Kerala · Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Kerala puttu with egg masala
Steamed rice-flour and coconut puttu with dry egg masala
- Total time50 minstart to table
- Hands on35 minactual work
- EffortModerate
- Serves4as written
- Per serving~630 kcalapprox.
Steamed rice-flour and coconut puttu served beside a dry onion-tomato egg masala; the egg remains a separate accompaniment and is not incorporated into the puttu.
Method
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Wash hands, check shell eggs for cracks and discard cracked eggs. Put intact eggs in the saucepan, cover with separate tap water, bring to a boil, then simmer 10 minutes. Cool under running water, peel with clean hands and halve; keep the egg-contact bowl and utensils away from ready-to-eat ingredients.
Done when: Whites and yolks of a test egg are fully set with no liquid centre.
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Mix coarse roasted rice puttu flour with 4 g of fine salt. Add drinking water a little at a time while rubbing: a squeezed handful should hold shape, then crumble when pressed; there must be no wet dough or dry flour pockets. Rest 10 minutes.
Done when: Even, damp crumbs hold briefly when squeezed and break apart without paste-like lumps.
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Bring 1.5 litres separate steaming water to a steady boil in the puttu steamer. Layer one sixth of fresh grated coconut, one quarter of the damp flour, then repeat, ending with coconut. Fit the tube without over-packing and steam 8-10 minutes after steam appears through the top.
Done when: Steam rises freely through the top and a sample from the centre is hot, cohesive but crumbly, with no raw-flour smell.
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Heat coconut oil in the frying pan. Add curry leaves and green chilli, slit for 30 seconds, then onion, thinly sliced and the remaining fine salt; cook 8-10 minutes until soft and lightly browned. Add tomato, chopped and ground turmeric; cook 8-10 minutes until the tomato is thick and no watery liquid pools.
Done when: Onion is soft, tomato is jammy and a spatula drawn through the pan leaves a trail for 2 seconds.
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Fold the halved shell eggs and ground black pepper through the reduced masala. Cover on low heat for 5 minutes, turning once. Probe the centre of one half from the coolest pan area: it must reach at least 75 C and hold there for 30 seconds.
Done when: Every egg half is coated and a test half holds at least 75 C for 30 seconds.
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Eject the steamed coarse roasted rice puttu flour and fresh grated coconut puttu onto a clean plate. Divide puttu and egg masala into four equal portions and serve hot as separate components.
Done when: Four portions each contain both separate components; puttu remains crumbly and egg masala is hot.
Or have it read to you
In the app these same steps are read aloud one at a time, hands-free, with the timers running — and the cook guide speaks eleven Indian languages, so whoever is at the stove can follow along without reading English.
- English
- Hindi
- Tamil
- Telugu
- Bengali
- Marathi
- Kannada
- Malayalam
- Gujarati
- Punjabi
- Odia
Good to know
- Diet
- Vegetarian plus egg
- Contains
- egg
- Eaten at
- Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
- Nutrition, per serving
- ~630 kcal · 22 g protein · 76 g carbs · 27 g fat (approx.)
- Keeps
- 1 day in the fridge