- Submitted by Beryl
(Sooji Puttu, Steamed Semolina Cakes)
Puttu (or Pittu) is very famous in Kerala state of India, where almost in all houses you can find puttu as their breakfast. They love to eat puttu with banana or papad or kadala curry or boiled green gram and papad. For making this puttu, I used Semolina coarse flour, which is known as Rava or Sooji. It is readily available in all Indian grocery shops or online (like Amazon). Do not buy the Semolina fine flour, just ask for coarse flour and you can make good puttu with this flour. I make this puttu more often, because my kids enjoy eating this rava puttu along with banana as their breakfast, sometimes even for lunch and dinner.
The cooking method is simple. All you need is a Puttu Maker, which you can buy from South Indian shops or from Amazon. If you do not have one, you should seriously consider buying one, as this is useful for making lot of other recipes too.
Recipe for Rava Puttu
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Serves: 6
Ingredients
- Rava (Wheat Semolina coarse flour) - about 3 cups (or 1/2 kg)
- Grated coconut- about 1 cup
- Salt- as necessary
- Water- as necessary
Method
- Take a large vessel, put about 3 cups of flour in that. Sprinkle some salt
- Add little bit water and keep mixing the flour and salt. Add some more water and continue mixing. Look for bread crumb consistency. Do not add too much water, just check for its consistency in between. Adding too much water will spoil the puttu. Taste it and check if it has enough salt in it.
- In the puttu maker (known as the puttu kutty), `take the bottom round mould (kudam), pour water almost half of that and place it on the stove top. If your putty kutty is the type where you have to mound it on a cooker, then fill the pressure cooker with water. This is explained in detail in the basic puttu recipe.
- Now take the top part of the puttu kutty. Place the round, perforated disc that comes with the puttu kutty at its bottom.
- Add one layer (about 1 tbsp) of grated coconut. Add about 6 layers (or about 6 tbsp) of semolina flour, which we have already prepared. While filling the flour, do not press with spoon or hand, let it be loose.
- Again put one tbsp of grated coconut followed by another 6 tbsp of prepared puttu flour. If your puttu kutty is big, you may have to add a 3rd layer.
- Finally top it with one tbsp of grated coconut as the final layer. Thus, in total, there are two or three layers of prepared puttu flour depending on the length of your puttu kutty.
- Close it with the lid and place it over the bottom round kudam of puttu maker which has boiling water. Wait for few minutes, for the steam to come out of the top holes in the lid.
- Allow few minutes (about 3-5 minutes), for the steam to come properly and then switch off the stove.
- Carefully remove the putty kutty from the puttu kudam. Keep a plate ready and using a long stick or spoon, apply pressure on the bottom hole of puttu kutty and the puttu comes out easily.
Variation (Making puttu without puttu kutty)
- Almost everyone has a putty kutty in their house. If for some reason, you do not have one, do not panic. You can still make puttu using your idli stand or a steamer. Take a clean cloth and wet it. Squeeze out the excess liquid. Take the prepared puttu flour and grated coconut in this moist cloth. Wrap the ends of the cloth to cover like a loose parcel. Place this on a steamer or idli stand and steam it for about 10 minutes. Your puttu is ready.
Serving Rava Puttu
- This puttu can be enjoyed with banana and sugar or honey.
- It can also served with kadala curry (Black Chikpeas Curry), kurma or boiled green-gram and papad.
- In Tamil Nadu, when puttu is still warm it is taken in a bowl. Sugar, cardamom powder, ghee and some toasted cashews are mixed with the puttu. This makes the puttu very aromatic. It is then eaten as such or served with sweetened coconut milk.
- Whatever you serve with, have a cup of black tea or chai along to make it more authentic.
More Rava Recipes