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Saturday, November 17, 2012

Rice Puttu / All about Rice Pittu

     Puttu is my favorite food, i love puttu!!! I think my greatest culinary achievement (!) is, making my husband like it too :) He's not a big fan of dry food. This steamed rice flour can be flavored in different ways. 
    This post answers all these questions: what is puttu?, how to prepare it?, how to steam it with/ without a puttu steamer? and all the different ways to flavor it (my favorite part). Puttu recipe is in the bottom of this post
Puttu is a popular breakfast in South Indian states like: Tamil Nadu, Kerala and it's popular in Srilanka too. 
What is puttu? Moistened rice flour is steamed in a puttu steamer,  an idly cooker or by keeping the rice flour- filled bowl over boiling water (covered pan). My friend use rice cooker to steam the flour.
Puttu in tamil literature: Puttu has been mentioned in the works of 15th and 16th century tamil literature- wikipedia. Puttu or pittu is a tamil word, meaning: dividing into (small) portion. 
How to make puttu?: Small amount of moistened rice flour and shredded coconut are (usually) filled inside a puttu steamer consecutively and steamed. When cooked, it will look like small round cakes with coconut icing on top. 
Ways to eat puttu: Puttu, by itself is bland, we can make it sweeter or spicier by the things we add to it.  
1. Puttu can be sweetened with sugar and shredded coconut. If it's too dry, add few tsp of warm milk or fresh coconut milk to it. 
                                        or
2. Add puttu with shredded coconut, sugar, banana or ripe mango. 
                                        or
3. Add sugar and  few spoons of warm milk with puttu.
                                or
4. We can make it a Kerala delight, by adding mutta (egg) curry, fish curry, chicken curry or kadala curry Click here for kadala curry recipe. as a side dish. 
                               or
5. We can add sugar and ghee/ clarified butter too.
Puttu !!!

Ingredients:

2 cups        rice flour 
1/2 cup      warm water
1/4 tsp       salt
4   tbs        shredded coconut
We can steam the rice flour in any pan with a tight lid. As i said before my friend use rice cooker to steam the puttu flour. 
Making puttu:
1. Heat water in the bottom portion of the puttu maker.
2. Dissolve salt in 1/2 cup of warm water.
3. Dry roast the rice flour, sprinkle the warm water and mix it with hand. 
To check the right consistency of the flour: take some moist flour and squeeze it slightly in your fist, the flour must hold together without falling apart. 
4. Press the moist flour through a sieve or put it in a blender and pulse it a few times.
Puttu steamed in a puttu steamer:
5. If using the cylindrical puttu maker/kutty/kuzhal, put a handful of shredded coconut inside the cylinder, followed by three handfuls of rice flour.
6.  Continue the process, by consecutively (and loosely) filling the steamer with coconut and flour. Close the lid and place it on the bottom part of the puttu maker. Let the water simmer until, steam comes out from its slotted lid. 
7. Remove the puttu carefully and enjoy it with the side dish of your choice.
Puttu steamed in a covered pan:
1. Heat water in a saucepan (with a lid), place a cookie cooling rack or a trivet inside it.
2. Follow the (above) steps 2-4. Now take a small  metal bowl/pan with lid, fill 1/2 the cup of moist flour, add a handful of shredded coconut over it. Sprinkle another 1/2 cup of rice flour over the coconut... repeat the process with the remaining rice and coconut, cover it with lid or with a kitchen towel. 
3. Place the covered puttu- bowl inside the saucepan (on the cooling rack/ trivet) now cover the saucepan and bring the water to a slow  simmer for 10 - 20 mins. Add more water to the pan as needed.
Steaming puttu in an iddly cooker: 
Prepare the puttu flour following the above steps, heat water in the iddly pan and keep the flour in the iddly mold with handfull of coconut flakes over it. Cover the pan with lid and steam it till you hear the whistle sound.  

Feel free to comment, i love your feedback. Enjoy ur cooking! Have a blessed day :) 




2 comments:

Mahi said...

Nice recipe..i have never made puttu by myself! We had Malayali neighbours long back, and had it from them then! :)

Neelambaram said...

Thanks Mahi, glad you tasted it. Having good neighbors is a blessing. We have very good neighbors too. You should try puttu :)