Little Millet Paal Puttu

Total
0
Shares
As part of the Millet Revival Project, we conduct offline events every few months. Cooking workshops that familiarise participants with ways to incorporate millets into their diet are always an important part of our events, and the one in Kochi was no different! One of the dishes demonstrated at the workshop by millet educator Supriya A was a millet paal puttu, which used little millet instead of ground rice in the popular south-Indian breakfast dish. The little millet, steamed with carrots and sprouted green gram was served with Kadala curry and a spicy onion chutney.
Little millet (chama) 1 cup
Coconut milk (or a mix of equal parts regular milk and coconut milk) 2 cups
Fresh coconut (grated) ½ cup
Carrot (grated) ½ cup
Green gram (sprouted) ¼ cup
Salt to taste

A steamer, a steamer pan or container with raised edges that fits in the steamer, bowls, a knife, a fork.

1

Wash the little millet in water and rinse it until clean.

2

Place the washed millet in a vessel, and soak it in the coconut milk for two hours.

3

Add salt, as per your taste, to the millet mixture. Remove milk from the mixture so the level of the milk is only slightly above that of the millet.

4

Turn on the stovetop, and place a steamer on it on medium-high heat. Pour in enough water to prepare the steamer for cooking the millets.

5

While the steamer gets hot enough, grease the steamer pan with a little oil or place a plantain leaf on the bottom, and pour the millet mix into the greased pan.

6

Mix together the grated coconut, carrot and green gram sprouts and season with salt.

7

Sprinkle the vegetable mix on top of the millet base.

8

Place the pan into the steamer and close the lid. Cook for about 15 minutes.

9

Take off the lid and prick the mixture with a fork or toothpick to see if it is cooked. The fork should come out clean.

10

Turn off the stove and remove the pan from the steamer. Set aside and let the puttu cool.

11

Cut the puttu into pieces, and serve hot with a spicy chilli chutney and kadala curry.

Supriya A has been a millet educator for the past five years, and recently started selling millet-based products under the Poshana brand. She is a home chef and Youtuber based out of Trivandrum, and has co-authored the book Millet Magic. She frequently conducts cooking demonstrations.

Leave a Reply