Tibetan Soups: Mothup and Thentuk

So I’m still in McLeod! I can’t seem to tear myself away from this place, it’s like India’s version of Melbourne (my home) so I feel very much settled here. I’ve started some volunteer work to fill my days, meet some incredible people and hopefully help some of them. I’m teaching english to Tibetan refugees and soon I’ll be in the kitchen to help cater for some fundraising nights (weew! So up my alley). I’ve just started with it all so I’ll see how long this keeps me busy and fulfilled enough to justify staying.  Otherwise itchy feet to see the south will have me heading to Rishikesh or Amritsar very soon! Something has me wanting to put back into this place before I go though, there’s so much warmth here and it’s seen me through a lot of hard lessons.
So fittingly here’s some more Tibetan deliciousness! There’s nothing like one of these soups when winter starts laying down its heavy blanket of bone aching chill. Mothup is something really special with deliciously cheesy mini momo bobbing in a tasty, fragrant broth. You can’t help but feel a satisfied, nap inducing happiness digging into a bowl of it. This stuff will put a smile on your face, a rose in your cheek and fill you up till staying conscious is a ridiculous effort.
Thentuk is a traditional, staple Tibetan dish that will do something very similar. This one is great as it’s really quick to make once you get the hang of the noodles. If you’d like something even faster you can make “Thukpa” with the same recipe using any long, thick packaged noodles instead of home made ones.
Keep these bookmarked for a cold night and a skimpy budget. Simple and easy doesn’t get any more satisfying!

Each individual soup recipe will give you three serves

For the dough: These portions will give you enough dough to try out both soups (three serves each soup) with a little dough left over. Just halve this part of the recipe if you only want to make one soup

Ingredients

• 1 handful plain white flour (I’d say 1 handful is around 3/4 cup ish. It’s more about getting the right consistency. Quantity isn’t an issue as you’ll probably have leftover dough, so as long as you get it elastic and kneading well you’re sorted)
• 100 mL water (or till dough comes together and is nice and pliable)
•  1/4 tsp salt
•  1 tsp oil (any vegeable oil)
• 1/4 tsp pepper

Method:

• Combine all ingredients in a bowl
• Mix well (use one finger to mix in the beginning to avoid making your whole hand a sticky mess)
• Kneed for 4 minutes
• Divide dough into 2 (if you are wanting to try both soups)
• Leave to rest. 5 minutes for mothup (not too much longer as the dough will become too soft. Might be worth chopping your filling ingredients before making the dough if you’re a slow chopper). 15 – 20 minutes for thentuk (you want the dough nice and soft for this one)

MOTHUP

Filling ingredients: (Because the momo are so small you really have to get the ingredients chopped and grated very finely)

• 3 tbsp cabbage, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp carrot, peeled and grated
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ginger, minced
• 1/4 tsp garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 tbsp cheese, finely grated (cow cheese, any kind, be generous)

Soup ingredients:

• 1 small potato, quartered sliced (few mm thick)
• 1 small onion, sliced
• 1 small capsicum, quartered and sliced
• 1 handful of spinach (can use bok choy)
• 3 tbsp oil
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ginger, minced
• 1 tsp garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp soy sauce

Mini momo (mothup) method:

• Thoroughly mix all filling ingredients
• Roll dough flat with a rolling pin (about 2 mm thick) on a generously floured surface  (don’t be shy with the flour- the wrappers are really hard to work with if they get all stretched from being stuck to a surface)
• To get the shape of the wrappers, roll the dough over itself onto a thick rolling pin and then slice through the dough the length of the rolling pin to create sheets of the thin dough (refer to above pictures). Cut down the middle again until you have strips that are around 8- 10 cm wide. Alternatively, just slice your dough length wise into strips 8-10 cm (the previous method just saves a bit of time)
• Then cut these strips at 45 degree angles into the flat topped triangles shown in the pictures below
• Refer to pictures for how to shape the momo

Use around 1/2 tsp of filling. The more filling the more flavour but they can’t take much so don’t get too heavy with it. Fold the wrapper over the filling twice (or just roll it up from the filling corner till you have a similar shape to the second picture along). Pinch either side of the filling where the edges are open very well. Overlap and pinch to join the edges you’ve just closed and fold down the little collar of the momo. Done! 🙂

Soup method:

• Heat a pan over a med/high flame
• Add garlic, ginger, and salt and fry till brown and smelling amazing
• Add capsicum, onion, tomato and carrot and fry for a few minutes roughly mashing with the back of your spoon till the tomatoes start to break down and the onions are translucent.
• Add 200 mL water per person (600 mL for this recipe)
• Add spinach, leftover filling if you have any (if you don’t then adding a little bit of extra grated cheese here is very yummy) and soy sauce and heat till it just starts to boil
• Add your mothups (mini momo) and boil until the momo start to float, around 3-5 minutes depending on the gas heat
• Take off the heat, dish into bowls and dig in!

THENTUK

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp oil
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1tbsp minced ginger
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 big tomato, quartered and sliced (1/2 cm thick)
• 1 small onion, roughly chopped
• 1 small carrot thinly sliced (get it around the 2 mm mark, this soup isn’t cooked for long so its easy to end up with crunchy hunks of carrot)
• 1 small bok choy roughly ripped into chunks
• 1 small green capsicum roughly, thinly chopped
• 200 ml hot water per person (for this recipe 600ml)

For optional sliced omelet as a garnish (if you like eggs it’s really tasty with the soup)

• 2 eggs 
• 1/4 tsp salt

Method:

• Add oil to a dry, hot pot on med/high heat
• Add garlic, ginger and salt and fry till fragrant
• Add tomato, onion, carrot, bok choy and capsicum and fry, mashing with the back of your spoon till tomatoes have broken down and onion looks translucent
• Add water and bing to the boil
• As the water  is coming to the boil get your dough ready by rolling it out into a large sheet. (If you’re trying out both soups then only use half of your big batch of dough). You want it a few millimeters thick
• Slice this into 3 cm strips
• Drape a strip over your arm (check out the above picture) and cover the rest of the rolled dough with a tea towel till you’re ready for your next one
• Now start tearing off 3cm ish hunks of noodle into your soup by pinching them off the big stip with your free hand. If you haven’t done this before it helps taking the soup of the heat till all the noodles are torn into it. This’ll make sure they all cook evenly even if you take your time with it. Don’t be too pedantic about shape and size either, it’s meant to be a rustic, home style dish so just tear away getting quicker as you get the feel for it. You should see how fast they make this stuff here!
• Once you’re happy with the amount of noodles in the dish (there should be a fair amount, check out the picture, but add however much you’d like) put the soup back on the heat
• Bring back to the boil and cook till the noodles are floating and cooked through
• Turn off heat
• If you’d like the omelet garnish then whisk together your eggs and salt and pour them into a hot, oiled frying pan on medium heat
• Cook for a few minutes till egg has stopped wobbling, it’s nice and bubbly on top and brown on the bottom then flip it onto a chopping board and slice into 2 cm strips
• Check the seasoning of your soup (ours needed a lot more salt but keep in mind this soup is nice with some soy sauce and chilly. So if you’re thinking of adding that later then don’t go too heavy with the salt now)
• Dish into bowls and add your sliced omelet on top
• Serve with chilly powder and soy sauce
• Yum!