Puttu

Puttu - This is a very popular breakfast dish of steamed cylinders of ground rice layered with coconut. Tamilnadu and Kerala are 2 of the South Indian States where this is very popular. This also is made in certain areas of Sri Lanka where it is referred to as Pitti. This dish again is served with a variety of curry including fish and chicken and for vegetarians it is usually complemented by Kadala curry (chickpea curry).

Do you guys know that Puttu in Tamil means 'portioned' and the history of puttu dates back to 15th century and there is reference of puttu in some religious Tamil songs and as an offering to Lord Ganesha.

Ok so what is this Puttu or Pittu - it consists of coarsely ground rice, grated coconut and water that's it. But certain parts of the state often spice it up with cumin and other spices.

Puttu is made by slowly adding water to ground rice until the correct texture is achieved. It is then spiced, formed and steamed with layers of grated coconut. Now this is the tricky part as the rice flour has to be equally moistened because this is what will help the powder to be cooked when you steam it. My aunt and mom would spend almost 20 mins just slowly adding water, little at a time and rubbing the flour between the palms and the more equally the moisture is spread the better and airy the putty will turn out to be. What you don't want is a lump of hard rice flour which is half cooked. I'm sharing  a little trick with you guys in the method section. Just follow that to get the right consistency and texture

Puttu is generally cooked in a metal puttu kutti vessel with two sections. The lower section holds water and the upper section holds the flour. A number of alternative cooking vessels are used, such as traditional vessels where a perforated coconut shell is attached to a section of bamboo, or a chiratta puttu made of a coconut shell or of metal shaped similarly to a coconut shell. You can get this easily in the market.

No intentions of confusing you guys. The idea is to steam the moistened rice and coconut mix.

Ingredients

- 1 cup rice flour - this is available in the market as Puttu Podi ( traditionally you have to soak rice in water for 4 hours and drain this out completely and make it in fine powder. This powder then has to be roasted for 5 mins without making it brown and then cooled).

- coconut grated 1/2

- salt and water

Method

1. Mix the rice and half the grated coconut and salt.

2. Rub this between you palms till everything is mixed.

3. Add water, a little at a time to ensure that you get a wet sand like mixture.

4. Bring all of this together and press it with your hands and cover this mixture for 15 mins.

5. Drop this powder in a colander or any perforated vessel and rub the powder through the vessel. This will ensure you the mixture is aerated and not lumpy.

6. Put a handful of grated coconut in the Puttu Maker and then layer the moistened rice powder  followed by a layer of grated coconut. Close the lid and steam it for 2 minutes.

Serve Puttu hot with kadala (chana) curry.