Making dumplings is serious business in my family. Frankly, I am rarely a part of the process, except when it comes to eating them, because my skills are far below the standard set by my parents. The dumpling plan is usually made ahead of time, on a Friday night, when my dad announces, we’re making dumplings tomorrow. It means that the goal of the next day is defined, and my mom needs to put down whatever she’s working on, just to focus on the dumplings. The whole process takes half a day on a weekend. It starts with going to the market to shop for fresh ingredients, making the dough, resting the dough (twice), making the wrappers, wrapping the dumplings, then boiling them. After 3 hours’ hard work, it takes just 10 minutes for me to eat them all. The whole process is always ritualistic, quite formal and serious.
We always make the same fillings, for example, the classic pork and cabbage filling and my family’s secret lamb filling. Every single suggestion to change the filling is rejected by my dad, because it’s not as good as the ones we usually make. Looking back, I’m a little astonished, myself, that I’ve been eating just three types of dumplings growing up, for almost 30 years. It blew my mind when I discovered pizza-flavored steamed buns at 7-Eleven in Japan. The chicken, melted cheese, and tomato sauce filling was nothing like the dumplings I recognized. I ate them almost every morning before going to school.
Today I want to share my latest discovery – a spinach and ricotta filled Nepali style momo from the Chinatown issue of Peddler Journal. Peddler Journal is a vegetarian, multi-cultural food journal by Hetty McKinnon, an Australian Chinese lady who lives in New York City. She is the author of the bestselling cookbooks Community and Neighborhood and the owner of Arthur Street Kitchen. Flipping through the beautiful magazine, I was fascinated by the stories written by authors from totally different backgrounds but who shared the same obsession towards certain foods.
I had my first Nepali style momos in a Tibetan restaurant when I was traveling in India. The filling was paneer and spinach, dipped in a hot sauce. Simple, yet so delicious. I wrapped these dumplings with a homemade dough because I was practicing a new type of wrapping method. But I did use a KitchenAid mixer to knead the dough, and a biscuit cutter to cut the wrappers. And of course, you can use store-bought wrappers and cut the prep time tremendously. Despite all the shortcuts, it still took me quite a while to finish cooking. I was exhausted at the end and told my husband, “Sometimes I forget why people go to all this trouble to make dumplings.” But when I bit into a dumpling, all my doubt disappeared and it was totally an “OMG” moment, to appreciate how good these dumplings are. Strangely, although these dumplings are quite different from the same ol’ type that I ate growing up, it felt like home. I had my first Nepali style momos in a Tibetan restaurant when I was traveling in India. The filling was paneer and spinach, dipped in a hot sauce. Simple, yet so delicious.
More dumpling recipes
How to Make Chinese Dumplings from Scratch (water boiled dumplings) How to Make Steamed Dumplings from Scratch Addictive Kimchi Pork Steamed Bun Carrot Dumplings Chinese Beef Dumplings
If you give this recipe a try, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it (once you’ve tried it), and take a picture and tag it @omnivorescookbook on Instagram! I’d love to see what you come up with.
