Puttu

Coarse rice and grated coconut are layered and steamed in a cylinder, never mixed into a dough.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 400 g coarse rice flour, or puttu podi
• 180 ml water, approximately
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 150 g grated coconut
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, optional

Method

1. COARSE RICE AND GRATED COCONUT ARE LAYERED AND STEAMED IN A CYLINDER, NEVER MIXED INTO A DOUGH. Its article gives the dish as steamed cylinders of ground rice with grated coconut, a little salt and water, often spiced with cumin -- and the crucial thing is what it is not. This is not a batter and not a dough. The flour is dampened only until it will just clump in the fist and fall apart again, then it goes into the mould in alternating layers with coconut, and the steam binds it. Worked into a dough you get a solid plug of rice paste instead of something that crumbles when you tip it out.
2. THE WATER IS ADDED A SPRINKLE AT A TIME AND THE TEST IS IN THE HAND. Squeeze a fistful: it should hold its shape and then break up under light pressure. If it stays moulded, it is too wet.
3. THE RICE IS COARSE, WHICH ITS ARTICLE SPECIFIES. Coarsely ground rice, not fine rice flour. Fine flour turns pasty the moment it meets steam.
4. IT IS SIEVED AFTER DAMPENING. Through a coarse sieve, which breaks any lumps and is the difference between an even, fluffy puttu and one with wet nodules in it.
5. THE LAYERS ARE COCONUT FIRST AND COCONUT LAST. A spoon of coconut in the base of the cylinder, then rice, then coconut, and so on, finishing with coconut. Not packed down -- spooned in loosely.
6. TEN MINUTES IN A HARD STEAM, AND THE STEAM MUST BE COMING THROUGH. The puttu is ready shortly after steam appears at the top of the cylinder. This is the one in this family that wants a vigorous steam rather than a gentle one.
7. IT IS PUSHED OUT OF THE CYLINDER, NOT TIPPED. A wooden spoon handle from the base, straight onto the plate, so the cylinder keeps its shape until it is broken up to eat.
8. THE VARIANTS CHANGE THE FLOUR AND THE SPICING. Its article names a wheat-flour or red-rice version without cumin, and versions in Bhatkal with plain coconut or with coconut flavoured with mutton or shrimp.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes