Vellam Puttu/Steamed Rice Flour Sweetened using Jaggery - Navrathri Neivedhiyam

Vella Puttu/Steamed Rice flour, sweetened using Jaggery. A Traditional Neivedhiyam/Offering  done during Navrathri  Friday. All these years, i have made only Sundals, Kheer/Payasam or other sweets these days. But this year, i learned how to make this from Amma and planned it for this friday. It is  a quick and easy to make recipe. Usually, they use home pounded Rice flour for this. But i have used Store-bought Rice Flour.

Ingredients

1/4 Cup Rice Flour

1/4 Cup Jaggery

2 tbsp Freshly grated Coconut

2 pinches of salt

1/4 cup water

2-3 pods of cardamom crushed

3 nos each Almonds and Cashews

1 tbsp raisins

Method

• Dry roast the Rice flour in a pan to just make it hot. This will take just 2 minutes. We don't want the rice flour to change color.
• Take the warm rice flour and spread it on a plate. Mix the salt in 2 tbsp of water, sprinkle little salt-water on the flour and mix well with your hands. The Water mixed flour should  hold if you hold it tightly, and collapse if you break it.

• Take the Salt mixed flour in a bowl/steamer plate and steam cook it for 5-8 minutes. I used my Idly Steamer.
• After the given time, take it out of the steamer, spread it on a flat plate. Heat Jaggery with 2 tbsp of water and prepare a syrup of single-string consistency.

• Pour this Jaggery syrup on the steamed rice flour and mix well. Add grated coconut, cardamom and roasted nuts and raisins . Mix well and Serve.

Notes
There is a chance of the Jaggery syrup getting into ball-like consistency, in that case, the puttu might become little clumpy. Do not Worry, let the puttu rest for sometime, then take it in a mixer and pulse it 2-3 times and transfer it to a flat plate, the puttu will separate and become powdery.