East Indian Breakfast Platter ~ Momos

I am not able to stand even for about an hour at a time for more than a month now because of a condition I have developed in my knee area called bursitis. It is making it harder to even move around and the intense pain I develop when I do is an added bonus. Still I doled out three breakfast platters a couple of weeks ago to my husband's dismay. And the crazy thing is that I had already finished cooking combo breakfast dishes in March. This one from the eastern parts of India was one of those platters and would have been a simple one under normal circumstances but proved to be an exhausting one now.

Originally I wanted to do two individual platters from east and north eastern parts and even spent a considerable amount of time exploring the recipes. I had to combine both when the actual  cooking happened. Koroishutir kochuri, the green peas kachori from Bengal was originally planned but I ended up with luchis and a plain aloo curry to go with it. The luchi are called tan in Manipur and are served with a potato dish called aloo kangmet. I had prepared it for another state in another platter and so dropped it. Poha / flattened rice is one of the common breakfasts eaten among the region with / without cooking and I have included three different varieties from three states. I would have loved to go with tekeli pitha, the Assamese steamed rice cakes recipe today if I could have remembered to picture it. I had crumbled the pitha to eat before picturing it and that's why there is crumbled portion in the platter. There are pancakes from Jharkhand and Chattisgarh and sattu sharbath from Bihar along with chai.

My breakfast platter menu from the East and North east Indian regions -

Luchi and Sada Aloo Chochori - Fried puffed bread made with flour and a simple potato curry from West Bengal
Momos and Chutney - Steamed dumplings with a vegetable filling, common in North East India
Chilka Roti - Pancakes from Jharkhand made with a batter of rice and split chickpeas 
Chila - Rice flour pancakes from Chattisgarh 
Chira Doi Gur - A simple no cook breakfast from Assam using flattened and puffed rice
Chuda Santhula - A breakfast poha from Odisha
Chire Doi Aam - A simple no cook dish of flattened rice, yogurt,  mango, banana and rosgolla, made in West Bengal and in some other eastern states 
Tekeli Pitha - Steamed rice cakes from Assam 
Saatu ka Sharbath - A coolant drink from Bihar
Chai - Tea

And vegetable momo is going to be the recipe of the day. Momos are steamed dumplings with a filling and are common in the north eastern parts of India and the Himalayan regions of south Asia. The Himalayan momos are believed to have spread from Tibet to India through traders. The Tibetan filling is typically a meat one such as yak but the versions in north Indian plains turned vegetarian to cater the local vegetarians. In the recent years, the filings have become elaborate and momos are prepared with a combination of meats, veggies, local cheeses, tofu and even paneer. Sweetened khoa filled momos are popular as desserts in Nepal.

Momo preparation involves the steps of preparing an outer covering and the filling, assembling the dumplings and steaming those filled dumplings. A simple flour and water dough is prepared for the outer cover and rolled into small circular pieces. I had made a few momos with wheat flour (the dark shade ones) and few with all purpose flour ones (the middle three diagonally in the above picture.) The filling is then enclosed in the circular dough cover either in round pockets or crescent shapes. (I am not an expert in shaping the momos but they can be done in 3 or 4 ways.) The dumplings are then either steamed or they either pan fried or deep fried as well. They are usually served with a dipping sauce/ chutney made with a tomato base. Mine were served with a tomato - sesame chutney and the recipe is here.

Ingredients for dough:
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. oil
Water s needed
Ingredients for filling:
1 tbsp. oil
3 or 4 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 tsp. finely minced ginger
1 small onion, minced
About 1.5 cup or more of finely minced vegetables *
1/3 cup thinly minced scallions, white and green parts
1 tsp. soy sauce or to taste
Salt to taste
Ground black pepper to taste
*  I used about 1/2 cup of shredded green cabbage, 1/2 cup shredded carrot, 1/3 cup finely minced french beans and 1/3 cup minced green capsicum
Directions:
* Prepare the momo dough. Whisk together flour and salt in  a mixing bowl. Add oil and water as needed and knead into a smooth, soft dough. Add extra flour if needed while kneading. Cover the bowl and leave it aside for about 30 minutes while the filling is being prepared.
* Now time for the filling. Heat oil in  a heavy bottomed pan and saute garlic and ginger for few seconds. Next add onions and saute for about 20 seconds.

* Add all the vegetables except the scallion greens and stir fry them on high for a couple of minutes. Add salt, pepper and soy sauce. Continue to stir fry for 3 to 4 more minutes. Do the taste test and add any seasonings if required. 

* Switch off the stove and add the green onion bits to the pan and give it a mix.

* Knead the rested dough once and divide the dough into lemon sized balls. Roll each ball into a thin circle of about 2.5 to 3 inches in diameter.

* Let the edges be thinner than the center portion. Brush with water along the circumference. This is optional and done so that the edges don't open up.

* Place about a tbsp. of vegetable filling at the center.

* Lift one side and start doing the fold and pinch motion or the pleating. 

* Towards the end join the folds at the center to seal the center or can be left open. 

* Set aside the finished dumplings on a greased plate and continue with the next batch. Place them on a greased steamer pan or a plate / wide bowl with some space between them.

* Heat water in a steamer or in a pressure cooker until it starts boiling. Place the greased pan with the dumplings in the steamer and steam for about 7 - 8 minutes. 
(The steaming time may vary depending upon the thickness of the outer layer but outer covering becomes denser if steamed longer. When momos are done, the dough doesn't feel sticky when touched.)
* Garnish with green onions if desired and serve with a spicy sauce / chutney.

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