Homemade Rice Flour(Step wise Pics) | How to make rice flour at home ?? | Puttu Podi | Idiyappam Podi

Homemade rice flour in general terms is ground rice used to make several Kerala breakfast items namely puttu,idiyappam,kozhukatta,vattayappam,ari pathiri and so on.Though these days we get rice flour from stores but this is a keeper recipe.I used to grind the puttu podi when when we were in India esp for puttu and for idiyappam too.The store brought flour is good too,but at times I try to make my own batch of puttu podi and love that homemade flour more than store brought.The puttu made with homemade rice flour is more softer and tastier too but requires an additional work.You can save this recipe to make your own batch at home !!!

Wishing all my Indian friends and readers,Happy Republic Day !!

(In the pic,puttu podi made from unnakalari)

Long grain white rice flour,pic below(updated pic)

Watch YouTube #shorts for homemade puttu podi.

Ingredients
rice,good quality plain rice/pachari/*unnakalari(matta rice) 1 cup

(Puttu made using the above ground rice)

Method

• Wash the rice 3-4 times under running water or till water runs clear.Soak the rice in water for half an hour for pachari or long grain rice.If you use unnakalari or matta rice or podi ari soak for an hour.(If you feel the rice needs a look through for stones or other impurities,then do that first before wash and soak.Here the rice quality is good and generally doesn't require any inspection)
• Drain the water completely in a colander,leave for 5-10 mins for water to drain completely.
• Transfer the rice in  the mixer(if you are making a larger batch then add in batches)  and pulse it few times.Then,grind it for a minute.
• In the meantime,spread several layers of paper towel or white papers or large thalli(plate) ready to collect the flour(Don't use news papers as it has carbon which will be absorbed by the damp flour and becomes toxic)

• Transfer the ground contents in the sieve and sieve it till there is no more flour flows out from sieve.If you are making puttu podi,the flour is slightly coarse and so use sieve with slightly bigger holes than the first fine one.If you are making idiyyappam podi,the flour is very smooth and roasted well.In that case use sieve with fine holes to get smooth flour.

left side-sieve used for Idiyappam flour(smooth flour) ;right side-sieve used for puttu podi(coarse flour)

• If there is any more left over rice to be ground add it along with remains from the sieve or just add the remaining from sieve and grind in the mixer.
• Repeat the process of sieving till you are done with all rice.
• Heat a pan or kadai and add the rice flour on low medium flame.Keep stirring with a spatula(to avoid lumps) till you find steam escaping through the flour.Puttu podi can be roasted for 4 mins and idiyyappam podi can be roasted slightly longer for about 7-8  mins so that the shelf life is well preserved.

(long grain white rice ground left & roasted right pic)

• Immediately switch off flame and transfer the flour to another sheets of white paper or layers of paper towel.Using a spatula spread the flour nicely to cool down and to prevent lumps from forming.
• Leave to cool completely,transfer to ziploc bags or air tight bags.Puttu podi can be preserved for a week and idiyyappam podi stays over a month.

Serves ~ 1 cup + few tbsps of flour

NOTES
* If you are making puttu podi then red matta rice is fine and tastes good but otherwise for all other recipes like idiyappam ,kozhukatta,pathiri -good quality pachari or long grain rice is used.
* Soaking the rice yields softer puttu,so washing and soaking is important.
* I have used payasam rice to make puttu podi as I love the taste and flavor of unnakalari or matta rice the best.You can use good quality pachari/long grain rice too.
* Never use newspapers to collect the flour as the rice flour is moist when sieving and can absorb the carbon from paper easily.Use clean sheets of plain white paper or sheets of paper towel.
* You can make larger batches and store the flour.

The pic of puttu prepared from homemade rice flour.

Puttu podi