one of the staple foods you can find in Nepal. Many Nepali families love to prepare these at home for their families, but you can also find them easily in restaurants and street-stands. Momo is a type of dumpling, most commonly used in South Asia. I find them to be bigger in size compared to the Chinese dumplings (jiaozi). They also love to serve momo’s in Nepal with a spicy tomato-based sauce. When I was staying with my host family in Nepal, we made more than 300 momos! Here is the recipe to make the best local momos & their special momo sauce!
Ingredients: 10-12 servings (40-48 momos)
- 1 cup Green Onion
- Garlic Ginger Paste
- 2 cups White Onion
- 1/2 cup Cilantro
- 2 pinch of Salt
- 2 cups cup Cabbage
- 4 lbs ground meat
- 8 cups all-purpose Flour
- Water, as required
Step-by-Step
- Dough – Create the momo dough by mixing flour and water. Knead to a stiff dough, 8-10 minutes. Cover and let it sit for 30 minutes.
- Filling – in a large bowl combine green onion, ginger paste, white onion, cilantro, salt, cabbage, and ground meat together. Mix together until thoroughly combined.
- Wrappers – with the dough, prepare 1 inch dough balls using your hands. (roll the dough in your palms to make round balls). Dust a cutting board with flour to ensure the dough does not stick to the board. Flatten the dough ball using a rolling pin on the cutting board. Roll out the dough ball to a flatten 3 inch circle.
- Assembly – Place 1 tablespoon of the filling onto the middle of a flattened wrapper. Close the edges by making pleats in the momo.
- Cooking – Oil the steamer so that the momos do not stick to the bottom of the pan. Arrange the momos in the pan and steam for approximately 10 minutes. (the wrapper should be shiny when it is ready)
- Momo Sauce – Fry 1/2 cup onions for 5 minutes. Add in 3 tablespoon ginger and onion paste, 1 tea spoon of yellow powder, chili, chicken masala, 1/2 cup tomato paste, cook for 2 minutes.
The Bakery Cafe, Kathmandu, Nepal
We came to restaurant called The Bakery Cafe upon a recommendation from a friend who is a local in Nepal. It’s right beside the supermarket so it was quite convenient to come here after shopping for snacks.
I’ve only gone to a few restaurants in Nepal but we never came across the Ostrich Momo sign. Even my friends who were locals had not tried Ostrich Momos so we ordered it for our table. We found it to be saltier and a bit tougher than other meats (pork, chicken). It was prepared well and it was complimented by the usual sauces. The Ostrich Momos were priced a little bit higher than regular momos (chicken, pork), however, it was worth a try. In the end, our table was discussing whether it was real ostrich meat or not since we had not seen many ostriches around in Nepal. Anyone have any thoughts or have tried Ostrich?
We ordered other items like the Chow Mein and a Cheese Pasta. I enjoyed the chow mein a lot. It was very flavourful and reminded me of the Hong Kong style chow mein. The cheese pasta was mediocre but I appreciate their efforts to make the menu more international.
The atmosphere of the restaurant was quite fun, it was bold and colorful. They were on the 3rd floor so you could watch people on the street from the window. I loved the shirt they were selling in the front desk, it said “I (Heart) MoMos”, unfortunately they did not have my size. I was hoping to find it in Thamel (souvenir/tourist district), but it seems like this is the only restaurant you can find such a shirt.
Would love to come here again when I am in Nepal next.
