Puttu - Steamed Rice Flour/Cake

Puttu is one of the first things I managed to make properly thanks mainly to my Mom's ingenuity. She visited me after I started working and was astounded at the lack of appliances in the kitchen even to her own cooking just to eat kind of outlook which obviously I had fully absorbed and taken to a much greater level:-) So one day, bored out of her depths while I was at work she had a surprise waiting for me. Steamed yummy puttu albeit barely 3-4 spoonfuls!! Now how did she do it? Well, she found that the hitherto discarded steam plate that had come with my rice cooker will fit in nicely with a small all purpose sauce pan - the one and only- which also had a fitting lid.


Bravely she goes mixing for puttu with rice flour and coconut powder etc ., put water in the pan, placed the small steam plate on top, closed the lid and waited. Boy, was she gratified by the familiar aroma of puttu wafting through the kitchen! So both of us continued to have these spoonfuls of puttu whenever the craving hit us for the rest of her stay. Only when she left and the duty now fell on me that I realized the work involved was too much:-) Off I go looking for an easier way to get to the puttu as now I know the familiar cylindrical shape while good for the eye did not really matter so long as the taste buds agree. One day while browsing in one of the Department stores I discovered the perfect appliance I was looking for and from then on making puttu was a smooth sail. My Mom was glad to find this on her second visit. Even my husband's Aunt who later on gave me many tips for things I can get here was pleasantly surprised to see my puttu that I had mastered in my bachelorette days!

And then getting into food blogs I saw that I was not the only one who had clued in on this easier way to make puttu... For that and a wonderful post on puttu in general, click here.

In the Mix

rice flour - 2 cups
dry coconut powder - 1 cup (this should be of the smallest grain found in Indian stores)
salt to taste and enough water.


How To Do:

Mix the rice flour, coconut powder and salt together by adding water little by little. 1/4 cups at a time will do. Mix them well together till you see small balls persistently form which usually mean the mix is getting over damp. The balls will form from the beginning which we must try and strain as much as can be with fingers but when they just begin to get one too many is time to stop.

At this stage I apply a trick from my beloved sister -the only real cook in our family- for the softest resulting puttu. Use a sieve/strainer/large collander - I use one from India with the largest eye- and filter out all the 'ballies' as my little one calls them whom as you can see can't get enough of them:-)

Keep on sieving and straining the balls on the sieve till no balls remain or only a few.
Now take the steamer, fill the bottom pan with water up to the recommended level, close the scenter which has no use in this process and fill the top container with the prepared puttu mix.



Turn the timer on for 40-45 minutes and voila! steaming puttu is ready for consumption with kadala curry or egg curry or even beef fry. Add banana, honey or sugar to the mix to make it an extra treat. My husband's joy knows no bounds if I also make papadums to go with it!

Note:
Before steaming, I sometimes keep the whole thing except the bottom part that has the water, in the fridge to be made another day. Wet a paper towel with water and spread it on top of the puttu to keep it moisturized over a few days before closing the lid. This is good when you have visitors so you can surprise them with puttu while all they could see you do was just steaming something in the kitchen provided you have some freshly prepared side dish in the fridge to go with it:-))