Kothey Momo

I love momos. Every kind..yes even vegetarian ones. Make them with whole wheat flour and they are quite healthy as it is all steamed with little or no oil required for making the filling. However those who have it on regular basis like to make variations. Go to any place with a strong Nepali or Tibetan community you can have it in each and every eatery. Nowadays they are very common in Delhi too. Every market has at least 5-6 momo sellers on a bicycle.
Kothey is pan fried momo. There are two ways to make them. One is to pan fry the raw momo and then add some water to boil it. I find that this makes the momos a little messy. I prefer steaming them and then pan frying them. This makes the outer shell quite crunchy.



Ingredients

For the dough
2 cups flour
Salt to taste
Water to knead

Mix the flour and salt. Use the water to knead a firm dough. Cover and keep aside for some time.


For the filling
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup chopped French beans
6 garlic pods, chopped fine
1 cup chopped cabbage
Salt to taste
1 tsp ajinomoto (optional)
½ cup paneer, crumbled

Heat 1 tbsp of oil. Add all the chopped vegetables. Add the salt and sauté for some time. Cover and cook for 4 minutes. The vegetables must not become soft because they are yet to be steamed. Add the crumbled paneer and cook for a minute or two. Keep aside for the filling to cool down.
Now make small balls of the dough and start rolling them out. The trick with rolling out the momo wrappers is to make the outer circumference thinner that the middle portion. This is because you will be gathering up the outer rim and folding it into different shapes. The middle portion has to be thicker so that the momo does not break after being steamed.
Place a tablespoon of filing in the middle and fold the momo into desired shapes.
Steam them for 20-25 minutes.
Heat a shallow pan and add 2 tbsp oil. Once the oil is hot add the momos laying them on one side. Fry both sides till golden brown. Have them hot with momo chutney.