JUST DOUGH IT!

"ENTHUSIASM IS THE YEAST THAT RAISES THE DOUGH"

Dough is a thick, malleable, sometimes elastic mixture made by mixing flour with a small amount of water and/or other liquid, and sometimes includes yeast or other leavening agents as well as other ingredients such as various fats or flavourings.

In this project,We had to choose one food item veg or non-veg, sweet or savoury, and from any cuisine but it should have dough as a key ingredient and I chose momos as my food item ,Well if you talk about any special memory then I guess I have a lot with momos, I still remember ,going to that momo shop with my friends after tuitions just to eat chicken momos, we all were so fond of those chicken momos that even the “momos vale bhaiya” knew us and How can I forget one of my neighbors plus my school friend, Who used to bring momos for me every time he went to eat it and the very first thing he used to do while eating the momos was to call me and tell me “Mehak I bought momos for you”. Momos are truly incredible.

DAY 1 & 2

THE FOOD ITEM I CHOSE WAS MOMOS(FRIED)

INGREDIENTS

For the dough 1. Maida 2. Salt as per taste 3. Water To make the cabbage + onion filling 1. Grated onion 2. Grated cabbage 3. Salt 4. Pepper 5. Ginger paste 6. Oil

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Take maida, add salt to it(as per taste) and a very little amount of oil in your palms, Add water and mix all these ingredients to make a dough.

2. Cover the dough with a plate or a cloth and keep the dough aside for 15 minutes.

3. Now in a bowl, add grated onion and cabbage

4. Squeeze the cabbage so that the extra amount of water comes out of the cabbage but don’t squeeze a lot as we want our momos filling to be a little juicy.

5. After doing the last step, add salt, pepper, a very little amount of ginger paste and 1 tbsp oil. Mix them well and keep aside.

6. Now to make the Momo, make small circular balls of the dough.

7. Now from those small circular balls, make small size Chapati type circle.

8. Add 1 tablespoon of the filling we made

9. Choose any dumpling shape you like and you can shape your momo that way

(CAN REFER TO THE ABOVE PICTURE FOR DIFFERENT SHAPES OF MOMOS)

10. Repeat this with the remaining dough

11. Heat oil for deep frying.Once the oil is hot deep fry the momos.

VARIATIONS

1.MOMOS WITH CHEESE FILLING

The entire process was the same except for the filling part;

for the filling~

1. Boil Corns and Great cheese

2. Mix both the mixture and add some pepper and oregano(optional)

3. add this filling To your Momo instead of the cabbage + onion one and fill it in the momo.

2. MOMOS WITH POTATO FILLING

The entire process was the same except for the filling part;

For the filling~

1. Boil potatoes

2. After they are boiled, mash them well

3. Add red chilli powder and salt as per taste

4. Add this feeling instead of the cabbage + onion one and fill it in the momo

3.MOMOS WITH MAGGI FILLING (my most favourite)

The entire process was the same except for the filling part;

For the filling~

1. Make one Maggie

2. Just use the Maggie you made like the filling Instead of the cabbage plus onion one and fill it in the Momo

4. MOMOS WITH WHEAT DOUGH

1. Take the atta and very little amount of salt in a mixing bowl.

2. Add water to the mixture

3. Mix them well and make a soft dough

4. Cover the dough with a plate or a cloth and keep it aside for 15 minutes

5. Rest of the process is the same

5. MOMOS WITH CORNFLAKES OUTER COATING

In this one you can choose any feeling you like, I choose the potato one.

For this you have to do the entire process exactly the same, just before frying;

1. Crush the cornflakes

2. Take a bowl, add some water and milk to have a runny consistency batter

3. Brush this batter on your momo

4. After you are done with it, Place your Momo on the plate you have crushed the cornflakes so that the cornflakes can stick to your Momo

5. And then just fry them

6.MOMOS WITH OATS DOUGH

Make a dough of 3/4 powder form of oats and atta and the rest of the process will be the same.

DAY 3 & 4

Today’s task was to make one original, creative dish based on the original dish we selected but has undergone a transformation. our final dish was based on the experiments done during Day 1 & 2. So, basically, we had to use the best transformation of day 1 & 2 Which maybe not The best but should be thoughtful and logical. A New shape/form was necessary, experiment with the dough or the way it is cooked or what the way it is shaped and experiment with the cooking technique.

WHAT DID I MAKE?

I made steamed plus tandoori momos with the filling of cheese and corns and gave it a square shape and the dough was made up of maida plus Semolina(suji)

INGREDIENTS

For the dough 

1. Maida -200grams 

2. Salt as per taste

3. Water

4. 1 tbsp Oil

To make the filling 

1. Handful Corns 

2. 2 cubes of Cheese 

3. 2tbsp mayonnaise 

4. Pinch of Black pepper 

5. Salt as per taste

To make the tandoori marination 

1. Besan~ 3tbsp

2. Salt as per taste

3. Chat masala~ 1/5th

4. Black salt ~1/4th

5. Black pepper~ 1/5th

6. Pinch of food colour 

7. Chaap masala~ 1/2 spoon

8. Dahi/YOGURT ~ 3tbsp

9. Handful Kastoori methi

10. Pinch of red chilli powder

11. Oil ~1 tbsp 

INSTRUCTIONS 

FOR THE DOUGH 

• Take maida and suji,add salt to it(as per taste) and a very little amount of oil, add water and mix all these ingredients to make a dough.  

(TIP: The longer you knead the dough, the stronger it will get.You will feel it get more smooth and also more tough as you need)

• Cover the dough with a plate or a cloth and keep the dough aside for 15 minutes so that I can be soft. 

I am someone who hasn’t kneaded dough in my life till now, So for me, it was very a new thing, at first my Mumma said “tujhse nhi Hoga chodhde and it’s not your cup of tea” and my reaction was like “Prachi mam ne bola hai khud Karna so mai hi karungi” and I just went with the flow and apparently now I can knead the dough, it was fun!!

FOR THE FILLING & MARINATION

• Now boil some handful amount of corns (add more corns if you want your filling to be more of corns and less of cheese)

• We can make the tandoori marination while the corns are boiling

• In a mixing bowl,we will add all the dry ingredients~add besan, Salt as per taste,chat masala,kastoori methi(crush them before adding),red chilli powder,black salt,garam masala,chaap masala and black pepper 

• Mix them well and add a pinch of Red food colour.

• After mixing everything,we will add yoghurt to make a thick paste and then add oil,Mix them well.

• When you are done with the marination paste,Take your boiled corns,cubes of grated cheese , Mayonnaise ,add salt as per taste and a pinch of Black pepper and mix all the ingredients well.

In this stage, the kitchen was very messy as mumma was preparing for my brothers lunch and she said didn’t allow to me work at that time so I just took all the filling ingredients in my room and started all this in my room.

FOR FILLING THE STUFFING IN THE MOMO

• Take very little amount of oil in your hands and make small circular balls of the dough. 

(TIP:take little amount of oil in your hands and rub it all over, as if you were applying a hand lotion. This will prevent the dough from sticking to your hand)

• Now from those small circular balls, make small size Chapati type circle or actually any shape because it wouldn’t really affect your actual momo shape

~even I don’t know how to make a circle shape chapatti so I just played around with the shape 

• Add 1 tablespoon of the filling we made 

• Fold the dough from top,bottom,left side and right side as shown in the video,it will form a square shape.

(TIP:You can press the dough from your hand to make the shape look better but don’t use a lot of or you’ll End up having a crack on your Momo and the filling would come out.)

This was definitely a struggle,I was trying so hard to get that perfect circle shape but gosh it wasn’t happening like at that time my only question to my mom was “aap kaise karte ho ye?” I made alien face shape, amoeba shape and it was a disaster.

FINAL COOKING TECHNIQUES

• We will steam our Momos in a streamer on a pan.

(TIP:We did this steaming so that at last our Momo wouldn’t stay uncooked like it did on the 1st and 2nd day)

• Now Dip your steamed momos in the tandoori marination we made before(ALREADY SHOWED THAT IN THE MARINATION PROCESS VIDEO ABOVE)

• keep it aside for 15 minutes

• After 15 minutes, heat oil in a pan and put your momos in that pan.

• Put some oil above it and let it cook 

YOUR STEAMED + TANDOORI MOMOS OF SQUARE SHAPE WITH CORN & CHEESE FILLING ARE READY- ENJOY!!

A sweet finale           

Cooking is one of the great gifts you can give to those you love!

On the last day of our project, I made my family Taste my final variation of momos same as the above “cheese plus corn tandoori momos”, I was a bit nervous as I did not really make that good momos on the 1st and 2nd day,they were uncooked but when I made my family taste it,especially my dad, they loved it, he said you should make these nuggets type momos again,I was a bit shocked having this from dad!!!

MY 5 DAYS JOURNEY

KEY REALISATIONS

1. Capturing your work:in this five the process I learnt how important it is to represent or capture your work properly.Your presentation and your way of capturing your process makes your work look beautiful on the other side not capturing it well can make it look unattractive or dull.

2. Colour: during this five-day process I learnt that similarly to your food, colour can either be a hit or a total fail,colour psychology in other words, a not so pleasant colour can make you feel unattractive about your design or food,can make you doubt about

3. Explorations:During this five-day process the most important thing I learnt was that no matter what we can do end no of variations in 1 single item just by focusing and having the will,instead of limiting ourselves to that assumptions we make on that specific product/item,try and explore.

4. Patience: another most important thing I learnt during this five-day process was how important it is to be patient while you are working on any item or product. Every single thing requires patience, if the trial, variation,exploration,etc isn’t satisfying you enough still be patient and focus on where you are going wrong instead of loosing your patience and just stopping yourself.

5. Failing is itself a success:it’s said that failure is success in progress, you would fail only if you are trying, this is something I learnt during this five days, maybe you won’t make the perfect outcome but atleast you are gonna understand and solve your mistakes you are making so that the very next time,they are no more old mistakes.

FINDINGS/OBSERVATIONS

• We keep the dough aside for 15 to 20 minutes so that it relaxes the gluten and makes the dough easier to roll out and shape.

• All momos are dim sums but all dim sums are not momos: Momos are essentially a dumpling usually steamed and made essentially of wheat flour and a filling inside. Dimsum can be made with any kind of starch such as rice starch, potato starch and also wheat starch.

• Momos shape appear to be easy but are a little difficult to make. (Even a struggle)

MY EXPERIENCE

I'm someone who definitely cannot cook or i should say that i do cook like very rarely but either the food item made by me is way too fantastic or something no one can eat.Today's activity was about "experimenting",honestly for me cooking momos was itself a very big experiment but i enjoyed the process, i have never knead a dough and i just enjoyed it,at first i really didn't know how to do it and my mother was giving me instructions to that way after a little time, i could do it.I struggled a lot with the momo shape,it appeared very easy in the videos but was difficult for me to give it that shape,i made the usual shape and i tried the "crescent moon" shape, the crescent moon was easier for me but looked more like a 'ghujia' after frying and the normal one just looked like a big fried ball.Overall, all the fillings and dough variations were good as per taste but the issue i faced was that the maida was a little uncooked which obviously didn't taste well but honestly i just loved the process and learned things i wouldn't really try that easily.

---

THANK YOU,HAVE A GREAT DAY!