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1
Combine the puttu podi and salt in a wide bowl, then add the water in small additions, rubbing each addition into the flour with your fingers so the moisture is distributed evenly throughout the grain rather than sitting in wet pockets surrounded by dry powder. Continue until the flour, when pressed firmly in the closed fist, forms a compact mass — but crumbles immediately when tapped with a single finger. No water should pool; no dry powder should remain visible.
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2
Set the puttu kudam over its base vessel and bring the water to a full, rolling boil so that a strong, unbroken column of steam rises through the base aperture into the cylinder before you load anything above it. A weak or intermittent head of steam will cook the bottom layers while leaving the centre dense and raw.
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3
Layer the cylinder from the bottom — grated coconut, then moistened rice flour, then coconut again, then rice flour, finishing with a coconut layer — so that the steam must pass through alternating porous beds and is slowed just enough to cook each layer evenly rather than shooting straight through. Fill to the top of the cylinder without compressing the layers, since packing them will block the steam path and give you a gluey core.
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4
Fix the cylinder cap in place and steam until steam exits visibly and continuously from the holes of the top cap, because only when the column has fully traversed the cylinder can you be certain the centre is cooked through and not merely warm. Confirm by checking that the cylinder feels uniformly hot along its entire length before you take it off the heat.
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5
Remove the cylinder from the base and use the push-rod or the handle of a wooden spoon to press the puttu out from the bottom onto the plate in one clean, steady motion, so the layered cylinder of rice and coconut slides out whole and the alternating white strata remain distinct rather than smearing together. Serve immediately with kadala curry, fresh banana, or coconut milk.