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
- Corn puttu flour : 2 C
- Grated Coconut : ¾ C
- Salt for taste
- 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.
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