Puttu made of wholewheat/Wholewheat steamed savory cake

The goodness of wholewheat and taste of simple tempering

Puttu made of wholewheat flour

Wholewheat Putt

Puttu with kadala is daily fare in many homes across Kerala. And Malayalees elsewhere. For career women on the look out for recipes that would fall in the  quick, easy and tasty  category, I’d recommend this one .

Though not made of fermented batter, it is steamed , like the more popular idli, and so healthy—almost no fat is very much a possibility. And high fibre easy to achieve.

Though “kadala”—the chickpea in gravy—is the traditional accompaniment, I find it a bit heavy , particularly at breakfast, when puttu is generally served. Whenever work takes me to Kochi, I’ve opted to have this with coconut chutney and sambar, most often at Bharat Tourist Home that later became BTH.

Puttu Maker

On a recent visit , I bought a puttu maker. There are varieties of them.

The home-made Coconut shell variety is perhaps the best, and most sustainable.But I could not find it in the two or three vessel stores I visited.

 The salesman at one such store said people made it at home with the shell of coconuts they use, and then they discard it. What is there, all it needs is a provision to make steam pass, he reasoned. Rightly so.

The puttu maker I have is a tall stainless steel cycliner, with a handle that makes it very convenient to use. It has a nozzle that can has been designed to set it atop the pressure cooker’s steam nozzle—these are luckily more or less standardized in size and shape these days.

Puttu maker with a nozzle that fits any  Pressure Cooker

There is a perforated plate to be placed in it before filling it with the puttu mix. The lid on top also has a few holes to let the steam pass.

A  thin steel rod   has also been provided--- it can be inserted through the nozzle to gently push the puttu out of the maker. But I saw with fascination that the steam pushes it out beautifully !

The ready made puttu mix comes with instructions. But I decided to try a puttu made of  “gol atta” (coarsely ground , high fibre what) which ,just a bit finer that sooji/rawa/semolina, has a texture similar to the puttu mix.

Roast the wheat flour

Here is how I made a savoury wholewheat flour puttu:

Ingredients

Not-too fine wholewheat flour -1 cup

Salt-to taste

Refined oil-  1 teaspoon

Clarified butter or ghee-1 teaspoon

Mustar or cuminseeds or jeera  - half teaspoon

Dhuli Urad or carom seeds or Ajwain --  half teaspoon

Asofeatida or hing-a pinch

Crushed pepper-half teaspoon-optional

Green chillies chopped-2

Ginger grated- a teaspoon full

Fresh green coriander, finely chopped or curry leaves—a little bit

Water –Quarter cup

Simple tempering ingredients

Roast the wholewheat flour till it turns golden and releases a nice, roasting aroma.

Place a wok or frying pan on the gas, add the refined oil, when it smokes add the jeera mustard seeds. Next add the urad or ajwain.

Mix tempering

 Now add the chopped green chillies, curry leaves, grated ginger. Now add a touch of asofeatida(hing) and salt.Add this to the  roasted wheat. Add the chopped green coriander if using.

Sprinkle a bit of water and hand press

Sprinkling water on it, make it crumblike. You should be able to make it, by hand, into a ball that will fall apart at once !

Fill the puttu maker with this, and place in on a pressure cooker that is releasing steam. 

Puttu maker on pressure cooker

I kept it on slow for  about seven minutes, and then  raised the gasmark to high.

In less than two minutes the puttu was making its way out of the tube !

Two minutes is what the puttu maker said it would take. 

Puttu making its way out!

But it is not advisable to start with “high” and wrap it up in two minutes, unless one is using the ready made or traditional puttu mix—for that has been washed,soaked, slow driend and pounded, so is almost half cooked.The wheat flour is not!


Serve it with any chutney or sambar. I had it with left over  buttermilk sambar!

Puttu with "more kozhambu"