Nov 27, 2010

Neither prose nor poetry

Neither prose nor poetry it is just
The way my Grandma made puttu...

Childhood mornings at Grandma's home
Puttu always came from rice
Soak the rice for hours before,
Tiny hands powder the rice
Roast the flour, sprinkle water

Set aside, then scrape coconut
Add some sugar for taste
Off goes Grandma to collect some twigs
And dried coconut leaves
To lit her mud stove from the scratch

Brings a pot of water to boil
Layers flour and coconut in a tube
That fits perfectly on the pot
Quickly Grandma visits her store room
To fetch some ripe plantains and bananas
Before the tube on the pot starts to steam

Now, it is time to remove the tube
Grandma picks up her ladle turns it around
And sticks the stick end into the tube
That gently pushes the puttu out
Steaming hot with great aroma

With watering mouths we kids watch her do
Fill another puttu in the tube
Nicely set on the boiling pot
Off to fetch some plates for us
While we sit in the short kitchen walls & steps
She gives us puttu and some fruits

Yum so yum the puttu tastes
We finish it quickly and wait around
For the next puttu that cooks along
Even after the second round
We still wait around with hopes for more

Neither prose nor poetry it is just
The way my Grandma made puttu...

10 comments:

sm said...

nice poem

Amrit said...

Good description.

Y L said...

http://www.subbuskitchen.com/2009/11/kerala-puttu-kuzhal-puttu-recipe.html

NRIGirl said...

Appreciate your comments @SM & @A!

Amma: Thank you for the recipe...

SG said...

Don't mind the poetry. That puttu sounds yummy. I want it now.

Bikram said...

beautiful... what is puttu I would like to know :)

Felicity Grace Terry said...

Wonderful, Reading this I can tell that your writing it brought back many memories for you which makes it extra special.

dr.antony said...

In praise of Puttu !
I am sure this poetry would be the only one of its kind.
Puttu is my favorite and some of my staff nurses used to jokingly say " You can get anything done by him if you give him puttu".I make it myself and have done experiments on Puttu!

Sanand said...

More than the poetry, its the puttu that interests me in this post:) Sounds strange but its my favorite and to have it with an omelet or stew is just unbeatable.

NRIGirl said...

Thank you all for your comments. For those who don't know puttu: Puttu is a breakfast item from Kerala & Southern Tamil Nadu. It is made with rice flour and coconut layered in a speacial cylindrical pot and steamed to cook.

@Doc now I know how to get a handwritten post from you!

@Sanand - I have tried puttu with many things but not omlet. Will try and keep you posted.

Related Posts with Thumbnails
 
HostGator promo code