Golu Photos and Rice Flour Puttu

Madhuram — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 11:15:31 +0000

It seemed like Navarathri started just now and it’s already the 9th day, Saraswathi Pooja. Happy Pooja holidays everybody. We prepare a lot of sweets and sundals these holidays, but “puttu” is very important and our favorite too.

This puttu is different from what the Keralites prepare. It’s made with rice flour, grated coconut and jaggery. The process is also time consuming but worth every effort. Traditionally it’s prepared by soaking raw rice in water, draining it, spreading it on a cloth and powdering the rice, while the rice is still damp. But to make the process more simple store bought rice flour is used. This is especially prepared on a Friday and is distributed to everybody who visits our home to see the Golu. I’ve prepared it successfully a couple of times 3 years back, but now I have totally forgotten the procedure. Fortunately my mother is here and she prepared it this time. It came out very well and I wanted to record it before I forget it once again.

(Click on the image to see a bigger view)

Ingredients

Rice flour – 3 cups

Water, hot – as required

Salt – a pinch

Turmeric powder – 1/4 teaspoon

Jaggery, powdered – 2 and 1/4 cups

Coconut, grated, preferably fresh – 1 cup (or even less)

Cardamom powder – 1/2 teaspoon

Pachakarpooram – a pinch

Cashewnuts, broken into small pieces – 1/4 cup

Step-by-Step Procedure 1. Toast the rice flour in a dry skillet until hot.

2. Boil little water (around 1 cup) with salt and turmeric powder.

3. Sprinkle as much water as required in the toasted flour little by little. The correct consistency is, you should be able to form balls, but at the same time you should also be able to crumble it back into powdered form.

4. Steam this flour mixture for 20 minutes. My mother filled little water in a big frying pan, placed a small trivet in the bottom and used the vegetable steamer which came alongwith my electric rice cooker to steam the flour. Wet a cotton cloth and pour the prepared rice powder in it and cover by bringing the ends of the cloth over the flour and place it on the vegetable steamer and close the frying pan with a lid.

5. Once the flour is steamed, transfer this mixture to a big plate and spread it. If it has lumps sift it using a sieve.

6. Meanwhile in another vessel add the jaggery and water just enough to cover the jaggery and melt it.

7. Sieve the jaggery solution to get rid of any impurities.

8. Again pour it back in the vessel, add the coconut, cardamom powder and pachakarpooram and let this mixture boil.

9. When a drop of the jaggery syrup is dropped in cold water, you should be able to form it into a ball. When you reach this consistency switch of the stove and remove the vessel from the stove.

10. Now add this mixture little by little to the steamed flour and simultaneously mix the flour and jaggery syrup with the other hand using a spatula. I have a big wooden fork which is simply perfect for this job. Be careful because the syrup will be very hot and it will scald your skin if it drops.

11. In a dry skillet toast the cashew pieces and add it to the prepared Puttu.

My Notes 1. The above measurement gives a fairly big portion of Puttu. You can try it on a small scale with 1 cup of rice flour, 3/4 cup of powdered jaggery and 1/4 cup of grated coconut.

2. Cashewnuts can be toasted in ghee. Heat 1 tablespoon of ghee and fry the cashews in it and add it to the Puttu. This keeps well for a week.

This is my entry for the following events:
1. Vaishali’s Sweet Vegan.
2. Srivalli’s JFI-Festival Treats.

Eggless Coconut Macaroons

Madhuram — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:20:56 +0000

This Saturday I borrowed 2 books from the library on baking cookies. The following macaroons recipe is based on Key Lime Coconut Macaroons, from Jill Snider’s Cookies book. That recipe caught my eye because it was eggless originally, when the macaroon recipes I’ve seen so far used egg whites and I had all the ingredients at home. Since I don’t like lime/lemon flavoring in cookies/cakes, I omitted it. The original recipe called for key lime juice, so I substituted it with milk. Then only I realized that how similar it was to the south indian “thengai-coconut burfi“. So to get that taste I decided to add some cashews and cardamom powder. I also ended up using lesser amount of coconut and all purpose flour, so the final batter was watery. Then I remembered how my grandmother used to add rava (semolina) while making the burfis, so I also added a couple tablespoons of it, to make the dough firm. Inspite of all these changes, the end product tasted very good.

I think the mistake I did was adding milk to replace the lime juice, which resulted in a watery batter or not following the actual measurements. But it was definitely a very nice experience trying out various combinations. So what I would do the next time is, just combine condensed milk and coconut to form a firm dough, drop it on a cookie sheet and bake it. I’m positive that this will also bake perfectly.

Ingredients
Sweetened condensed milk – 1 cup
Milk – 1/4 cup
All purpose flour – 1/4 cup
Sweetened shredded coconut – 2.5 cups

Optional:
Semolina – 3 tablespoons
Cashew nuts, broken into pieces – 1/4 cup
Cardamom powder – 1 teaspoon

Procedure

(Click on the thumbnails for a bigger view)

1. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 350F (180C).
2. In a large bowl, combine sweetened milk and milk, whisking until blended.

3. With a wooden spoon, stir in flour, mixing until thoroughly blended.
4. Stir in coconut, cashews and cardamom powder.
5. After combining all the ingredients, the batter was a little bit watery. So I test baked just 1 tablespoon and the cookie spread so much.

6. So I added 3 tablespoons of semolina (sooji/rava) to the batter and combined it well and now the batter was nice and firm. Again I test baked another tablespoon of the dough and the macaroon came out perfect.

7. Then I went ahead and dropped tablespoonfuls of dough about 1 inch apart and baked it in the oven until it was golden around the edges (which approximately took 15 minutes). I got 24 (plus 2 test bake) macaroons for the above measurement.

8. Cool for 10 minutes on the sheet. This point is very important. Don’t try to remove the macaroons from the sheet once it is out the oven because it will be very flimsy. Again don’t put it back in the oven to harden it. Just leave the macaroons on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes and it will harden by itself.

9. Then transfer to a rack and cool completely.

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Golu Photos and Rice Flour Puttu

Eggless Coconut Macaroons