Momos

Method

Make a dough with 250g flour, salt, and 120ml water. Knead for eight minutes until smooth and elastic — the gluten network needs this work to give the wrapper enough tensile strength to hold filling without tearing during the steam. Cover and rest twenty minutes. A short rest hydrates the flour fully and relaxes the gluten so the dough rolls thin without fighting you.

While the dough rests, prepare the filling. Dice the onion, garlic, ginger, and green chillies finely — aim for pieces smaller than a lentil so they distribute evenly through the meat and cook through in the steamer. Combine 300g minced pork or beef with the aromatics, coriander, a pinch of salt, and 1 tbsp oil. The oil acts as a binder and slows moisture loss during steaming; without it the filling dries and pulls away from the wrapper. Mix with your hands until the ingredients cling together as a paste. Taste and adjust salt — the filling needs to season itself because it won't brown or concentrate flavour in the steam.

Roll the dough thin, about 2mm, and cut 5cm circles. You'll get roughly twenty momos. Place a teaspoon of filling in each circle — overstuff and the seal splits. Gather the edges and pinch at the top; the pleated seal matters because it's where steam escapes fastest. A weak seal lets filling seep into the steamer basket.

Arrange momos flat-side down on a wet cloth in a bamboo steamer or metal basket — the moisture prevents sticking. Steam over rolling boiling water for twelve to fourteen minutes. The wrapper changes colour as it cooks: from opaque to translucent and slightly glossy, the starch gelatinising from the dry heat turning moist. The filling firms and the meat flavour becomes clear rather than raw.

Serve hot with a sauce of chopped green chillies, tomato, and a pinch of salt. The heat carries the bhutanese-cuisine aromatics — ginger, chilli, garlic — into the filling and across the palate. Momos rely on steaming to keep the wrapper tender and the filling moist; boiling would waterlog the dough and dilute the filling's seasoning.