Puttum pazhavum/kerala steam cake/puttu

Dears,


How are you? Finished your breakfast/lunch/ dinner? Me..not yet..missing my mom a  lot now a days..and I lost my phone. what to do..need something to cheer me up.  So I thought I will post a recipe and browse your wonderful blogs.
From my archive I got this puttu picture I prepared few days back.


Puttu, is it a dish which is filled with mom"s love??? I always wonder.
There is a reason for that.
One of my favorite movies in malayalam is called Soorya manasam.  It tells us about the strong relationship of a mom and her mentally challenged son, "putturumees." The central character played by mamootty (for that he won an award) has only two passions in life one is his mom and the other thing is Puttu. There were quite few emotional scenes the movie which connects this white cylindrical shape break-fast item and a mom"s love, care and concern. Well dears, coming to business. 

What do we need?

Raw rice = 2 Cup.

Grated coconut = 1/2 cup.

Water/milk= To sprinkle.

Coconut powder= 2 table spoon.

Salt = 1/4 spoon.

Jeera powder= 1/2 tspoon (optional) .

Method:
1.Sock the rice for 3 hours. Leave it to drain. Spread it in a cloth or kitchen tissue and drain it well. Then grind it to make a fine powder.

2. Cook the rice powder for 5 minutes,keep on stirring. Then remove from heat. (You can avoid this two steps, by using ready made puttu powder, which is available in Asian shops).

4. Mix coconut powder, 1 t.spoon grated coconut and salt to the rice powder.

5. Sprinkle water/ milk to this mixture and make the powder wet. (It should look like a bread crumbs sort of mixture). If the bread crumbs sort of powder is wet and moist enough. We can transfer that to a puttukutti/ Puttu maker.

6. Put two table spoons of grated coconut + jeera in the puttu maker then add the prepared rice mixture and put two table spoons of grated coconut on top of it.
( You can put grated coconut in the middle of the layer if you want, since Mr.P is not a huge fan of this coconut mixture I avoid that middle portion filling).

7.Close the lid and steam to 4-5 minutes. (or you can see steam coming out of the puttu kutti after that an extra 2 mnt is enough).

P.S If you don"t have a puttu maker you can use a vegetable steamer layered with cloth.
You can also you an idali maker.

Best combinations for puttu:

1. Puttu+ meat stir fry( Irachi ularthiyathu)+ pappadam.

2.Puttu+pappadam+Banana/Steamed plantain.

3.Puttu+pappadam+ Ghee( Cleared butter).

4. Puttu + Kadala Curry : channa curry (all time fvrt of a mallu).

5. My recent Invention. Puttu + chocolate sauce+ Banana.

would u like to have a look at my website: www.deepapraveen.com.All my images are copy righted so write to me first (madhudee@gmail.com) if you want to use them.