Yomari — Print Recipe — The Culinary Codex

Fig-shaped steamed dumplings made from rice flour dough filled with a sweet mixture of chaku (molasses) and sesame seeds. A sacred Newari delicacy prepared during the Yomari Punhi festival.

Ingredients

2 cups rice flour
1 cup warm water
1 cup chaku (hardened molasses), grated
1/4 cup sesame seeds, toasted
1/4 teaspoon cardamom powder
Pinch of salt
Oil for greasing

Instructions

1 Knead rice flour with warm water and a pinch of salt to form a smooth pliable dough. Cover and rest for ten minutes.
2 Mix grated chaku with toasted sesame seeds and cardamom powder to make the filling.
3 Take a small ball of dough and shape it into a cup using your thumb and fingers, creating a hollow fig-like shape with a pointed top.
4 Fill the hollow with the chaku-sesame mixture and carefully pinch the top closed, maintaining the fig shape.
5 Steam the yomari in a greased steamer for fifteen to twenty minutes until the dough becomes translucent. Serve warm.

Did You Know?

Yomari Punhi is celebrated on the full moon day of December and marks the end of the rice harvest season. The distinctive fig shape of yomari is said to represent the goddess Annapurna.