If you have been following my blog, you might wonder why I am posting this kappa Puttu recipe again? Well guess what? This is a different way of making kappa puttu. I guess this is the traditional way of making it. What I had posted earlier was an easy or short cut version. Actually speaking both versions are not that hard and if you already have some cooked leftover kappa (yucca) then you can go for the recipe I posted earlier. My aunt had suggested I try making Kappa puttu since that would be a great grain free bread option for me. I loved the version I made before. However my darling cousins kept insisting that I should try making it using raw grated yucca (cassava) and that tastes much better. So then how could I not give it a try right?
My husband was kind enough to grate the cassava (yuca) for me. Since yuca is hard, it is really a little tough on my weak RA stricken hands to grate this. Hence so kind of him to volunteer! Well the resultant ‘puttu’ was moist and delicious and the texture was ‘rice’ like.! And goes perfect with some chicken curry or fish curry! Yum!
Puttu is traditionally steamed using an utensil called “puttu Kodam’ which basically consists of a long mould that fits on top of a steamer pot. Since I don’t have this contraption, I make do with a strainer fitted on top of a cooking pot. To get a round shape, I pack the cooked ‘puttu’ in a small bowl and then invert it onto the serving plate. But if you have a puttu maker, you can make it in that. You can check out what a puttu maker looks like over here.
This Cassava Puttu or Cassava Rice as I like to call it as become my staple ‘bread’ for eating with fish / chicken curry and has made my transition into a Paleo diet so much more acceptable! I don’t miss rice anymore since this yucca rice is so delicious and perfectly complements curries since it has the wonderful ability to sop up all that gravy! yum! Traditionally, kappa Puttu uses a mix of kappa (yucca/tapioca) and rice flour. But I replaced rice flour with coconut flour to keep it Paleo. But you can use same recipe using rice flour instead of coconut flour if you are ok with rice.
- 1 cup freshly grated Yucca (tapioca or kappa)
- ½ cup coconut flour (or rice flour) (Use coconut flour for Paleo, AIP version)
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp freshly grated coconut (or frozen grated coconut thawed)
- In a large mixing bowl, add the freshly grated yucca/tapioca. Add the coconut flour (or rice flour) and salt. Add the freshly grated coconut. Mix well using your hands.
- Steam this mixture using a Puttu maker or using a make shift steamer as explained below.
- For make shift steamer, fill a large cooking pot ¼ th with water and heat till water boils. Place a strainer that fits on top of this pot on it and spread the yucca mixture over it. Cover the pot with a tight fitting lid and steam cook for about 10 minutes. To serve, pack in small bowls or moulds and invert onto a plate.
This recipe looks interesting . I am going to give a try. cassava and tapioca are the same ? Please clarify.
Yes Cassava and tapioca are both the same if you are referring to the actual root vegetable which is what this recipe calls for. However tapioca flour and cassava flour are slightly different in that tapioca flour is very finely processed while cassava flour has the fibre in it too. Hope that helps!
It sounds interesting. But I thought one has to wash yucca pieces, cook them in water, discard the water and then one can use it for further cooking, baking etc. This procedure is necessary to get rid of the cyanhydric acid, otherwise it is dangerous. At least that is, what I have heard.
Hi janine, thank you for stopping by and for your question. As far as I know, using raw grated yucca for cooking is perfectly acceptable in cooking. I have seen other recipes like filipino etc which use grated yucca directly in recipes. The point about some toxic substance from what I have read elsewhere is that some varieties of yucca are poisonous. But then those varieties are not edible and are not used for cooking. But thanks for bringing up this point. I will research more on this topic!