YoWangdu owner Lobsang Wangdu shares his personal recipe for momos. Momos are Tibetan dumplings and we make them quite often. ( The word "momo" is pronounced with the same "o" sound as in "so-so.") You can make them with either vegetables or meat. There are three major steps you should carefully follow to make momos

The Dough

First of all, make the dough. If you want to make momo dough for four people, use about 3 cups of flour and 3/4 cups of water. (You don't have to be very exact about these measurements--Tibetans never are!)

Mix the flour and water very well by hand and keep adding water until you make a pretty smooth ball of dough. Then knead the dough very well until the dough is flexible. Now leave your dough in the pot with the lid on while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. You should not let the dough dry out, or it will be hard to work with.

To see momo making done by two masters, watch David Johnson's spare, poignant short documentary, "Momo," about two Tibetan refugees living in Dharamsala, India who make momo's for a living.

The Filling

We make momo's with either meat or vegetables. In Tibet, they often use yak meat, but here in the US, we usually use beef, or just vegetables for our vegetarian friends.

For vegetable momo filling:

Chop all the following ingredients into very, very small pieces:

• Two onions
• Two inches fresh ginger
• Two or three cloves of garlic
• A bunch of cilantro
• One pound of cabbage
• One pound of tofu*
• One quarter pound of dark brown mushrooms (I buy them dried from Asian markets)*
• Two tablespoons of soy sauce
• One teaspoon of chicken, beef or vegetable bouillon

*don't use these if you are making meat momos

For meat momo filling, add:

One pound of ground beef: This beef replaces the mushrooms and tofu in the vegetable recipe. If you have enough time, you can use un-ground beef and chop the meat into very small pieces.

For both kinds of momos, put all of the ingredients in a pot or big bowl, then add a teaspoon of bouillon and two tablespoons of soy sauce. Mix everything together very well. (If you are making meat momo's with ground beef, you may need to use your hands to mix it up.)