Sauce For My Momo! And 'Mo 'Mo Face Stuffing

    It has been one mad whirl around here since Monday. We've had company. Our buddy Irving arrived from LA for a visit and general plowing through the regions' culinary offerings.

Irving raiding the cheese case at Vellas

   Irving was my cooking buddy in LA and we were always exploring all the corners of the Big Smoggy Basin at all hours looking for new and interesting food. Up here in Sonoma, I try to control myself. I have  jeans that I love and I have to be able to get my ass in them on a regular basis. So, most of the time since I cook at home and cook Indian food, I'm pretty careful about what goes into my pie-hole. Basically, not a lot of pie. Let's leave it at that.
   Of course when company comes, it's another matter entirely. My careful, organic, locavore-mainly veg eating turns into a free-for-all and unwillingly I find myself channeling Guy Fieri. Talk about separated at birth!

Me, with "Whole Hog" at the Fremont Diner

Guy With God-knows-what

   The last several days I've been found far outside my comfort zone, ingesting things I never even dream about. And speaking of dreams, after eating all of the above plus hush puppy,s I dreamt that night I was being arrested for piracy on the high seas. I have no idea why. I call them "meat dreams".
  After stuffing my face for the last two days I thought, I'd better cook something. Irving had asked for momo and I was wanting to try an all veg momo recipe. And so momo it was. How about 2 kinds of momo? Why not, chicken and veg? And of course one cannot have momo without proper dipping sauces, both Tamarind and Tomato, and I had to make those also. That is how I found myself eating momo at 10 pm. The sauces are quite simple and what took the time was getting up the energy to cook after all the other eating I'd been doing.
  So here is one very simple dipping sauce that goes well with anything that needs dipping. I'll give you the other one later as I have a pressing appointment with some tamales at El Molino Central. The stuff there is insanely good and can also be found at the Ferry Market in San Francisco. We're talking Blue Bottle Coffee kids.

Tamarind Chutney

  Soak 2 Tbs of tamarind pulp in 1 cup of hot water.
  (I didn't photograph this because there is no way (at least I haven't found one) to keep soaking tamarind pulp from looking like something that doesn't belong at the table.)
  Tamarind can be found at any Indian or Asian market, and also one can find tamarind concentrate in a jar at any Hispanic market. Even Safeway carries it.
  If using the concentrate, no soaking required. Just mix it with water as per the directions on the jar. You won't need as much tamarind as it's been concentrated.
  If using tamarind pulp, pour it through a sieve into another bowl and mash the tamarind down with a wooden spoon rubbing all the pulp you can into the hot water. Now set the tamarind mixture aside.
  In a small bowl mix together
 2 Tbs of chickpea flour (besan flour) with 2 Tbs of cold water. Stir this together to make a paste then add in:
another 2 Tbs of cold water to make a smooth batter. Set this aside too.
 In a skillet heat :
 2 Tbs of vegetable oil
 When the oil is hot add in:
 1 tsp black mustard seeds
 When the mustard seeds start to pop toss in:
 1 tsp of fennel seed

A minute later add in:
1/2 tsp of Kashmiri chili (or 1/4 tsp of cayenne 1/4 tsp of paprika)

1/2 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of turmeric

Then add in:
the tamarind liquid. Bring it to a boil

 Then pour in:
 The chickpea flour batter

 Mix it in well. Add 2 Tbs of sugar or jaggery and stir it up.

 Let it boil for about 5 minutes then turn down the heat and simmer it for another 5 minutes. It will be a thick, dipping, glossy sauce that goes particularly well with the vegetarian momo recipe I'm going to be posting as soon as I return from the days pigging out.

  I have to run now as we need to take our guest foraging among the hand-ground masa and Blue Bottle Coffee. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori