Accordingly puttu is a dish of rice flour that's crumbled like coarse breadcrumbs, layered with freshly grated coconut, and steamed in a piece of bamboo stalk. With brown garbanzo curry or a mung bean thoran and poppadum on the side, it becomes one of the best breakfasts in the world.
Want a sweet version? Try it with a steamed plantain and a sprinkling of
sugar. Eaten like rice, it pairs with any side dish: a duck mappas, a fiery fish curry, a shrimp
fry, a vegetable medley, or even a beef roast. In Kerala, the ingredients
coconut and rice are part of the lush and verdant landscape. This dish has
traveled to Sri Lanka and other Southeast Asian countries, becoming slightly
altered in the process, but its soul is rooted in God's Own Country.
Puttu is cooked in a puttu maker a cylindrical kutti placed on a kudam, a sort of steamer. There is a fascinating array of puttu
makers now available, from the traditional bamboo to the modern multi-kutti or
dome-shaped stainless steel ones. Even coconut shells are used to steam puttu.
