First, a word on this dish
Momos reached India with Tibetan refugee families, settled firmly in Darjeeling, Sikkim and the Northeast hills, and from there moved into cities far away, to the point that a momo cart in Delhi is now as ordinary as a chaat stall. Three details make a good one. The wrapper has to be thin yet strong enough to stay intact and not turn gummy in the steam. The filling must be chopped small enough to cook fast, and dry enough that it does not flood the dumpling. And the fold needs to close tightly, since a small pocket of steam builds inside as it cooks. You need nothing more than a steamer, but pleating takes a few tries. If your first momos look lopsided, they will still taste fine, and your hands will learn quickly.
The story behind the dish
Momos are Tibetan. In India they are tied most closely to the Tibetan communities who have lived in the hill towns of Darjeeling and Sikkim for decades, and to the wider Northeast, including Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Meghalaya, where local steamed dumplings with their own names and fillings have long been part of the food. Over recent decades momos moved into mainstream street food, above all in Delhi and other northern cities, where cooks gave them hotter, more chilli-driven chutneys and sometimes fried or pan-seared versions that are not part of the Tibetan original. It is worth saying plainly that the dish is Himalayan and Tibetan at its root, and that its popularity in the rest of India is a newer layer laid over a food culture that goes on in its own right in the Northeast.
The method, in order
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Prep
Knead the dough and let it rest
Combine the flour and salt, then drizzle in water gradually until the mixture forms a soft, smooth dough. Aim for softer than chapati dough without stickiness. Knead 4 to 5 minutes until it springs back, smooth a thin film of oil over it, cover it with a damp cloth and let it rest at least 20 minutes. This pause is what lets you roll it thin with no shrinkage.
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Prep
Prepare the filling
Sprinkle a little salt over the chopped cabbage and wait 10 minutes. Then gather it up and squeeze hard over the sink to remove the liquid. Leaving this out gives you a wet filling that bleeds through the wrapper during steaming. After that, combine the cabbage with carrot, spring onion, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, pepper and salt. To check the seasoning, cook one small spoonful, since raw cabbage tastes blander than cooked.
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Prep
Roll the wrappers
Split the rested dough into 20 small balls and roll each into a thin circle of about 2.5 to 3 inches, leaving the middle a little thicker than the rim. That slightly thicker centre carries the weight of the filling without tearing, and the thin edges fold easily.
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Assemble
Fill and pleat
Spoon a heaped teaspoon of filling into the middle of a wrapper. Lift the edges up around it and make small pleats as you turn the circle, then pinch the top together with a slight twist to seal. If the pleating frustrates you at first, press the wrapper into a half-moon and crimp the edge like a pierogi; it closes just as well and steams the same.
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Cook
Steam them
Brush the basket with a little oil or line it with parchment pierced a few times, and set the momos inside with gaps between them, because they swell and will stick if they touch. Steam covered over briskly boiling water for 10 to 12 minutes, until the wrapper looks slightly see-through and shiny rather than matte and dry.
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Prep
Cook the chutney
Cook tomatoes, soaked chillies and garlic in a small amount of water on a gentle simmer for about 8 to 10 minutes, until the tomato collapses. Purée it coarsely in the blender. Warm the oil in a pan, pour the purée in and let it bubble for 3 to 4 minutes to thicken slightly. Season with salt and let it cool before serving.
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Serve
Eat them hot
Take the momos to the table straight away, while they shine, with the chutney in a small bowl. Wrappers toughen as they cool, so this is a snack to eat within minutes of coming off the steam, as you would at a street stall.
Ingredient stand-ins
Packaged dumpling or wonton wrappers can stand in for homemade dough, though they are thinner and more fragile, so handle them gently and do not overfill. Finely chopped mushrooms or crumbled paneer can go into the vegetable filling for extra body. Without sesame oil, use a few drops of ordinary oil and a pinch of toasted, crushed sesame seeds to get near the same effect. Tamari can replace soy sauce if you need it gluten-free, though the wrapper still contains wheat.
Making it milder or fiercer
The momos carry only a little black pepper, so nearly all the heat lives in the chutney, which makes it simple to adjust for each person instead of the whole batch. For a gentler dip, use fewer dried chillies and let the tomato's natural sweetness come through. For a sharper one, add more soaked chillies or a spoonful of vinegar-based red chilli sauce, which many momo stalls stir in for bite and longer life. A few drops of sesame oil in the finished chutney is a familiar touch at Darjeeling-style stalls.
The slip most cooks make
Leaving out the salting and squeezing of the cabbage is the biggest one; the wet filling seeps through the wrapper and the bottoms go soggy. Rolling wrappers too thick comes next, giving a bready dumpling when you want a thin, slightly chewy skin, so roll until you could almost see your fingers through the edge. Packing the steamer too tightly makes momos stick together and tear when you pull them apart, so keep visible space between each. Finally, undercooked dough at the seams stays gummy, which is why you should open one from the middle of the batch before deciding the rest are done.
Storing what is left
Fridge or counter: Filled but uncooked momos freeze very well. Lay them apart on a tray until solid, move them into a sealed bag or box for up to a month, and steam from frozen with 3 to 4 extra minutes. Cooked momos last up to 2 days in a closed container in the fridge, although the wrapper tastes much better straight from the steamer. Keep the chutney separate in the refrigerator, where it holds for up to 4 days.
Bringing it back to life: Steam leftover momos again for 3 to 4 minutes, which revives the wrapper far better than a microwave, since the microwave tends to leave dough tough and rubbery. Without a steamer, cover them with a damp paper towel and microwave in short bursts, but steaming is clearly better if you can spare the minutes. Always heat them until they are steaming hot throughout.
Handle with care
The filling is all vegetable and gets cooked in the steamer, so the main concern is how you handle the cooked filling and finished dumplings, not raw meat. If you cook the cabbage mixture or any of the vegetables before filling, cool it to room temperature within an hour and chill it instead of leaving it out, especially in warm weather, because cooked vegetables kept warm for hours can grow bacteria even without meat. Cool leftover steamed momos within two hours before refrigerating, and do not leave a cooked batch on a buffet table longer than two hours. If you are also cooking meat dishes that day, keep raw dough and filling away from surfaces that touched raw meat.