Monsoon Days – The Puttu Effect

During one of my first couple of visits (check it out here), I was informed that they were going to start serving Puttu using a special rice flour meant for the same that they procure from Northern Kerala… After a while when I got the chance to visit the place again, I found out that they have started serving Puttu and includes stuffed Puttu options as well… So, over two recent visits, I tried two of the Stuffed Puttu options namely Prawns Stuffed Puttu as well as the Chicken Stuffed Puttu… They also have a Beef Stuffed Puttu, but I didn’t go for it simply cause I don’t like to eat Beef…

Now, I personally don’t like eating Puttu as it is ie, dry and so I need to have some gravy to go along with it… So, along with the Prawns Stuffed Puttu, I went for their Neymeen Mulakittathu and during another visit, I went for their RC Fish Curry… I went for the same RC Fish curry with the Chicken Puttu too… They all came as seen the pics below…

So, first lets talk about the Prawns Stuffed Puttu… For those who are not aware, the Puttu is the quintessential part of the Kerala Cuisine and is basically a streamed cake made using Rice Flour and Grated Coconut… In this case, along with the grated coconut, there are layers of stir fried prawns mixed with spices and herbs as can be seen in the pics below…

First of all, I really loved the fragrance of the rice flour used here… I usually don’t like it when the Puttu is very soft and prefer a certain degree of firmness in them… This was just right… The Prawn layers seems to have been made by stir frying prawns with the quintessential fish masala ie, chilly powder, turmeric, a bit of garam masala and then green chillies, onions and some coriander leaves as well… Everything felt infused by the flavour of the coconut and so, I think the prawns on their own could be eaten as a starter 🙂

Now the Chicken Stuffed Puttu is pretty much the same except that instead of the Prawns layers, you get stir fried shredded Chicken along with the grated coconut, as can be seen in the pics below…

Its the same fragrant rice flour that they use for this too… The difference here is in the Chicken stuffing, where the Chicken seems to have been stir fried with just garam masala and also mint leaves along with coriander… So, the flavour of both mint and coriander end up being pronounced… Ofcourse the flavour of the coconut does indeed come thru…

Overall, I must say I really enjoyed both the versions of the Puttu and am definitely looking forward to having them again… Now, lets talk about the curries I got to try with the Puttu… First of all, Prawns being seafood, I went for Fish options to go with it… So, by now I have had two visits where I had the Prawns Stuffed Puttu and during the first one, I went for their Fish Mulakittathu and during the second time, I went for their RC Fish Curry… I opted for Neymeen (Kingfish) version for both those curries…

So, first lets talk about the Neymeen Mulakittathu which was served to me as shown in the pics below… Essentially, a piece of Kingfish steak 😉 served in a pool of gravy containing some dry red chilles as can be seen in the pics below 🙂

First of all, I think that piece of fish was probably the biggest piece of Kingfish I have ever had… I felt this curry to taste a bit different than the one I had previously… Already, the Mulakittathu curry is different from what we usually get because of the use of Coconut Milk to mellow down the intensity of the Chillies… This time, it felt that the amount of Coconut milk added was a bit more making it feel a bit more mellowed adding some richness and creaminess to the gravy… The flavour of the red chillies is prominently present as expected… Some sourness from the tomatoes is also present along with the fragrance of the Curry Leaves, Shallots, Ginger and Mustard… The Fish was indeed cooked perfectly… The masala is of-course the classic combination of the Turmeric, Chilli powder and Coriander powder… Altogether it is one of my favourite fish curries to have and works great with the Prawns stuffed Puttu that I talked about before…

Next up is the RC Fish Curry, again made using Neymeen / Kingfish… RC stands for Roasted Coconut and this too came with a slice of fish as can be seen in the pics below…

Most of the flavour profile of this curry is the same as the Mulakittathu, but the difference is that instead of the Coconut milk, here we find roasted and finely ground Coconut… Its a bit more intense flavour of the Coconut here, with the flavours of the chillies, shallots, curry leaves, etc along with the classic masala… Because of the absence of coconut milk, there is no mellowing happening and so you get the full spice… I felt this curry to be great with Rice and also the Puttu that I talked about earlier…

Altogether another set of really good choices to eat from Monsoon Days that enjoyed to the core… The owner had mentioned that more new options are going to come soon in their menu and so, hoping to check them out soon…