Monday, December 12, 2011

The Puttu Experiment

At home , I was always a lazy girl and would spend all my time sleeping or reading and kitchen was place I came down only when mom would call me to come and get my food. All my mom's talks of other girls of my age knowing cooking and housework usually got transmitted straight over my head , hit the thick walls of the dining room , got lost in the deafening noise of the TV and died. Getting a job in a company that had a canteen and moving in with friends in Bangalore did precious little to improve my house-wifely skills. It didn't help , that I continued to stay with friends for almost a year after my wedding , before flying to America to start my family life.

To cut a long story short, my culinary skills included  just a little more than Maggi , tea and coffee.And I was stuck in a place where maids/cooks/Indian restaurants were not an option and my 2 helplines (Mom and mother in law) were half way across the globe.With frequent telephone calls to India and continuous reference to cookery blogs , we managed to survive. Then one day , my husband came with a packet of Double horse Puttu podi.

"Let us have some puttu this weekend ". He said.
I had never made puttu in my life and told him in so  many words that it was probably good to have some back up plan. But hubby dear was insistent. "It is really simple and easy. How many times have I seen
my mom make it.You just put a few drops of water in the puttu powder , put it in the kudam (vessel for steaming puttu) and steam it."


Saturday came and we woke up somewhere close to 11:00 AM and I followed his instructions one by one

1)Took one glass of putto powder.
2)Sprinkled water on it.
3)Added water in a pressure cooker and closed it with the puttu kudam as its weight.

(5 Min's of steam and the puttu should be ready. I thought happily).


After 5 Min's , I opened the vessel, and scraped a bit off the top to taste . It tasted just like heated rice powder.I decided to give it a benefit of the doubt and kept it back on stove on for 5 more minutes.

Result: super heater rice powder.

Puttu we hoped to make.
[Image is not mine. Copied from Google]
I woke up my husband who was still sleeping in anticipation of waking up to a sumptuous breakfast.
What my puttu looked like
[Image is not mine. Copied from Google]
What did you burn today?, he asked seeing my face. "Nothing , but the puttu isn't cooking,". He consented to wake up , but even with his expert supervision, the puttu stubbornly refused to cook and we just got rice flour with higher and higher temperatures.


It was too late in the night by Indian time and our cooking helplines were all unavailable and in bed.Finally hunger overtook our patience and we settled for the ever easy fall back option of bread /omelet.Later when I called home , every one had a hearty laugh at us .The reason  our puttu never got cooked was because neither I nor my husband knew that puttu powder needs to be mixed with water to reach a certain consistency before it can ever get cooked.

Lessons Learnt: The correct amount of water is one of the most important ingredients to good cooking.

 Anyway, after years of burnt vessels , hot , salty,salt less  edible , inedible and partially edible substances , now I am able to cook food that is usually palatable and occasionally tasty enough to get that random compliment.

 P.S : This post is intended to make lazy bums (like me) feel better. Rest assured.Knowing cooking beforehand doesn't really matter. You are bound to learn it in time, anyway and it will certainly give you a few moments like these to laugh out loud. :)

14 comments:

  1. hehe.. loved this post. I think everyone has their own stories of cooking disasters .. Dont worry. Success is just a frying pan away :D

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  2. Ah, necessity is the mother of cooking experiments. Err.. or something like that. :/
    Even I used to be a lazy bum as long as I was at home. But then I gradually started making chicken and eggs under mom's supervision, and started loving it. Once I moved into a place of my own, my roomie and I used to do all sorts of cooking experiments. I love cooking now. :)

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  3. Nice one... and definitely makes me feel good to know I have company in the family!!! :) We all have our kitchen kahaanis.

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  4. @Dr Roshan, Thanks. Success is just a frying pan away... That's a nice positive approach.. :)

    @Spiff,I love cooking now too.. this was one of my early cooking experiments.

    @Sreedevi, Nice to see you here. Yes Kitchen Kahaanis we all do.. :) Would like to hear yours.

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  5. heheheheheh
    How I love PUTTU AND KADALA!!!!!
    I cannot cook even maggi properly :(

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  6. @Red, Not to worry, now you know what not to do when you begin cooking. Always do it when helplines are available

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  7. LOL... Though I'm entirely and completely lazy, I always liked cooking... experimenting rather:)

    But the fortunate part is that both me AND my beau would rather prefer the toast and omelet to the puttu:P

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  8. That was a fun read Sunita! Unfortunately I never had the opportunity to mess up my cooking since my mom or mom-in-law were always around. I envy you!

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  9. @jojo appan:Danku .....I am the happy.
    @peeve: I like cooking too.and I like bread omlette as well.
    Trying different omlettes too these days.
    @sumitra: wow you are lucky.Thanks.

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  10. LOL. Lessons. Life is full of them :)
    The well made puttu picture is one of yours too, isn't it?

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  11. HAhahahaahahahaah!!! Good Lord! So glad I come over - what drew me in was the title 'Puttu Experiment' ... I have a confession to make - I have done something more errr... STUPID-er! I did all the mixing right (my lifeline was in the country, albeit in another state). Then I decided to STUFF (yes, stuff with all my energy) the powder into the tube. Result? When steam formed in the pot below, it started pushing the whole stuffed mass out - I swear, it looked eerie! And THEN, in order to understand what was going wrong, i TURNED the whole thing upside down, and you can guess what happened. Never made puttu after that! :-)

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  12. @Usha Ma'm. I can make good Puttu and kadala now.. :) will invite you over when I'm back in India.

    @Nirvana : Nice hearing about another person's puttu tragedy.. he he he..

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  13. haha awesome...actually I am enjoying some sadistic pleasure reading this :D

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