Puttu (പുട്ട്) is a traditional breakfast dish of Kerala and nothing new making it. But making it with the coconut shell (ചിരട്ട ) in my kitchen here in Sunnyvale was little bit challenging. First I prepared coconut shell for this- the half shell with the eyes on it- cleaning it well and making the proper sized opening on one of the eyes to fit it to the pressure cooker whistle pipe.

For someone not familiar of making Puttu; preparing the mix for Puttu is little tricky as we are not trying to make a dough. After mixing, the prepared flour should be like bread crumbs with enough moisture; at the same time without any lumps in it. For better steam cooking the proper moister level of the prepared flour is very important. .  This time I used ready to cook Corn puttu flour, bought from Indian market, but the method will be same if we use any other flours like wheat, rice, ragi or tapioca.

Ingredients

1. Corn puttu flour :   2 C
2. Grated Coconut                : ¾  C
3. Salt for taste
4. Water as needed

Method

• Take a wide vessel and add enough salt along with the puttu flour & mix well
• Mix the flour with your fingers, while sprinkling a little water at a time.
  Don’t pour so much at a time. As stated above, proper wetness of the flour is important for proper cooking.
• Keep the mixture for minimum 30 minutes that will give the puttu good softness.

Steaming:-

• In a small pressure cooker add enough water and boil it on the stove , don’t put the whistle
• In the coconut shell make alternate layers of grated coconut and puttu flour, starting and ending with grated coconut.  The coconut layer has to be thinner than that of puttu flour ( Note in ingredients the quantity of coconut is less than half  that of puttu flour)
• Keep the shell on top of the pressure cooker whistle pipe (the place in which the steam comes out).
• To avoid the steam leaking from the bottom and also to make the coconut shell balanced, make seating for the coconut shell with a wet cloth as shown in the picture
• Close the coconut shell with a lid or any other suitable utensil, to seal the steam.
• Steam it very well, once it cooked (~ 6 minutes) , gently remove it from the pressure cooker.
• Move the cooked puttu to a plate, flipping the shell.