Momos
McLeod Ganj, India
Yesterday's Tibetan cooking class was all about momos.
What is a momo? In Tibet, it's the name for a dumpling. In Japan, a momo is what you call a peach. And in Mandeville, Louisiana, it's the term of endearment for a friend's grandmother.
Our class of nine people sat around a small table and spent at least an hour trying to learn how to manipulate the momo dough into fancy crescent, moon, and tailed shapes. Thanks to some experience with ceramics and many years of leading playdough activities with small children, I had it easy. Pinch squeeze, pinch squeeze, pinch with one last last squeeze results in a beautiful crescent shaped dumpling. Smush push, smush groan smash doesn't work so well. By the time an hour was up, everyone could make the three shapes. Our teacher, Lhamo, was great and very patient.
During the two hour class we made vegetable filled momos (round moons), potato and ginger filled momos (crescent shaped) and sweet momos (braided with a tail). The sweet momos, covered in fresh honey can easily give Turkish bakalava a run for its money.
Today we are making either soup or bread. Chris and I don't remember which. I'm going to try not to sneeze or cough into anything while we cook. We might have found a little piece of heaven here in McCloud Ganj, but it seems that allergies are able to follow absolutely anywhere.
Yesterday's Tibetan cooking class was all about momos.
What is a momo? In Tibet, it's the name for a dumpling. In Japan, a momo is what you call a peach. And in Mandeville, Louisiana, it's the term of endearment for a friend's grandmother.
Our class of nine people sat around a small table and spent at least an hour trying to learn how to manipulate the momo dough into fancy crescent, moon, and tailed shapes. Thanks to some experience with ceramics and many years of leading playdough activities with small children, I had it easy. Pinch squeeze, pinch squeeze, pinch with one last last squeeze results in a beautiful crescent shaped dumpling. Smush push, smush groan smash doesn't work so well. By the time an hour was up, everyone could make the three shapes. Our teacher, Lhamo, was great and very patient.
During the two hour class we made vegetable filled momos (round moons), potato and ginger filled momos (crescent shaped) and sweet momos (braided with a tail). The sweet momos, covered in fresh honey can easily give Turkish bakalava a run for its money.
Today we are making either soup or bread. Chris and I don't remember which. I'm going to try not to sneeze or cough into anything while we cook. We might have found a little piece of heaven here in McCloud Ganj, but it seems that allergies are able to follow absolutely anywhere.
posted by Jennifer P. at 4:09 AM
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