Pittu is one of the most important food consumed for break-fast and dinner.  Traditionally pittu is made with an equipment called “Neethu Peddi” which is made of Palmyrah leaves.  But now it’s made of either aluminum or stainless steel which is called “Pittu Kulal”.  In the picture below, I made the pittu using the traditional equipment — “Neethu Peddi”.  In Jaffna (Sri Lanka) pittu is made from red rice flour mixed with all-purpose flour which gives the pittu a brownish-red color.

Here is another view I took.

Ingredients

• ¾ cup roasted all-purpose flour
• ½ cup roasted red rice flour
• ¾ cup hot water
• salt to taste
• 1 – 2 tablespoon unsweetened shredded coconut

Method

• mix the flours and salt
• add boiling water little at a time and mix well and leave it to cool a little bit
• mix the dough with hand to make a dough
• break this dough into small pieces and with a cookie cutter or pastry cutter cut into very fine pieces

• add shredded coconut and mix well
• steam the pittu in a steamer (you can use a normal steamer)

Alternately, instead of using hand and cookie cutter to make the pittu mix, you can simply put the flour mix into a food processor and while the motor is running add hot water until the mix becomes like small beads.  Steam in a steamer

Yields 2 servings