Steamed Rice cake breakfast Recipe (Kerala Puttu )

Steamed Rice cake with coconut/Kerala Puttu


This dish is made of Roasted rice powder. The Raw white rice is soaked for around 5 hours, drained and powdered. This powder is then roasted till all the water dries up. This step is very important for the softness of the dish and also for long storage. As this is a tedious process, now everyone opts for buying ready made rice powder. When making puttu, try buying the Puttu powder and not the regular rice flour as the texture of the powder varies for Puttu (the powder is a bit coarse unlike the fine powder needed for Idiappam or Appam)

Ingredients


Puttu flour- 2 cups
Grated coconut- 1 cup
Water - appoximately 1 cup
Salt - As needed
Puttu maker/Steamer

Directions

Take 2 cups of puttu flour in a bowl. Add a little salt.

Add water little at the time and mix well with your finger tips.When you take a handful of flour and press it between your fist, it should hold its shape, when you press it again a little harder, it should crumble. That is the right consistency.

The flour should be crumbly and moist. There should be no lumps.You can blend it in a mixer for 2-3 seconds using the whipper blade. Keep it aside for 15 minutes.

How to fill the puttu kutty/puttu maker

Layer the puttu kutty (cylindrical tube) first with a little grated coconut, then add 2 fistful of puttu flour.Then again add grated coconut followed by puttu flour.Repeat the same process until the mould/puttu kutty is full ending it with grated coconut.

You can do the same way in a steamer or a coconut shell shaped steamer (which I use).Only the shape of the final puttu will change. Taste is exactly the same. Now this should be steam cooked for about 7-8 minutes. The puttu maker or the coconut shell shaped steamer can be mounted on a flat lid pressure cooker instead of the whistle. Puttu maker usually comes with a pot where you can fill water.

When you get a nice flavor of steamed puttu, switch off, remove the cylindrical tube/puttu kutty from the pot, open it and gently push the puttu using a wooden ladle.

Serve with Chick peas curry ( Kadala curry) which is the classic combination for this. You can also eat with small banana and Kerala pappadam (a crispy side snack served during lunch).