Paneer-Vegtable Momos (from Momowoman)

This pandemic has stopped the usual Momoman trips my friends and I used to take through the semesters, situated at a ten minute ride from the college campus. So, I decided to make paneer veg momos today, to which a friend promptly said 'Momowoman' when I sent a picture. So, all the credits of that part of the title goes to my friend!

Let me tell you how I made the momos today!

What you need for the dough: two cups of maida, oil, salt, water

1. Prepare the maida dough: take the required quantity of maida, add salt, add a spoon of oil, mix it well, and slowly knead it by adding small quantities of water every time until it becomes a dough. The dough should not be too soft or too hard. This is important because a dough that is too soft or too hard will make it difficult to seal the momos after stuffing the filling.

What you need for preparing the filling: onion, cabbage, ginger, capsicum, carrot, beans, one packet paneer

Other ingredients you can add(but I didn't today): chopped green chilli, ginger, soy sauce

2. Chop all the vegetables. You can chop ginger, capsicum, carrot, onion, and beans finely, while cabbage can be chopped wispy(like how it is inside spring rolls). Grate the paneer evenly.

3. Take a thick bottomed pan, pour a little bit of oil. You can use butter instead of oil if you prefer. 

4. Saute ginger and onions first, until they turn golden. Then put the rest of the vegetables and fry them well until all the wetness of the vegetables dry out. Let the vegetables cook well on low flame. Add paneer, and gently mix it well with the other vegetables. Let it cook for 2-3 minutes. 

5. Add salt and pepper powder as per taste. Mix them all well, and let it cook in simmer for 5 minutes. 

Your dough and filling is now ready. Time to make momos!

6. Take a really small ball of dough. Ideally it is the amount of dough you take to make a poori. Dust the ball of dough in maida, and flatten it to the thin sheet. Make it as thin as you can. The thinner they are, the better the momos!

7. take 1-2 spoons of the filling and heap it in the centre of the flattened dough. Start making frills in the edges and close the filling by bringing the frills to the centre. This is for a round momo, you can check out other shapes that can be given to momos, if you prefer otherwise.

8. Repeat the steps until you are done with all the dough and filling. 

Time to steam the momos!

9. Take steaming deck/steaming plates. I used our idli plates today because they are the perfect steaming decks for this that we already have at home. Crease the plate well with oil. This is very important. Otherwise, the momos will stick to the plate after they are done, and it would be difficult to remove them without tearing the momo.

10. Arrange all the momos on the steaming deck. Take your pressure cooker, and fill the base with water. Take a bowl, fill it up with water and place it in the cooker. On top of this arrangement, place your steaming deck. Close the cooker, and steam for 20 minutes. 

11. After 20 minutes, switch of the gas and wait fro 5 minutes before you open and serve hot!

Time to eat!

The momos today came so well! The shape was slightly bigger and flatter than the ones that we get in the restaurant. But, the taste came out very well. We had it with spicy tomato pickle! It is really simple, and the process may seem elaborate, but I think it is just a matter of getting used to it. It makes for a simple and satisfying dish!

Remember that doing all the small steps like making the dough in the right consistency, creasing the steaming plates, flattening as thin as possible, and other such small tips truly change how the momos might turn out. Do try it out and let me know how it comes!