On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 7:41 AM, Abhijit Menon-Sen <[email protected]> wrote: > > You use approximately twice as much fine rice powder as (preferably > fresh, but we've often used frozen too) grated coconut. You have to wet > the rice a little (you want wet rice powder, not dough) and mix with the > coconut and salt to taste. Layer them roughly inside the magic cylinder.
Here is a second method to wet the rice+coconut+salt mixture. I add boiling water (very slowly) and mix well. It reduces the cooking time. You can spread it on a plastic sheet and crumble the lumps with a sharp edged katori. > Personally, I put in a tiny bit more salt than one might normally think > necessary, because then you can eat the resulting puttu on its own, and > it's delicious. Otherwise you eat it with sugar. Or a banana. Or kadala > curry, of course. The lady who demonstrated it used 'nirapara' (spell check) red rice powder so i stick to that brand as the faintly pinkish colour looks very nice. And a teaspoon of maida flour to give it that 'i-am-a stand-alone-basmati-chawal' touch instead of the lumpen mass that rice can sometimes turn into. I use the same rice (powder) and coconut proportion that AMS mentioned. >> But tell me some substitute for the "kutti" > > Ah well, now if you don't have a small cylindrical metal child handy… kutti is a nice name :) well, if you dont have a kutti device (try an indian store who may import it to the US for you on demand) to sit on the spout, substitute it with a steel/aluminium chalni (a metal filter) that fits inside the cooker. Kutti proportions are meant for just 1 or 2 people, so its repeat work if you want more servings. Layer the chalni with a muslin cloth so it does not stick after steaming. Do keep some distance between the container and the water to avoid it turning into a soggy lumpen mass. Close the cooker lid (with gasket but no whistle) and cook for 10 min (larger quantity than kutti you see) on a medium flame. Open and serve immediately, else the vapour will drip back into the puttu. > You might try adding a tiny bit more water to the mixture, and moulding > it into laddoo-like things for steaming. Or maybe you could steam them > in an idli dish, if you have one of those. if the idli dish does not have holes rub some oil (if you dont want the extra work of washing a muslin cloth) before putt(u)ing puttu. > ., is your recipe different? not at all, except the adjustment for serving proportions. Btw, i want the recipe for jackfruit halwa (chakkavaratti ?) too. I've made it just once and promptly forgot the process. -- .
