Gusto: The Restaurant is a small family eatery located opposite Indoor Stadium, Officers’ Hill, Kohima, serves mostly Chinese and Tibetan food, and is particularly known for its specials like Shabalay, Thenthuk and Momos among others. Gusto also has a takeaway branch at AMK Ki, behind Congress Bhavan, called the Gusto: Takeaway
SHABALAY is a traditional Tibetan food. It’s like a deep-fried meat samosa or momo. Gusto generously shares its valued recipe for preparation of (two) Shabalays below:
Ingredients for meat filling:
200 gms ground pork
2 onions finely chopped
Small bunch coriander (chopped)
2 tbs vegetable oil
Soya sauce
4 cloves garlic
5 gms ginger
Black pepper, salt
Dough:
Approximately 2-3 cups of flour.
Red Chilli Sauce:
8-10 fresh or dried red chilli
1 tomato
Small bunch of coriander
Small bunch of mint
4 cloves garlic
Salt, pepper
Preparation:
• Start by making the dough, adding water little by little, knead to supple dough. Cover and let stand at room temperature.
• Put the minced pork in a large bowl, add onion, coriander, and season to taste with black pepper and some soya sauce. Add the oil and gently mix thoroughly until evenly mixed.
• Heat a pan and put the mixture in it. Pan-fry the mixture for about 3-4 minutes.
• To make the Shabalay, shape them like you make half moon shaped momos, except use twice the amount of dough and twice the meat filling – so it’s basically a really big momo. Then flatten it out, gently pressing with the tips of your fingers until they are as flat as you can get them without the skin tearing.
• Heat oil in a pan to deep fry the Shabalays. Let them cook on each side nice and golden.
• Transfer the Shabalays into a container lined with tissue papers and let them sit for a while.
• Throw the ingredients for chilli sauce in a blender, add some salt and pepper to taste.
• Your Shabalay is ready to serve with the red chilli sauce.
Gusto is run by two young entrepreneurs who are also cousins- Khietole Yhoshü and Pote Yhoshü
