PUTTU

INGREDIENTS:

Raw rice	3 cups
Salt	To taste
Water	As required
Coconut	1 cup grated

METHOD:

Making Puttu Flour:

• Wash the raw rice thoroughly and then soak the rice for two hours. Drain the water out by straining thorough a mesh strainer. Spread the rice in a cloth or a plate and allow them to dry.
• Grind the dried rice to a semi-coarse powder in the mixer. Don’t grind into fine powder.
• Heat a thick-bottom kadai and put the ground powder. Roast the powder on low-medium heat by stirring continuously.
• The powder should be roasted in such a way that all the moisture should have evaporated and heated thoroughly. If touched by hands, it should feel dry. The powder should retain the white color and never change color or turn brownish color. Continuous stirring and low-medium heat will ensure that powder is roasted while retaining the color.
• Transfer the fried rice powder to plate and allow it to cool down by spreading it uniformly.
• Once cooled, store in puttu flour in a container and use as per requirement.
• The quantity of raw rice can be easily doubled or tripled and make bulk batch of puttu flour. Just make sure that while grinding and roasting, do it in batches to get an evenly roasted powder.

 Making Puttu:

• In a mixing bowl, add 1.5 cup of puttu flour and mix in salt as per taste.
• Sprinkle the water little by little to the rice flour and mix it. Using your fingers keep mixing till the flour starts looking like crumbs. If you take a little in your fist and scrunch it up, it should hold its shape when you open your palm. Let the moistened rice powder rest for about half an hour.
• You should be careful while mixing the water to the rice flour. If you add too little water, the puttu will turn out dry and uncooked when steamed. If you add too much water, the puttu will be a lumpy mass after steam cooking.
• After resting for 30 mins, pulse the moist flour in a grinder once to remove any lumps and get a smooth powder.
• Now in the puttu maker first put the small metal plate (comes with the puttu maker), then add 2 tbsp of grated coconut and then add the ¼ cup of rice flour. Continue the layering of 2 tbsp of grated coconut and ¼ cup of rice flour until the puttu maker is filled till the top.
• Finish the top layer with grated coconut and close the lid.
• Steam the puttu for 10 – 15 minutes on medium heat. Then insert the metal skewer (it comes along with the puttu maker) through one of the holes in the lid and take out.
• If the skewer comes out clean, puttu is ready. If not, steam for additional 5 mins.
• Take out the cooked puttu from the puttu maker by pushing out from the bottom i.e. the small metal plate.
• Serve hot with chickpeas curry or green moong curry.