Breakfast
Steamed cylinders of ground rice layered with coconut — Kerala’s classic morning puttu.
About
Puttu (Malayalam: പുട്ട്; also pittu) is a steamed breakfast of coarsely ground rice and grated coconut, native to Kerala and also eaten in Tamil Nadu and northern Sri Lanka. The moist flour is packed in layers with coconut and steamed until it holds as a soft cylinder. Homes and toddy shops serve it hot with kadala curry, banana, papadam, or a meat or fish gravy. The name means “portioned”: each steam yields a short, breakable roll.
The base is coarsely ground rice, grated coconut, a little salt, and water. Cumin is sometimes added. Wheat, ragi (finger millet), chemba rice, tapioca, corn, or bamboo rice can replace white rice flour. Sri Lankan pittu is often made with wheat or red rice without cumin.
Water is worked slowly into the flour until it holds a damp, crumbly texture — hot water makes a softer puttu. It is then packed into a puttu kutti, an aluminium steamer with water below and a perforated plate so steam rises through the rice, layered with coconut. Chiratta puttu uses a coconut shell (or a metal shell of the same shape). Clay makers, idli-style pans with holes, and pressure cookers are also used.
In Kerala, puttu is eaten with kadala curry, payar (green gram) thoran, papadam, and banana or plantain. Fish curry, chicken curry, or beef curry sit beside it as often as the vegetarian plate. In southern Kerala it is commonly paired with sweet black coffee. Tamil Nadu and Karnataka tables may add palm jaggery or sweetened coconut milk.
Fillings can swap coconut for egg curry or banana. Ball-shaped puttu is called manipputtu. Malabar Muslim kitchens steam irachiputtu — rice layered with spiced mincemeat. Puttu-special restaurants in Kerala serve wheat, ragi, and stuffed versions. In 2006, hotel-management students in Wayanad steamed a 10-foot puttu in a 12-foot aluminium mould, using 26 kg of rice flour and 20 coconuts.
Gallery
How it is steamed, served, and varied — open any image for a larger view.
7 photos
More dishes
Other famous plates from Kerala’s kitchen.