South Indian
Puttu (Kerala Steamed Rice and Coconut Cylinders)
Puttu (Kerala Steamed Rice and Coconut Cylinders) is South Indian home cooking, eaten at breakfast and dinner. On the plate it is the dish at the centre. Below is what usually sits beside it, what it does and does not contain, and what else to cook once you have made it.
Ingredients
- 2 cups puttu podi (coarse roasted rice flour)
- 1 cup grated coconut
- 3/4 cup water
- 3/4 tsp salt
How to cook it
- Sprinkle the water gradually over the puttu podi with the salt, rubbing it in with your fingertips until the flour turns crumbly and just holds together when pressed, not wet or pasty.
- Fit a puttu maker, or a steamer with a cylindrical mold, and layer a spoonful of grated coconut at the base.
- Alternate layers of the moistened flour and coconut, finishing with a coconut layer, until the cylinder is filled loosely, not packed tight.
- Set the cylinder over a pot of boiling water and steam for 8 to 10 minutes, until steam rises steadily through the top vent.
- Push the cooked puttu out onto a plate with the pusher and serve warm.
Serve it with
A South Indian dinner is a plate rather than a single dish. These are the courses that normally sit beside Puttu (Kerala Steamed Rice and Coconut Cylinders), read from the same composition Dinejot builds a real meal from.
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What it is eaten with
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The sharp little thing
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Something cool and fresh
A course labelled with another kitchen's name comes from a cuisine in the same family, which is where this plate usually borrows it from.
Safe at your table
Dinejot tracks ten allergens and tags every one of them by hand, so the absences below are as deliberate as the presences. Puttu (Kerala Steamed Rice and Coconut Cylinders) carries coconut. It is free of the remaining 9 allergens on that list.
| Allergen | In this dish | Cook this instead |
|---|---|---|
| Peanuts | No | |
| Tree nuts | No | |
| Dairy | No | |
| Gluten | No | |
| Shellfish | No | |
| Eggs | No | |
| Soy | No | |
| Fish | No | |
| Sesame | No | |
| Coconut | Yes | Adai (Tamil Nadu Multi-Lentil Dosa) |
These tags are set by a person rather than inferred from an ingredient list, and they describe the recipe as written here. Read the labels on whatever you actually buy.
What it brings to the plate
Bands, not numbers. Dinejot does not weigh anybody's food, so it says light, moderate or hearty and stops there. This dish was read and set by hand.
- Calorie band
- Moderate
- Protein
- Low
- Food groups it covers
- Grains and Nuts and seeds
- How this was set
- Hand audited
When to cook it
Puttu (Kerala Steamed Rice and Coconut Cylinders) takes about 30 minutes from a cold stove to the table, and the cooking itself is a fair bit of work. It is eaten at breakfast and dinner. Nothing in the calendar rules it out, so it is a year round dish.
Watch someone make it
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More to cook
Cooked from the same things
Other dishes built on rice flour and coconut.
From the same kitchens
More cooking from South India.
Does the same job on the plate
Swap any of these in when you want a meal the same shape.
Cook this with your whole family
Dinejot plans breakfast, lunch and dinner as whole plates, built around the cooking you call home and filtered for the allergies at your table.
Meal suggestions support your goals. They are not medical advice. Please ask your doctor about your family's health needs.