I say this out of a kind of admiration for my husband who has survived me for 3yrs !!!!
We are at the breakfast table and I serve rice puttu and kadala for Nirmal.
“Do you know, rice is not good for you. You are already too fat! You need to cut down on your rice intake.”
“And on top of rice, you need pappadam for everything. Pappadam is fried in oil and it is worse than rice. I don’t know how I should thank your mother for cultivating this habit in you”.
“You have to take the puttu with some sugar. Sugar adds taste to the puttu” – And I sprinkle 2-3 teaspoons of sugar in his plate. Nirmal is staring at me not sure how to react.
“Don’t stare at me…didn’t you ask for sugar ???” (actually he never did !)
“I will give you a little coconut. But don’t ask for more. There is nothing worse than coconut to increase your cholestrol”
And then as he is eating, I am sitting there watching him and feeling guilty for having made rice cake (puttu) for breakfast. And I am blabbering some statistics about cholestrol… and why he needs to be serious about it …and why I think that he is not being serious about it…and why I think we need to be serious about him not being serious about it.
And all this time, he utters not one word. Thinking about it now, I probably make puttu twice a month and everytime I make puttu I go through these very lines like a theatre skit.
Anyway…long story short…to limit the rice intake, I decided to switch to Wheat Puttu. But getting the wheat to the powder state required for puttu proved to be a challenge. I would plan ahead and have to start preparation at least 2-3 hrs before making the actual puttu. It worked well during my birthday/anniversary months since I got to show him how much I loved him…and why I deserve an expensive present. But the other 10 months proved to be a challenge !!!!
And then just today when we started making the puttu my mother showed me a neat trick that made it so easy to make wheat puttu. I was thrilled. I have to share it with all of you.
And though I cannot promise that this recipe will stop our constant nagging at the breakfast table – I will guarantee that your husbands won’t be listening !!!!
THINGS U NEED:
- Wheat flour - 2 cups
- Coconut grated - 1/2
- salt - to taste
- water for mixing.
METHOD:
- Sieve the wheat flour and salt together. Sprinkle water (very little) on the flour and mix it gently. Please note, wheat tends to form a dough easily with water so do not pour water only sprinkle little by little. The flour should be wet enough for steaming. Put wet flour in the foodprocessor and pulse it just for a seccond. It'll help the small lumps to break apart and form a nice wet powdery texture . Now mix half of the coconut to the flour and mix it. put two teaspoon of grated coconut in the puttu maker and then add the flour mix till half, then add another two teaspoon of coconut and the flour mix and top it with two teaspoon of coconut. ( please check out the details of the puttu making with pictures in priya's rice puttu). Steam it and serve hot with a dash of sugar on top. Yum-O!!
NOTES:
- Always keep the puttu in a hot pot as the fresh puttu tastes better. Wheat Puttu tends to harden real fast and loses its fresh/soft texture.
- If u have left over puttu, put it in the puttu maker and steam it for a few minutes. U will have fresh tasting puttu instantly.
- The key to a better tasing puttu is to add water carefully to prevent forming lumps . If u don't have a food processor, use a small jar of the indian mixer-grinders.
- U don't need to make any side dish for this wheat puttu as it tastes better with a dash of sugar and a banana on the side.
