WEEKEND COOKING: STEAMED VEG DUMPLINGS WITH CLEAR VEGETABLE SOUP & GREEN CHUTNEY ON THE SIDE  

I have been working for 6 years now. Its a 6-day week, so our weekend is essentially one extremely short Sunday (when we have loads to do and not enough time to do it in)!

For the past few months, though- I have been having two weeks per month when we get an additional Saturday off!

😀 😀

Suddenly, a sea of opportunities have opened up- with all that additional hours at  home! 😀 😀

(I really cannot stop being excited about this additional day off!)

 

So, this weekend, I made myself a list of To- Do items and started ticking each one off….

 

The first one involved cooking- a healthy home-made alternative to eating out on weekends 🙂

I zeroed down to making “Momos” or dumplings (as they are more famously known the World over) In our travels around South East Asia, we have been big fans of a variety of steamed dumplings – with the standout being the Prawn Dumpling we had in HongKong.

 

With memories of the pictured dish on my mind, I began the research….

Making dumplings is truly very time consuming ! But the results are worth it 🙂 🙂 

And so with determination and greed for the delicacy leading the way, I set to task of making elaborate dumplings home-style!

Since it worked out well, here’s the recipe for all the kitchen-bravehearts out there….

Hope you have a lovely #foodheaven experience with this one! 🙂 ❤

 

For the Dough:

2 Cups All-purpose Flour (Maida)

¾ cup Hot water

Salt to taste

1. Knead the flour with hot water till soft.

     2. Roll it up & wrap it in plastic/ cling film and let it rest for 20-45 mins.

                                           Freshly knead dough wrapped to keep it soft, supple and moist!

 

For the Filling

¼ small cabbage

¼  green capsicum

100gms mushrooms

1 onion

1 chilly

1 carrot

1 tbsp soy sauce

Salt to taste

2 cloves garlic

½ inch Ginger (Grated)

1tsp olive oil

1. Chop all ingredients into extremely small bits. You may choose to blitz it up in a food processor (and lose out on the taste 😛 )
2. Heat the olive oil in a hot pan.
3. Add the grated ginger & the chopped garlic.
4. Add chopped onion into the hot pan.
5. When the onions start to brown, add all the other vegetables & sauté on high for 2 mins.
6. Add the salt and soy sauce just before turning off the heat.

                                                                            Filling – Ready for use!

 

For the soup

½ carrot (Diced)

¼ cabbage (thinly sliced)

½ green capsicum (Diced)

2 cloves garlic

½ inch ginger (grated)

1 Onion (thinly sliced)

1tsp olive oil

3cups water

Salt to taste

Pepper to season

Coriander to season

1. Heat the olive oil in a deep sauce pan
2. Add the grated ginger, the chopped garlic & onion. Saute till the onions are transparent
3. Add the diced vegetables and stir fry for 2 mins.
4. Add salt & water & Simmer till the volume halves.

(P.S. I transferred the sauted vegetables to a rice cooker before adding the water & used the steam from the simmering soup to steam the momos- adds flavor to the momos, instead of using steam from water only!)

For the Chutney

10 sprigs mint leaves

6 sprigs coriander leaves

¼ tomato

1 chilly

Salt to taste

Grind all the ingredients with sufficient water. Add salt as per taste at the end. Chutney’s all ready to be served. 

P.S. You may want to refrigerate it for now, serving the cold element of the dish at the last minute.

And now coming to the Dumplings

1. Cut off small sections of the rolled dough with a knife for making the base. It is more convenient & less messy that way. Store the rest of the roll inside the plastic wrap to prevent it from drying off.

                                          Cut off small sections of the rolled dough for making the base.

Roll into small “chapattis” 🙂 

 

2. Put in one tablespoon full of filling into each rolled out dough.

 

3. Fold the ends of the rolled-out dough into semi-circles. (Tip: If the dough is not very soft or moist, you will need to wet the edge of the circles with water so that the dumplings get into shape).

         Additional tip: Use the edge of a fork to add some shape the dumpling.

 

                        Use the edge of the fork to give additional shape to the dumplings!

 

4. Cover the filled-up dumplings in cling film/ plastic wrap to keep them moist – till you are ready to steam them.

   5. Once you have made adequate number of filled up dumplings, arrange them in a steamer.

 

In my case, since I did not have a proper steamer- I used a rice cooker, with the sieve of a strainer/ colander used to place the  dumplings!

                             You may use a rice cooker with “jugaad” system to create a make-shift steamer

Another option would be to use an idli- maker!

Again, I used the soup to steam my dumplings instead of using plain water. Both are good , the soup gives it more flavor!

6. Steam the dumplings for 10-15 mins (Depending on the amount of steam generated by your steamer) and Viola ! you are ready to serve !!
7. Garnish the soup with chopped coriander leaves and freshly crushed pepper just before serving.

                                      Assembled all the elements – for a wonderful & healthy Lunch !

So, that was Saturday…. and Sunday- well, Sunday was spent arranging & taking care of my little balcony garden !

(Psst… a preview of the “famed” garden- full of kitchen herbs & Puja flowers !!)