Sweet and spicy Asian dipping sauce with Tibetan Momos

I was first introduced to Momos by my college mates in Chennai. I had three Tibetan friends in my class and they used to rant and rave about these, and invariably all of us ended up liking it so much we started harassing them to throw Momo parties. Even for our culturals there used to be Momo stalls and needless to say we absolutely loved gorging on those with the sauce topping it all.

I have no idea what came over me yesterday, but I had to make some Momos and I put in a message on one of these friends' FB page asking him for the recipe. He had not replied and my lack of patience didn't let me back out. So I harassed my best friend on gtalk asking for the recipe because she had made it once long back after seeing it in some mag. She gave me a-lil-bit-of-that a lil-bit-of-this recipe and I soooo knew I was gonna screw up and that's when I realized, why not head to the Chinese store and just buy the wrapper (which is where I usually screw up) and use the remaining mince meat which I'd frozen, as the filling. Oh how clever am I? Yes, clever indeed and ran to the Chinese store only to realize there were at least 4 varieties of dumpling wrappers and another 4 varieties of wonton wrappers. After a failed attempt at trying to understand what the store keeper was trying to explain, I called Ro, who was working from home, to check it up online and let me know. He just confused me even more (no surprises there). Anyway, picked the one I thought was apt and ran back home.

The focus here, however, is the kick-ass sauce I whipped up surprising me altogether. I usually don't experiment when it comes to food and follow a recipe religiously, but this time, I just threw in a few things and came up with this dipping sauce which I'm sure teams well with almost any Asian appetizer and maybe Indian ones like samosas and I'd even serve them as a dip for normal chips.

Filling:

I used this recipe for the mincemeat filling. I know its not authentic but by now you'd already know be familiar with my lack of patience and so had to make do with this. But my mom-in-laws spring roll filling is a good enough one I'd assume and so please do follow that for a more authentic recipe. 

Wrapping and cooking:

Now wrapping it up...I just blindly followed this video and it is actually as simple as that. But where I think I screwed up was the steaming bit which I either kept for too long or too short and it was a wee bit rubbery. If you guys have some knowledge about it please clear it for me. Is 20 minutes too short or too long a time to steam the dumplings??? 

Dipping sauce:

(The quantity is for a very small bowl of sauce, so adapt it to how much ever you'd like)

Tomato- 1/2 of one medium sized tomato, thinly sliced

Onion- 1 shallot, thinly sliced

Dried red chillies- 3 to 4 (or even more if you want it really spicy)

Chopped coriander leaves- 1 tbsp

Tomato ketchup- 1/2 tbsp (if you want it sweeter, add a wee bit more but not too much)

Cumin powder- a pinch (optional)

Soy sauce- a dash (Its optional , but if adding add very little)

Salt- to taste

Oil- 1/2 to 1 tbsp (yes I know its a lot for such small quantities, but it just worked for me. Reduce if you are not comfortable)

EVOO- a dash (optional)

In a saucepan, heat the oil and throw in the onions and red chillies. Sauté till they turn light brown.

Add the tomatoes, cumin powder, soy sauce and salt to this and on medium heat cook till the oil separates.

Add the tomato ketchup and coriander leaves and mix well for about a minute or so.

Take it off the fire and leave aside to cool a bit.

Now using either an immersion blender (oh how I love you immersion blender) or a pestle and mortar, grind/crush this till it becomes more or less mushy....not too paste like. Pulse it two or three times if using a blender.

Pour into a sauce bowl, add a dash of olive oil, mix well and serve with just about anything.

Notes: Adding garlic to this makes it even tastier, but I just didn't have time. Next time for sure.

Its like a tomato chutney, but with a sweetness attached to it.

I think I've found the perfect and easiest sauce for all my fried stuff.

Since the first batch didn't turn out well, I fried a few just to see if it would be any different. Well compared to the steamed ones, the fried ones were better but that is simply not an option for me cos I detest fried stuff. This is how it looked like:

Sending the sauce over to the Food Palette Red Event over at Torviewtoronto