Finally I made mani puttu, and I stuffed it with tuna roast…
I’ve already blogged about Puttu, Kerala’s famous breakfast dish. Well, if you travel down south in Kerala to Malabar, you will come across mani puttu being served there. Mani puttu is often served in my dad’s family for breakfast or dinner, especially at my aunt’s house (dad’s sister’s). Unlike puttu, making mani puttu is quite a tedious process. While growing up, I’ve always watched making mani puttu with so much awe. Even though it belongs to puttu family and is made with rice flour, preparation of mani puttu is quite different and interesting.
Traditionally mani puttu is made using a mould specially designed for that, which is rather big. So nowadays, you can use Idiyappam maker or seva nazhi with the large holed disc in the mould. To be precise mani puttu resembles to Idiyappam for using rice dough for its preparation and puttu for steam cooking in puttu maker. It should be called as Idiyappam puttu, I have no idea how it got the name mani puttu. Also, it resembles to noodles, so you could even call it as noodles puttu.
When I google searched for mani puttu, I found that steamed rice balls in coconut milk is what some people call as mani puttu. I am completely baffled seeing this, I can only conclude that may be in some parts of Kerala steamed rice balls in coconut milk is called mani puttu and in other parts what I am posting here is called mani puttu. Anyway, I am quite sure that in Malabar and in my family this is called mani puttu, since it’s made using a puttu maker it makes perfect sense to me rather than the other one.
Well, you need an Idiyappam maker or seva nazhi and puttu maker to make this. In North America, some Indian stores might have this. Anyway, it’s a kool kitchen gadget to have.
Tuna Stuffed Mani Puttu
For Making Mani Puttu
Ingredients:
- Rice flour- 2 1/2 cups
- Water- 1 1/2 cups
- Garam masala- 1 tsp
- Salt- little
Other ingredients:
- Rice flour, to sprinkle on the mani puttu
- Grated coconut, to layer
For making tuna roast:
- Oil- 1 tbsp
- Onion, chopped small- 3
- Ginger-Garlic paste- 2 tsp
- Curry leaves(optional)- 1 sprig
- Canned tuna, in water- 2 cans
- Chili powder- 1 tsp
- Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
- Garam masala- 1/2 tsp
- Fennel powder- 1 tsp
- Potato, boiled- 2 no’s
- Salt- to taste
- Cilantro, chopped- 1 handful
Instruction
Making Tuna roast:
- Cook the potatoes by boiling it in hot water or in microwave, peel the skin and keep aside.
- Place a large pan over medium heat, add oil, onions, little salt and curry leaves, saute the onions till tender.
- Add ginger garlic paste, saute for a minute.
- Add the tuna, add chili powder, turmeric powder, garam masala, fennel powder to it and combine everything well.
- Add little water and cook covered for sometime.
- Put the cooked potatoes into the tuna mixture, mash the potatoes with a wooden spoon.
- Combine everything and add cilantro.
- Let all the water in the mixture dry out, it should be a dry mixture.
- Keep aside, we will be using this to stuff the mani puttu.
Making Mani puttu:
- Boil water in a saucepan, add garam masala and salt to it.
- When the water comes to a rolling boil, add the rice flour and combine with a wooden spoon.
- Remove the pan from the heat and let cool down for sometime.
- When the dough is still warm, place the dough on a wooden board.
- Knead with your hands till it is incorporated well.
- If the dough is dry, sprinkle little warm water and knead.
- If the dough is watery, add little more rice flour while kneading.
- Have the Idiyappam maker or seva nazhi ready with the large holed disc in it.
- Place a handful of dough into the Idiyappam maker, close with the lid.
- Place a plate under the idiyappam maker and start rotating the maker, so that the dough will fall on the plate like noodles.
- Sprinkle little rice flour over the noodles so that they won’t stick together.
- Repeat this with the rest of the dough, make sure to sprinkle with rice flour otherwise the noodles will stick together.
How to layer the mani puttu with tuna roast:
- In a puttu maker, put 1 tbsp of grated coconut as the first layer, layer it with one handful of prepared puttu, then with 1 handful of tuna roast, again with the puttu and close it with its lid.
- I am using a puttu maker which can be placed on the whistle of a pressure cooker.
- Pour 1 cup water in the pressure cooker, close with its lid, don’t place the whistle on it and place it over medium heat.
- When the water comes to a boil, place the puttu maker on the whistle of the pressure cooker.
- This way, the steam from the pressure cooker will get into the puttu maker and it will get cooked.
- Let it steam cook for about 3-4 minutes, remove it and gently turn the puttu maker upside down on a plate.
- The steamed mani puttu will fall on to the plate.
- Repeat this process till you have used all the rice dough.
- There will be some more unused tuna roast, you could serve this along with the mani puttu or make cutlets out of it.
Tips:
- You could use chicken instead of tuna, make sure you cook the chicken before making the roast.
- You can stuff the puttu with tuna or chicken as well.
- Rice flour- 2½ cups
- Water- 1½ cups
- Garam masala- 1 tsp
- Salt- little
- Rice flour, to sprinkle on the mani puttu
- Grated coconut, to layer
- Oil- 1 tbsp
- Onion, chopped small- 3
- Ginger-Garlic paste- 2 tsp
- Curry leaves(optional)- 1 sprig
- Canned tuna, in water- 2 cans
- Chili powder- 1 tsp
- Turmeric powder- ¼ tsp
- Garam masala- ½ tsp
- Fennel powder- 1 tsp
- Potato, boiled- 2 no's
- Salt- to taste
- Cilantro, chopped- 1 handful
- Cook the potatoes by boiling it in hot water or in microwave, peel the skin and keep aside.
- Place a large pan over medium heat, add oil, onions, little salt and curry leaves, saute the onions till tender.
- Add ginger garlic paste, saute for a minute.
- Add the tuna, add chili powder, turmeric powder, garam masala, fennel powder to it and combine everything well.
- Add little water and cook covered for sometime.
- Put the cooked potatoes into the tuna mixture, mash the potatoes with a wooden spoon.
- Combine everything and add cilantro.
- Let all the water in the mixture dry out, it should be a dry mixture.
- Keep aside, we will be using this to stuff the mani puttu.
- Boil water in a saucepan, add garam masala and salt to it.
- When the water comes to a rolling boil, add the rice flour and combine with a wooden spoon.
- Remove the pan from the heat and let cool down for sometime.
- When the dough is still warm, place the dough on a wooden board.
- Knead with your hands till it is incorporated well.
- If the dough is dry, sprinkle little warm water and knead.
- If the dough is watery, add little more rice flour while kneading.
- Have the Idiyappam maker or seva nazhi ready with the large holed disc in it.
- Place a handful of dough into the Idiyappam maker, close with the lid.
- Place a plate under the idiyappam maker and start rotating the maker, so that the dough will fall on the plate like noodles.
- Sprinkle little rice flour over the noodles so that they won't stick together.
- Repeat this with the rest of the dough,make sure to sprinkle with rice flour otherwise the noodles will stick together.
- In a puttu maker, put 1 tbsp of grated coconut as the first layer, layer it with one handful of prepared puttu, then with 1 handful of tuna roast, again with the puttu and close it with its lid.
- I am using a puttu maker which can be placed on the whistle of a pressure cooker.
- Pour 1 cup water in the pressure cooker, close with its lid, don't place the whistle on it and place it over medium heat.
- When the water comes to a boil, place the puttu maker on the whistle of the pressure cooker.
- This way, the steam from the pressure cooker will get into the puttu maker and it will get cooked.
- Let it steam cook for about 3-4 minutes, remove it and gently turn the puttu maker upside down on a plate.
- The steamed mani puttu will fall on to the plate.
- Repeat this process till you have used all the rice dough.
- There will be some more unused tuna roast, you could serve this along with the mani puttu or make cutlets out of it.
•You can stuff the puttu with tuna or chicken as well.
