Malabar’s cooking grandmother, Ummi Abdulla made a dish of “Erachi-Puttu” for visitors at the Sharjah International Book Fair at Expo Centre on until November 14. The dish was made by steam cooking rice flour with minced mutton masala, and might be one of the healthiest mutton dishes visitors learnt yesterday (Friday).It is a widely known fact that Malabar cuisines are always made with coconut and the way it is used in each dish makes the difference. Ummi explained to the audience how to mix the rice flour and coconut with a pinch of salt for “Puttu,” you just need to mix the three ingredients by sprinkling some water on them. The complicated part is when you are preparing rice flour at home. However, she said, “These days if you ask the miller to make “Puttu” flour for you; he will make sure you get the perfect granulated rice flour, but most of the Keralite housewives find it easy to make it at home.”
The Puttu is made in a special utensil that consists of a vessel that boils water on the base and a cylindrical pipe fixed on top. Puttu is a common breakfast item for Keralites, and prepared in different ways but the rice and coconut mixture remains the same.
Ummi said: “It is just layered with different fruit and curries. The minced mutton masala we are making is cooked until the meat is tender in a little water with onion, coriander powder, ginger-garlic paste and Garam Masala (mixed spices), as well as chilli powder and salt according to your taste.”
The special attraction of the demonstration was the traditional Bamboo pipe used in making Puttu from around 50 years back in Kerala, a rare thing to find, as most of the Keralites use steel utensils now.Once the mixture was ready she layered it in the pipe with rice on the bottom and then minced masala. Ummi continued until she had two layers of each mixture. “The Puttu will be cooked in approximately 15 minutes, by steam rising from the boiling water below. To know it is ready, you just need to wait until you see steam rising from the small holes in the lid.”
Ummi said: “I am very happy to see so many people interested in learning the Malabar Cuisine. My first visit to Sharjah happens to be the SIBF this year and I am glad to be part of this event.” Ummi said, though she can cook continental and North Indian cuisines, she loves innovating Malabar delicacies more than anything. All her books are based on more than five decades of cooking experience as daughter, wife, mother and grandmother in the North Keralite Muslim family.Ummi now lives in Calicut with her son and his wife and has received training from Chennai Institute of Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition. Her first book, “Malabar Muslim Cookery”, opened a window to traditional Malabar fare and was an instant success. Her second book, “The Epicure Cookbook” was a combination of her own award winning recipes and variants of traditional dishes from different parts of the world and she is known for her cookery programs on radio and television in India.