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Momos with Ezay

Momos with Ezay is a traditional Bhutanese recipe for a classic dish of beef-filled dumplings served with a spicy chilli-based dip. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Bhutanese version of: Momos with Ezay

prep time

20 minutes

cook time

30 minutes

Total Time:

50 minutes

Serves:

6

Rating: 4.5 star rating

Tags : Bhutan Recipes



Momos are dumplings that are popularly eaten from India to Nepal to Bhutan and known as a Tibetan food – basically the entire Himalayan region – and even broader, they are very similar to any type of dumpling around the world, probably originating from Tibet (they were taken throughout the Himalayan region as a result of the Tibetan diaspora). Momos are easily the most common of all restaurant and street food snacks that you’ll find in Bhutan. They are served piping hot, filled with minced meat, cheese, or vegetables, and consumed with lots of a Bhutanese chilli sauce known as ezay. If you wish, you can prepare your own with this Wonton Wrapper recipe. Or you can use home-made or store-bought Gyoza Wrappers

Ingredients


For the dumplings:
225g minced yak or beef meat
1/2 onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely minced
2 tbsp Xiaoshing (Chinese rice wine)
2 tsp plain flour
2 tsp soy sauce
1 red finger chilli, finely minced
1 packet round wonton wrappers
A few large lettuce or cabbage leaves

For the Ezay dipping sauce:
75g ezay
2 tbsp oil (or chilli oil if you like things spicy)
1 tbsp lemon or lime juice

Method:

With your hands, thoroughly mix together the minced meat with the onion, garlic, rice wine, flour, soy sauce and chilli.

Lay out a few of the wonton wrappers and spoon a small amount of the filling into the centre of each. Fold the wonton wrapper over the filling to form a half-moon, then pinch the edges to make a tight seal. Alternately, for prettiness, you can pinch the dough into a series of tiny pleats, gathering the edge together into a tightly puckered rosette at the top. But that's fiddly and time-consuming.

After you've used up all your wrappers, you will have a lot of momos and probably some remaining filling. The filling will keep in the refrigerator until the next day and you can mix with some grated cheese as a variant. Of course, you can also just take another packet of wrappers and keep on making dumplings. Note that you need to keep the dumplings in a single layer on a floured surface, do not stack them or they will stick together and tear when you try to separate them.

I have a wok and a bamboo steamer basket (but you can also use an electric steamer). Pour water into the base of your wok and bring to a boil. Take your steamer baskets and line with the lettuce or cabbage leaves (this prevents the momos from sticking) then add in a layer of dumplings. You can cover with more leaves and add a second layer of dumplings to the same basket. Place the baskets in your wok, cover with a lid and steam for 30 minutes.

For the ezay dipping sauce, mix the ezay condiment with the oil and lemon juice then spoon into a dipping bowl.

Once cooked, transfer the momos to a serving plate and serve accompanied by the dipping sauce.