Kuzha Puttu | Kerala Puttu

Kuzha puttu,one of my favorite since childhood.As our native is "Tirunelveli",our cooking have lot of kerala cuisine influence. We use lot of coconuts and also puttu,appam,idiyappam are our regular breakfast menu atleast twice in a week .We usually used to have puttu with sugar & ghee/banana . But after tasting it from few kerala restaurant, i used to like the puttu & kadala curry combination now ,but nothing beats sugar & ghee combo.

In my earlier days of primary schooling, we stayed in Villupuram, so on summer holidays, we went  to Tirunelveli. In those days, lot of islamic ladies in the street next to our grandma house made appam , puttu & idiyappam in their house and sold it.

My grandma used to take us(me,my brother & cousins) to their house at early morning itself. We used to  carry vessels for puttu & appam and tumbler for coconut milk. Lot of people were waiting before us, so we had to wait for our turn to get it and once reached home, we all had it together and it was delicious. I miss those days, it makes me nostalgic. Ok.Enough with my "blah blah", will check recipe now.

Kuzha Puttu

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 15 mins | Serves : 1 or 2 
Recipe Category: Breakfast | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients 
Rice flour - 1 cup.

Water - 1/2 cup (approx)

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Coconut - 1/2 cup

Procedure

Take the rice flour in the bowl , add salt and mix it well, Then sprinkle water and mix it, it looks like crumbled bread.

The flour should be hold the shape when you press it with your fist  and again it should be crumble when you crumble it with your fingers . That's the right way to check the consistency of the flour.Now take the Puttu Kuzhal(Puttu maker). Add the small plate with hole(it comes with puttu maker itself) in to it. Now add the flour into the maker and then coconut . Usually i add about 2 fistful of flour and 2 tbsp of coconut in between.Repeat this, until it reaches the top, close with the lid.Now heat the water in the pressure pan with lid , and place this puttu maker instead of weight. Steam it for 5 mins in medium flame. Once cooked, you can see the steam coming out of the holes in the top of the puttu maker.

Switch off the flame. Now using the stick that comes from puttu maker to  press the puttu slowly. It will come out cleanly.
Tasty Kuzha puttu is ready. Serve with with Kadala curry or sugar with drizzle of ghee(My favorite) or sugar with banana whichever way you like.

Notes:

• To get the perfectly shaped puttu, the amount of water , we used is very important. For me it takes around 1/2 cup of 1 cup of flour.
• If the amount of water is less, then the puttu will not hold the shape and also it's very dry.
• Remove the lumps , while mixing the flour.
• You can increase/decrease the amount of coconut according to your preference.
• Once you washed the puttu maker, remove the water inside the puttu maker with tissue paper, before adding flour. It helps to avoid the flour sticks to the maker, so that you will get perfectly shaped puttu.
• Once you mix the flour with water, immediately steam it, if you make large quantity, do it in batch. It will avoid the flour to become dry.
• If you dont have puttu maker, steam it in idly pot.
• I used store bought flour, if you are using fresh home made flour,it doesnt require this much water.