The Goodness Grocery
Ragi puttu, step by step
Puttu made with ragi has a deeper colour and a gentler, maltier taste than the rice version. It is the dish our customers ask about most, and the method is the same as the one you already know — only the flour changes.
What you need
- 1 cup ragi puttupodi
- About ½ cup warm water, salted
- ½ cup grated coconut, fresh
- A puttu kutti (the cylinder steamer)
The method
1. Damp the flour. Put the puttupodi in a wide bowl. Dissolve a little salt in the warm water, then sprinkle it over the flour a few spoons at a time, working it through with your fingers. You are not making a dough.
2. Check the texture. Squeeze a handful. It should hold its shape when you close your fist and crumble easily when you prod it. If it stays in a solid lump you have gone too far — add a handful of dry podi and work it back.
3. Layer it. Into the puttu kutti: a spoon of coconut, then flour to about a third, then coconut, then flour, finishing with coconut. Do not press it down. The steam has to travel through, and packed flour gives you a dense cylinder.
4. Steam. Set it over boiling water. Give it seven or eight minutes from when steam starts coming through the top. Push it out onto a plate while hot.
The mistake everyone makes
Too much water. Ragi takes less than rice flour does, and once the mix clumps there is no steaming it back to light. Add the water more slowly than feels necessary.
What to serve with it
Kadala curry is the usual answer. Ripe banana and a spoon of jaggery is the easier one, and the one most children prefer. Pappadam if you are making a proper plate of it.
Our ragi puttupodi is milled from whole finger millet. The same method works with the kodo, foxtail, little millet and jowar puttupodi — each gives a different colour and a slightly different flavour, so it is worth working through them.