Puttu...Steamed Rice Cakes

Puttu is a breakfast dish from Kerala. Moist rice flour is layered with coconut and steamed in a Puttu Maker known as Puttu Kutti.
At my home we always eat puttu with sugar and banana. But at Manoj's place it is eaten with kadala curry. Both are great combinations. A very filling dish, we usually have it as brunch on weekends.



Ingredients:
2cups puttu podi/powder (various brands are available in the grocery stores)
1tsp salt
1cup water; approximately
2cups fresh grated coconut

Method:
Mix the puttu podi and salt in a wide pan. Sprinkle a handful of water and mix into the flour taking care to avoid lumps. In the same way mix in the remaining water, a handful at a time. 
The purpose is to wet the podi for steaming, it should still be in powder form and have no lumps.
(If it is difficult to get rid of the lumps, just pulse the podi in a processor a few times).
Mix in about 1/2 cup of coconut. Cover with a damp cloth to prevent from drying out.
Put 2tbs coconut at the bottom of the puttu kutti. Top with the podi till about 1/3rd capacity, followed by coconut. Repeat to make 3 layers ending with coconut. Cover with the lid and steam for 5mins.
Puttu is best when eaten steaming hot.

Notes:
Traditional puttu makers consist of two parts. The upper part is a narrow, cylindrical vessel in which the podi is steamed and the lower part is a pot which holds the water.
Nowadays we can find puttu kutti's that can be attached on top of a pressure pan filled with water as in the picture below.

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I'm sending this to "Harvest : Festival of Rice" event by Sudeshna.



2 comments:

  1. Wow. Great tip to get rid of lumps.

    Have got Puttu maker and used to find the steam getting away from the whole between the bottom vessel and puttu kutti and which causes more time to cook.. so stopped doing it now.. Any tips to stop it from leaking?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Subhashini...
    Steam always escapes even when I use the pressure pan...there is a small gap. What I do is wrap a moist cloth(I use a kitchen towel) around the area where there is a gap...this helps a lot...

    ReplyDelete

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