Puttu (Tube Bread)

For those who did not want to have fermented rice for breakfast in those days, another healthy option was Puttu. Researches show that this is the healthiest food in the world. For puttu the rice is not powdered very smooth. It should be like bread crumbs which is used for cutlets. The rice flour is roasted till it gets well dried in order to preserve for many days. If its not roasted it will be sticky.

Ingredients

Roasted Rice flour – 1 cup
Grated coconut – 1 cup
Salt –  to taste
Water – ¾ cup

Preparation

Take rice flour in a container add salt and mix well; add little water and wet the flour, add rest of the water little by little and mix the flour well; it should not be sticky and no lumps should be seen.

Once the mixture is ready, add 2 table spoons of coconut in the mixture and mix well. Take water in pressure cooker or puttu kudam (special pot to make puttu) keep it on the stove to boil. Meantime take the puttu kuti (Puttu tube) insert the round (chillu) with holes at the bottom; add 1 table spoon coconut at the bottom of the tube then add 3 table spoons of flour, again add 1 table spoon coconut and 3 table spoons flour, repeat the process until the tube gets filled fully, don’t press it, put some coconut on top and cover it with the lid; place it on the cooker or puttu kudam and steam.

When steam comes through the holes of the lid, good odor spreads and you know the puttu is ready. If steam doesn’t come out after 10 minutes, insert a stick through all the holes on top lid. Let it remain for 5 to 10 minutes more so that all the flour gets cooked evenly, make sure that there is enough water in the bottom pot or cooker otherwise it’s likely to get burned. Remove the tube from fire, open the lid and poke a stick from the bottom, the cooked puttu will come out like a tube. Remove the steel chillu with holes from bottom.

Serve it hot with banana, papad and cooked green gram, or Kadala Kari (a side dish made of chick pea grams). Enjoy this sumptuous meal in the morning or as evening tea snack.

Those who do not have a puttu maker can use your pressure cooker without the whistle along with a coconut shell. Take a good coconut shell make a hole at the center as shown above and fill it with rice flour and coconut; insert it on top of the cooker and cover with a lid. In 5 minutes steam will begin to come out, keep little more time, remove from cooker turn it upside down into a plate like in picture; remove the shell, your puttu is ready; its very quick to make. This puttu tastes better than the tube one. Enjoy it.

My Grandma used fire wood to cook; puttu maker was made of Bamboo bark and coir. Utensils used were made of natural and organic materials; Spoons were made of arecanut (betel nut) tree trunk and coconut shells.

Removing the husk and powdering the rice also was done at home, with the help of a mortar.  The rice for making flour was specially made without boiling the paddy, they would just sundry the paddy as it is brought from the fields after threshing and pounded it in a mortar to make raw rice (Unakalari) which was used to make this delicious dish. So its nutritious value was doubled compared to the milled raw white rice.

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